When the NHL playoffs started a couple of weeks ago many anticipated the Rangers and the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hurricanes would easily get past their first round opponents and meet for the second time in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
three years in the second round. And that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happened after New York swept<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Washington and Carolina eliminated the Islanders in five games. And while the Rangers did win<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the Presidents Trophy with the best record in the regular season they are underdogs against the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Canes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rest is always big in the playoffs and after making short work of the Capitals, New York gets a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
break before hosting Carolina. The stars on Broadway shined brightly as Artemi Panarin, Mika<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zibanejad, and Chris Kreider were potent on the power play. But this team\u2019s biggest concern all<\/p>\n\n\n\n
season has been its five-on-five play. Despite finishing first overall, the Rangers ranked 23rd in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
expected goals percentage during the regular season. New York can\u2019t rely on just its special<\/p>\n\n\n\n
teams, it must find a way to be successful at five-on-five, or this series could quickly get away<\/p>\n\n\n\n
from the Metropolitan champs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years, goaltending was always a concern in Carolina but Frederik Andersen comes off<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a solid performance against the Islanders, making key saves at big moments of the series to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ensure a series victory. Their stars contributed in that series as Sebastian Aho, Andrei<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Svechnikov Jake Guentzel played key roles offensively. On the backend, the defense shut<\/p>\n\n\n\n
down the Islanders offense, limiting high-danger scoring chances. And a big part of this team’s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
success has been the ability to maintain puck possession. If we see that again, it could be a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
long series for the Rangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This series could come down to who stays out of the penalty box the most. The Rangers had<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the third best power play (26.4%) and the third best penalty kill (84.5%) during the regular<\/p>\n\n\n\n
season. And they scored 6 times in four games with the man advantage against the Capitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Carolina\u2019s special teams were even better. The second best power play (26.9%) and the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
best penalty kill (86.4) in the NHL. While the Rangers do have an edge in goaltending with Igor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shesterkin, Carolina is a better five-on-five team meaning special teams could decide which<\/p>\n\n\n\n
team moves onto the conference finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carolina Hurricanes -148<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New York Rangers +128<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nov. 2, 2023: Rangers 2 <\/strong>Hurricanes 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jan. 2, 2024: Hurricanes 6 <\/strong>Rangers 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n March 12, 2024: Rangers 1 <\/strong>Hurricanes 0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the NHL playoffs started a couple of weeks ago many anticipated the Rangers and the Hurricanes would easily get…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t