Carolina Hurricanes vs New York Rangers: Second Round Preview

After enduring a grueling two weeks in the first round lasting the maximum of 7 Games, both the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers look to start their series off with a bang. This marks the first time the teams will face off in the playoffs.

There has been a little animosity between the organizations even prior to puck drop. The Hurricanes are not allowing anyone from outside of North Carolina to purchase tickets to their home games. We have seen this happen with many smaller market organizations in the past. I suppose the Canes want 100% Caniacs attendance. Even with these measures, this is unlikely to happen.

Now getting down to on-ice stuff: injuries. The Hurricanes are still missing their number one goaltender Fredrik Andersen. He has not practiced in over a month and head coach Rod Brind'Amour politely asked the media to not inquire until Andersen is back on the ice for team practice.

On the Rangers side, they continue to miss the presence of forward Barclay Goodrow. He is still considered week-to-week. Ryan Lindgren was also in and out of the lineup in their first round series against the Penguins. It has been speculated that he is playing through some type of injury. That would not be unreasonable at this time of year, but it is unlikely we will get any kind of confirmation on such a rumor.

The Canes and Rangers played one another four times this season. Carolina is 3-1 in those games, outscoring New York 14-10. This matchup is an interesting one because the Hurricanes have six former blueshirts on their roster: Tony DeAngelo, Jesper Fast, Antti Raanta, Brady Skjei, Brendan Smith, and Derek Stepan).

The most interesting of the bunch is defenseman DeAngelo facing off against his former team in the playoffs just one year after their drama-filled separation. DeAngelo had his second best season this year, notching 51 points (10+41). He was also heavily vested in the team's series against the Boston Bruins, getting into altercations with Brad Marchand and others during that battle. DeAngelo commented on playing his former team; for a guy who loves to play villain, this was pretty measured:

Statistically, the Hurricanes outpace the Blueshirts in nearly every category... except one: Goaltending. If the Rangers want to win this series, they will rely heavily on Vezina candidate and Hart finalist Igor Shesterkin. In the regular season, Shesterkin posted an all-time 8th best save percentage of .935. He went 36-13-4 with a 2.07 goals against average. He looked somewhat human in the series against the Penguins, getting pulled twice in Pittsburgh. Like his team, he was able to bounce back and put up respectable numbers in games 5-7 to win the series.

Carolina has yet to lose a home game this season. New York has come from behind in their last three games and the first round series. It will be interesting to see which team prevails in the end. The winner of this series is rewarded with a trip to Florida, where they will face the winner of the Lightning/ Panthers series in the Eastern Conference Final.

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