SUNRISE, FL – The missions of the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers could not be simpler at this point in the race for the Eastern Conference title.
For the Panthers, it’s winning a game and getting back to the Stanley Cup Final.
For Rangers, it’s about winning a game and going home with their title hopes still alive.
The Prince of Wales Trophy – the one awarded to the winning team in the East, an award Florida won 12 months ago – will be in the Panthers’ building on Saturday night. Florida will host the Rangers in Game 6 of this East title matchup, the Panthers now up 3-2 in the series after a 3-2 victory at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.
“We don’t want to think too much about the future right now,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said.
Translation: the work is not finished.
“The team that’s closest to their identity wins, whether it’s an elimination game or not,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said in New York on Friday before the team departed back to South Florida. “How quickly you can discover your identity wins the game.”
The Rangers – winners of the Presidents’ Trophy for having the best regular-season record this year – have already won once in Florida in this series, winning Game 3 in overtime, so they certainly know they can go on the road and win. New York also had 25 regular season road wins, tied for third most in the NHL behind only Florida and Dallas.
“Now we just have to go out there, get one and give ourselves a chance to come back here and win Game 7,” Rangers defenseman Adam Fox said after his team lost at home on Thursday.
Florida is getting just enough in terms of pucks on net to win – scoring exactly three goals in all three of their series wins. The Rangers are 43-1-0 this season when allowing two goals or fewer (1-0 in this series); they are 22-27-4 when allowing three goals or more (1-3 in this series).
“We knew it was going to be tough defensively to come in here,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “I mean, the way they’ve played the regular season and the way they’ve played the playoffs up to this point allowed us to believe it wouldn’t be wide open.”
The last four games have all been decided by exactly one goal, New York winning the first two, Florida winning the last two — and continuing the trend of the Panthers looking perfectly comfortable in uncomfortable playoff moments.
Florida is 16-5 in one-goal games over the last two postseasons. That is by far the best record in one-goal playoff games since the start of 2023.
“Our approach is one game at a time. We still have business to take care of,” Florida forward Sam Bennett said. “We’re only thinking about Game 6 at home. That’s our whole focus on that game right now.”
Step aside, Original Six. Stay away, colder climes. If you want to play hockey in June… you come to Florida.
Yes, Florida.
When the puck drops on Saturday night, the state of Florida – 2021 and 2022 in Tampa, 2023 and now 2024 in Sunrise – will become the first U.S. state or Canadian province to host an NHL game in June in four consecutive years.
Pennsylvania has had two different three-year streaks of NHL games in June – 1995-97 and 2008-10. The Sunshine State is seeing hockey in June for the seventh different year overall, two behind Pennsylvania for the most such occurrences in NHL history.
If the Rangers force a Game 7, New York State would also have a game in June for the seventh different year.
Florida’s win at New York on Thursday night was the Panthers’ 63rd of the season, including the playoffs.
That’s a franchise record – surpassing the Panthers’ 62 wins in the 2021-22 season.
Florida — which will play its 99th game of 2023-24 on Saturday night — is now guaranteed to play at least 100 games this season for just the third time in the franchise’s 30-year history. The Panthers played 104 games in 1995-96 and 103 games last season.
Rangers have 65 wins this season, the second most in club history. The 1993-94 Stanley Cup-winning team won 68 games.
Florida is trying to be the first team since Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017 to eliminate the Presidents’ Trophy winner in consecutive seasons.
The Panthers beat Boston in the first round last year and the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the most points in this year’s regular season. Washington won the trophy in 2016 and 2017; the Penguins eliminated the Capitals in the second round in each of those years.
Before that, the last time a team defeated a Presidents’ Trophy team two years in a row was Detroit – against Colorado in 1997 and Dallas in 1998, both times in the conference finals.
The Panthers are 2-2 in shot opportunities this season and 9-6 all time when given a chance to advance.
The Rangers face elimination for the first time this season — but were 6-2 when facing a game-winner or go-home game the previous two seasons.
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