It was deja vu from the Eastern Conference Final for the New York Rangers as they lost 3-1 to the Florida Panthers on Thursday night. The start of this game couldn’t have gone any worse for the Rangers. Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe scored goals less than three minutes into the contest and New York found themselves in a quick 2-0 hole. Throughout the night the Rangers struggled to generate any sort of offense largely due to the Panthers’ physical and smothering defense. No matter what the Rangers did, they just couldn’t seem to get past Florida’ defensive structure. The frustration just continued to boil over the course of the night and it was noticeable to say the least. Stan Fischler talks about Matt Rempe. The Rangers’ flashy play that they've displayed through the start of the season was not there and the Panthers did an excellent job neutralizing New York’s star players. Peter Laviolette had a simple answer when addressing his team’s performance. “I thought they were better in the first. I thought they were better in the second, and they were better in the third,” Laviolette said. Laviolette knows that this was an outlier performance and the team can and will play better going forward. “I didn't like the whole night,” Laviolette said. “Everything tonight goes into a bag where it wasn’t good enough. You could talk about the five-on-five play, you can talk about the defense, the offense, the power play, the penalty kill. That’s not who we’ve shown to be early on in the season, but that’s what happened tonight.” Florida is New York’s kryptonite. Until the Rangers figure out how to beat this Panthers team, they will have issues accomplishing their goal of winning a Stanley Cup. It’s a championship and physical style of play that the Panthers have that the Rangers must unlock in their game in order to reach the next level as a team. The Rangers’ next game is on Saturday night against the Anaheim Ducks.
