2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs
Panthers at Rangers, Game 5: Desperate Times are Coming
With the New York Rangers and Florida Panthers tied going into Game 5 tonight at Madison Square Garden, coach Paul Maurice said the two teams will be getting more desperate moving forward.
After tonight, Maurice pointed out, one team is going to be on the verge of elimination when this series comes back south on Saturday.
“In general, the team that loses last in the first four games has the emotional advantage,” Maurice said following Florida’s morning skate. “As you get into 5, 6 and 7, the desperation of finality … you can start to feel it now. In 48 hours, a very good team is going to be facing elimination. You can feel that. The desperation will be high for both teams tonight.”
The Panthers have been very good at playing through close games even as the Rangers are 2-1 in overtime games this series.
In last year’s Eastern Conference playoffs, the Panthers faced elimination three times against the Bruins and won all three to move on to the conference semifinals.
This postseason, neither the Panthers nor Rangers have faced elimination.
Neither wants to, either.
Thursday.
“It’s a good spot for us,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said per NHL.com. “We split here, we split down there, we come back for a Game 5 in our building. … We’re in a position where we know there’s three games remaining and we’re at MSG tonight in front of our fans and they’ve been incredible. They were incredible down in Florida. Certainly incredible in our building here. No place we’d rather be.”
— The starting goalies tonight: Sergei Bobrovsky for Florida, and Igor Shesterkin for the Rangers.
— Carter Verhaeghe left the skate early after taking a puck to the face. Maurice said he took “a couple of stitches’’ and will be fine for tonight’s game.
— Florida will not be making any lineup changes from Game 3; it appears that Blake Wheeler, who hooked Sasha Barkov in overtime leading to Florida’s game-winning goal, will be scratched.
— Jonah Gadjovich is back with the team after his wife gave birth to twins earlier this week.
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL
FLORIDA PANTHERS (ATL1) V. NEW YORK RANGERS (MET1)
Best-of-7 Series Tied at 2
GAME 5
- When: Thursday, 8 p.m.
- Where: Madison Square Garden, NYC
- National TV: ESPN
- Streaming: ESPN+/Hulu
- Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (West Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); WCZR 101.7-FM (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
- Local Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-120); Puck line (-1.5, +210); Over/Under 5.5 (+110/-135). Series Panthers -150
- Series Schedule — Game 1: Florida 3, @New York 0; Game 2: @New York 2, Florida 1 OT; Game 3: New York 5, @Florida 4 (OT); Game 4: @Florida 3, New York 2 OT; Game 5: Florida at New York, Thursday 8 (ESPN); Game 6: New York at Florida, Saturday 8 (ABC); Game 7*: Florida at New York, Monday 8 (ESPN). (*) — If Necessary.
- How They Got Here: Florida d. Tampa Bay 4-1, Boston 4-2; Rangers d. Washington 4-0, Carolina 4-2.
- Last Season vs. Rangers — Regular Season: Rangers won 3-0
- This Season (Panthers Won 2-1) — At Florida: Panthers 4 Rangers 3 (Dec. 29). At MSG: Panthers 4, Rangers 2 (March 4); Rangers 4, Panthers 3 OT (March 23).
- All-time Regular Season Series: Rangers lead 61-34-8, 6 ties
- Postseason History: Rangers Lead 1-0 (1997 1st)
PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (2-2) LINES
23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart
17 Evan Rodrigues // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk
23 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 10 Vladimir Tarasenko
18 Steven Lorentz // 82 Kevin Stenlund // 8 Kyle Okposo
42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad
77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour
91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson // 7 Dmitry Kulikov
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
41 Anthony Stolarz
Scratched: Nick Cousins, Ryan Lomberg, Tobias Bjornfot, Uvis Balinskis, Josh Mahura, Jonah Gadjovich, Spencer Knight, Rasmus Asplund, Mike Benning, Magnus Hellberg, Matt Kiersted, Will Lockwood, Mackie Samoskevich, Justin Sourdif, Patrick Giles
PROJECTED NEW YORK RANGERS (2-2) LINES
20 Chris Kreider // 93 Mika Zibanejad // 72 Filip Chytil
10 Artemi Panarin // 16 Vincent Trocheck // 13 Alexis Lafreniere
96 Jack Roslovic // 91 Alex Wennberg // 24 Kaapo Kakko
50 Will Cuylle // 21 Barclay Goodrow // 73 Matt Rempe
55 Ryan Lindgren // 23 Adam Fox
79 K’Andre Miller // 4 Braden Schneider
56 Erik Gustafsson //8 Jacob Trouba
31 Igor Shesterkin
30 Jonathan Quick
Scratched: Zac Jones, Chad Ruhwedel, Jonny Brodzinski, Adam Edstrom, Blake Wheeler, Alex Belzile, Brett Berard, Anton Blidh, Ben Harpur, Dylan Garand, Jake Leschyshyn, Connor Mackey, Victor Mancini, Brennan Othmann, Tyler Pitlick, Matthew Robertson, Brandon Scanlin, Adam Sykora
Injured: Jimmy Vesey (shoulder)