Rangers must figure out how to beat Panthers, who aren't going away anytime soon
Rangers' Chris Kreider, center, reacts as Florida Panthers' Matthew Tkachuk, left, and Sam Bennett, right, celebrate a goal by Bennett during the third period of Game 5 in the Eastern Conference finals of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs Thursday, May 30, 2024. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
SUNRISE, Fla. – However things turned out for the Rangers Saturday night, as they tried to stay alive in the Eastern Conference final by winning Game 6 on the road in Amerant Bank Arena, to force a Game 7 Monday in Madison Square Garden, this much is certain:
For as long as their Stanley Cup window of contention stays open, they are going to have to figure out some way of getting past these Florida Panthers, who led them 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, and were trying to finish them off Saturday and book a ticket to their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final.
The Panthers are big, fast, and skilled, and they are gritty, too. And having gotten all the way from second wild card to the Final last year, they are experienced.
And worse for the Rangers, they are also relatively young.
Their captain, Aleksander Barkov, who is 6-3, 215, and won the Selke Trophy this season as the NHL’s top defensive forward, is 28. He has six years left on the eight-year, $80 million deal he signed in 2022. Power winger Matthew Tkachuk, who led them in playoff scoring going into Game 6, with 19 points in 16 games, is 26, and he, too, has six years left on the eight-year, $76 million deal he signed in 2022.
Gustav Forsling, the 27-year-old defenseman who had four goals and 11 points and a plus-12 rating in the playoffs going into Saturday, starts an eight-year, $46 million contract extension next season. Even Niko Mikkola, who is 27, and was a more than serviceable defenseman for the Rangers as a trade deadline rental last season, is signed for two more years.
Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, a finalist for the Vezina Trophy this season, has two years left on the seven-year, $70 million deal he signed as a free agent in 2019. He’s 35, so maybe he will start to decline. But if he does, Florida has 23-year-old Spencer Knight, the No. 13 overall pick in the 2019 NHL draft, waiting in the wings.
They will need to re-sign 28-year-old Sam Reinhart, an unrestricted free agent this summer after leading them in scoring with 94 points, including 57 goals. But they’ve got plenty of salary cap space to do that, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
All of which is to say, Florida isn’t going away anytime soon.
And that is partly why it was imperative for the Rangers to find a way to win Saturday night, and give themselves a chance to come back and beat the Panthers and advance to the Stanley Cup Final this season. It won’t get any easier next year.
At the morning skate Saturday, the Rangers tried to project a mood of confidence going into an elimination game for the first time in these playoffs. As coach Peter Laviolette had pointed out Friday, they did have a good season, after all. They won a league-high, and franchise-record 55 games in the regular season. And they had won 10 playoff games entering Saturday.
“We’re confident,’’ Mika Zibanejad said. “I think we've experienced a lot (over the season) and it’s no different tonight. It's a game that we want to win. We've been in this situation before, so… for us, it's just, we came down here to win.’’
Defenseman Braden Schneider agreed that the experience of having faced elimination several times in their run to the Eastern Conference final two years ago helped the Rangers this time around.
“For sure,’’ he said. “I think knowing that we can come out on the other side and going through that and knowing what that feels like. I think it helps a ton.’’
Zibanejad, whose two assists in the 3-2 loss in Game 5 were his first two points of the series, said beating the Panthers will be no easy feat.
“We're playing against a team that's really good defensively, and they take time and space from you,’’ Zibanejad said. “But you’ve just got to find ways to create time and space for yourself. I mean, it's one thing to recognize it, but it's another thing to try to try to break it.’’
If they’re going to get to the Stanley Cup Final, whether this year or next, they’re going to have to figure out how to do that.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
