On a beautiful Sunday afternoon during Memorial Day weekend, the Rangers take on the Panthers in Game 3 from Sunrise, Florida.
After dropping the first game 3-0 to the Panthers, the Rangers responded by taking Game 2 in overtime 2-1 on Friday night. Barclay Goodrow won it with 5:59 remaining in the first overtime. He took a Vincent Trocheck pass and beat Sergei Bobrovsky high blocker to cap an exciting game.
Previously, Trocheck scored early in the first period on a great pass from Adam Fox. The Panthers evened it later when Carter Verhaeghe cashed in on the power play.
Despite each side getting some scoring chances over the next two periods, nothing was decided. That sent it to overtime. Igor Shesterkin made a pair of big saves on Ryan Lomberg and Eetu Luostarinen before Goodrow played the hero after midnight.
With the best of seven Eastern Conference Final shifting to Florida for the next two games, it’s now a best of five series. The Rangers must come out with a split to regain home ice advantage. They’ll have some support from the New York transplants who live in the sunshine state.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice indicated to reporters that there are no changes to the lineup for today’s game. However, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette knows that he must make at least one change to his lineup.
During the second period on Friday night, Jimmy Vesey suffered an upper-body injury on a Lomberg hit. He’s week-to-week.
Without him, Laviolette could reinsert Kaapo Kakko. He was a healthy scratch for Game 2. It would make sense to get him back in the lineup. Kakko can play on the third line. He’s a good puck possession player who’s defensively responsible.
It makes sense to play Kakko and see how he responds. He’s a better option than either Jonny Brodzinski or Blake Wheeler. Matt Rempe should play again with Goodrow and Will Cuylle on the fourth line. He was very effective.
Filip Chytil spent all of Game 2 with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. He got better as the game went on. If they’re to be successful on the road, the Rangers will need more from Zibanejad. He’s struggled to establish anything while matched up against Aleksander Barkov. Barkov is a tough matchup for anyone due to his combination of skating, strength, and two-way play.
We’ll see what Laviolette decides about that matchup. Barkov hasn’t scored yet in the series. But he’s come very close. He’s one of the game’s best players for a reason. Getting Zibanejad away from Barkov might help.
The Rangers will want to improve on the slumping power play. They’re 0-for-6 in the series. It’s been tough to get anything going against the aggressive Panthers’ penalty kill. They’ve done a good job taking away time and space from Artemi Panarin, Zibanejad, and Fox up top. It would help if Zibanejad looked to shoot the puck more.
They’ll have to move the puck quicker. If Florida is challenging them up top, try to get the puck down low. They could then have a two-on-one for Trocheck and Kreider. It would open up the middle.
Faceoff is after 3 PM on ABC.
