And then there were four.
The Edmonton Oilers held on to their lead despite a late push from the Vancouver Canucks in last night’s game seven to win 3-2 and advance to the Western Conference Finals, thus becoming the last team to advance to the final four. They joined the Dallas Stars in the West, and the New York Rangers and Florida Panthers in the East.
The Rangers and Panthers have gotten some rest over the past few days, as they both wrapped up their respective series in six games, the Rangers doing so last Thursday and Florida following suit the next day.
I’ve had some time to go over the potential storylines of what is sure to be a hard fought, violent, long series, and while this doesn’t serve as a series preview, it will give you an idea of the connections between these two teams that will certainly add some extra emotion on both sides.
For the second straight round, Rangers’ star center Vincent Trocheck will be facing off against a former team. Trocheck was drafted in the third round of the 2011 draft by the Panthers, and his first seven seasons in the NHL were spent with the club. After having an incredible series against the Carolina Hurricanes, who he spent three seasons with prior to signing as a free agent in New York, Trocheck will look to continue his dominance in the faceoff dot, as well as the scoresheet, against the team he set his career high in goals with (31) back in 2018.
Panthers’ Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky started his NHL career in Philadelphia after coming over from the KHL in Russia, and spent two years playing under current Rangers head coach, Peter Laviolette. Bobrovsky was the starter in 2010-2011, his first season with the team, starting 54 games as a young goaltender. The following year, however, his performance suffered as Ilya Bryzgalov emerged as the new starter for Laviolette’s Flyers.
Bobrovsky would be traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a bundle of draft picks, and it is here that he would establish himself as one of the leagues top goaltenders, winning the Vezina in 2013 and 2017. It is also where Bobrovsky would eventually play with current Rangers’ star Artemi Panarin, and the two Russian players would team up to sweep the cup favorite Tampa Bay Lightning in round one, giving Columbus their first playoff series win in franchise history. They would both leave Columbus as free agents that Summer, signing with the teams they currently play for now.
The New York Rangers entered the playoffs last year with two of the biggest trade deadline acquisitions in recent memory in Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko, two superstars from the West with four Stanley Cups between them. Kane was playing through a hip injury which has since been corrected through surgery, but him and Tarasenko were relatively productive in a playoff series in which not many Rangers could say the same. It ended in heartbreak as they lost to their rival New Jersey Devils in seven games. The package that brought Tarasenko to New York also included Niko Mikkola, a hulking bottom pair defenseman. The Rangers opted to resign none of their deadline acquisitions, as Tarasenko would sign with Ottawa, and Mikkola would sign with Florida. With Ottawa out of the playoff picture by this years deadline, Tarasenko forced his way to Florida, where his family was already living, and was reunited once again with Mikkola.
We all know the Russian players love to compete against each other, so expect Panarin and Tarasenko, who are good friends away from the rink and now former NHL teammates, to put on a show when they’re lined up against eachother, just like they did when they were on division rivals in Chicago and St. Louis respectively. Panarin will also spend the series dueling with his good friend Sergei Bobrovsky between the pipes.
Perhaps the most interesting storyline relates to the head coaches. Panthers’ coach Paul Maurice was the head coach of the Hurricanes from 1997 to 2004, when he was replaced by, Peter Laviolette. Laviolette would take that Canes team to the Cup Final in 2006 and defeat the Oilers to earn the franchise it’s first, and only, Stanley Cup. His run with the team would end just three years later, though, as he would be fired mid season and replaced by, you guessed it, Paul Maurice. The Hurricanes would then fire Maurice in the midst of the 2012 campaign, and he would return to NHL coaching with the Winnipeg Jets in 2014, where he would spend eight years. After his first two seasons there, he would name Blake Wheeler his captain, and he would be his Captain until being let go by the Jets after missing the Playoffs in 2022. Maurice would sign with the Panthers the following season, and Blake Wheeler would be stripped of the captaincy by new Jets coach Rick Bowness, bought out of his contract, and sign with the New York Rangers last offseason.
There is a tumbleweed of relationships in this Conference Finals series, and there will be no love lost between anyone on either side until the handshake line. Expect this series to be the most violent one of the playoffs. These teams don’t have much playoff history, meeting only one time prior in 1997, but they certainly will have bad blood by the end. Buckle up, two rounds to go. Next stop, Stanley Cup Finals.
The Morning Skate 