Panther Attack!
Florida Battles New York at the Garden
Photo Credit: Matthew Tkachuck led the Florida Panthers in the win against the Rangers on Thursday night at MSG.
MADISON SQ. GARDEN—On Thursday night, the defending Stanley Cup Champions, Florida Panthers gave the New York Rangers its first regulation loss of the season.
But that wasn’t the whole story.
In a rematch of the last years Eastern Conference Finals—the Panthers proved that the Blueshirts still have more work to do to get over the hump and be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
Did Last Night’s Game Change Your Feeling About This Year’s Team?
Game Analysis
The Rangers did not look the same in first period as they had in every previous game this season. Could the travel have been an issue? What about the time difference?
Well that can’t be it—since Montreal is in the same Eastern Time zone as New York.
So what happened in the first ten minutes of the first?
Anton Lundell and Carter Verheaghe scored their goals because the Rangers looked sluggish on the ice. They were not beating their men to the puck or to the right spot on the ice.
So with 2:42 expired—Florida took a commanding 2-0 lead.
But this is the “No Quit Rangers,” which meant that the blueshirts were going to bounce back.
And around two minutes later, Alexis Lafreniere scored his 4th goal of the season at 4:44 cutting the lead to 2-1.
And from that point on—this was a battle between Sergei Bobrovsky and Igor Shesterkin.
Bobrovsky finished the game stopping 24 of 25 shots on net with a save percentage of .960. Whereas Shesterkin had his worst game of the year, only stopping 26 of 29 shots and meeting the NHL average for goaltenders in 2024 with an .897 save percentage.
So what happened? Why did the Rangers lose its first game?
The answer is unstructured defense.
Yes, New York got lazy. They were undisciplined with the puck in their own zone, in the neutral zone and even in the offensive zone. The Rangers gave the puck away 11 times in Thursday night’s game, in addition to the Panthers stealing the puck 6 times.
It just wasn’t the best performance and against the defending Stanley Cup Champs—you have to play better than that.
Which begs the question: “What will Coach Peter Laviolette do?”
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Game Stats
Artemi Panarin 1 assist (22:56 TOI) 2 shots on net
Alexis Lafreniere 1 goal (18:16 TOI) 2 shots on net
Adam Fox 1 assist (23:02 TOI) 2 shots on net
Next Game
No rest for the weary—New York’s next game will be on Saturday night when they play host to the Anaheim Ducks who are 3-2-1 on the young season. The Ducks are led by Troy Terry who has 4 goals on the season and 5 points. Meanwhile netminder Lukas Dostal has been playing outstanding hockey.
So far this season in 5 games played, he has a 2.19 goals against average and a .936 save percentage.
This isn’t the same Anaheim Ducks of last year—and the Rangers need to be mentally ready, so they can bounce back after the tough loss to the Panthers.