New York Rangers

Going over Stanley Cup Playoff history of teams in the Eastern Conference Final ... We take a look at past teams to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals since ...

BOTTOM LINE: The New York Rangers host the Tampa Bay Lightning to open the Eastern Conference finals. The teams meet Saturday for the fourth time this season.

The Lightning rank seventh in NHL play with 285 total goals (averaging 3.5 per game). BOTTOM LINE: The New York Rangers host the Tampa Bay Lightning to open the Eastern Conference finals. In their last regular season matchup on March 19, the Rangers won 2-1. The Rangers went 3-0 against the Lightning in the regular season. Chris Kreider led the Rangers with two goals. New York Rangers (52-24-6, second in the Metropolitan Division)

Head to Amalie Arena on June 1 and June 3 for watch parties as the Tampa Bay Lightning take on the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have had a stranglehold over New York's hockey teams in the playoffs, but the New York Rangers are out to disrup that.

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Jan. 2 at NYR (W, 4-0): Shesterkin pitches a 38 save shutout, while Andrei Vasilevskiy gives up 4 on 21 shots. Mika Zibanejad registers a hat trick. Mar. 19 ...

This series is going to come down to goaltending as two of the game’s very best in Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin square off. In the post season, the Rangers have brought their GAA down 4.14 in the first round to 3.00 overall. For the Rangers, they are as resilient a team as I’ve ever seen. Meanwhile, Tampa will need to shake off 9 days worth of rust after sweeping the Florida Panthers in Round Two. The New York Rangers were one of the top defensive teams starting around March until the end of the season. That’s due in large part to only allowing 1.86 GAA against the Hurricanes in Round 2. His .935 SV% and 2.07 GAA top the league. The New York Rangers come into this series with a 3.05 goals per game average on the season ranked 17th. The Tampa Bay Lightning ranked higher with a 3.48 goals per game average at 8. Against the Carolina Hurricanes, they were much better. The trade that kicked it all off was Ryan McDonagh being shipped to Tampa in 2018. “They’re a great team and they’ve got great players that have won Stanley Cups,” Gerard Gallant said on Tuesday. “We’re going to worry about playing our game.

It's a series between a former Vezina winner and a future Vezina winner.

In order to make that number go down, the Lightning are going to have to win the front of the net battles in the offensive zone. Defensively for the Lightning, expect more of the same from the first two rounds - keep the play in front of them, block shots, limit prime scoring opportunities, and let Vasilevskiy do his thing. A lot of folks think the Lightning are going to win this series fairly easily after what they did to Florida in the second round. Also giving them trouble will be the fact that they will be facing a number one goaltender for an entire series. The oddsmakers don’t seem to be taking much stock in the regular season either as for the first time in this postseason, the Lightning are favored to win a series. They will need some of the bigger players in front banging around for those rebounds and put-back opportunities. Upfront the Rangers can roll three lines pretty reliably with the bulk of their offense coming from the top line of Chris Kreider (8 goals, 3 assists), Mika Zibanejad (7 goals, 12 assists), and Frank Vatrano (3 goals, 5 assists). Artemi Panarin (4 goals, 7 assists) can find the right match-ups on the second line with Ryan Strome and deadline pick-up Andrew Copp. The “Kid Line” of Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil, and Kaapo Kakko could be a difference maker if they find their scoring touch. The good news is that the Lightning are going to get their chances. Chris Kreider and his 52 goals this season is the only Blueshirt left that watched the Lightning celebrate their trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015. The first two meetings between the teams took place as the calendar turned to 2022 and the Lightning were recovering from injuries and COVID. The third match-up was a well-played 2-1 win for the Rangers that will be a little closer to what we should expect from this series. As has been mentioned a few times, this is a rematch of the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals, a seven-game series that the Lightning eventually won (becoming the only team to beat the Rangers in a Game Seven in Madison Square Garden). Since then, the two franchises have taken different paths to getting back to this point. Let’s face it, there is no doubt at all what the focus of this series is going to be - goaltending.

I first felt it sitting in Madison Square Garden five minutes before Game 6 started. "Still New York" by MAX was playing, the pre-game hype video was on the ...

This is the start of this window, not the end of it. It’s fun to see the national media crying their eyes out about this team again. It’s fun to be a Rangers fan again. The Kreider “it’s not a Garden it’s a jungle” quote really stands out to me here. Walking out of the Garden after Game 6 into a warm New York City. But this group is just so different than what we’ve seen in the past. So is Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, Miller, Fox, Lindgren and Shesterkin. Of all those players Shesterkin is the oldest at 26. It’s literally everything Ryan Reaves does on a nightly basis, from the big hits to being the team dad of the children. And specifically to 2014, give us the chance to shower St. Louis with the noise and support he deserves. The Rangers were playing Game 5 on the road and the only care I had was for them to come home. The Garden exploding as Barclay Goodrow’s named a surprise starter before Game 6. “Still New York” by MAX was playing, the pre-game hype video was on the jumbotron/ice, the crowd was starting to rev up.

The job, in fact, is only half done. “It's a little bit poetic,” Chris Kreider said with a small chuckle on Tuesday, the day before the Rangers host Game 1 of ...

Seize the day. Seize the moment. They have won 10 straight playoff series, which means they are actually halfway to the Dynasty Islanders’ sacred mark of 19 playoff wins in a row … “In both [playoff] series to be able to come back, win some games on the road, take care of games in our building, it’s a resilient bunch that really has had no quit from Day 1.” “It’s a little bit poetic,” Chris Kreider said with a small chuckle on Tuesday, the day before the Rangers host Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Kreider was here the last time the Rangers got here, after all, in the spring of 2015, and Tampa was there, too. You’re a Rangers fan, flush with the kind of success that’s only been a rumor (or a visitor to Long Island) these past few years.

NHL.com previews the Eastern Conference Final between the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The power play is 13-for-40 (32.5 percent) in the playoffs, including 7-for-21 (33.3 percent) in the second round. The 27-year-old has six points (two goals, four assists) in 11 playoff games. The penalty kill held the Panthers to one power-play goal on 13 opportunities (92.3 percent) and is 36-for-41 (87.8 percent) for the playoffs. The Lightning is 11-for-48 (22.9 percent) on the power play in the playoffs. He is a finalist for the Hart Trophy as the most valuable player and the Vezina Trophy as the top goalie in the NHL after going 36-13-4 in 53 regular-season games, leading the NHL with a 2.07 GAA and .935 save percentage (minimum 25 games) and finishing third with six shutouts. Rangers: Andrew Copp has been a valuable addition for New York since being acquired in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets on March 21. Lightning: Vasilevskiy is 5-0 with an 0.80 GAA, .978 save percentage and one shutout in his past five starts after going 3-3 with a 3.37 GAA and .885 save percentage in his first six. Kucherov is third among active players with 142 points (48 goals, 94 assists) in 124 NHL playoff games behind Sidney Crosby (201) and Evgeni Malkin (180). He led the Rangers with four goals in three regular-season games against the Lightning. Rangers: Mika Zibanejad is third in the playoffs and leads New York with 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in 14 games. "It's a special group, no doubt, and the beauty of the group is we're not satisfied," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. Tampa Bay's sweep of Florida in the best-of-7 second round was its 10th consecutive playoff series win.