Series Talk: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Rangers | Eastern Conference Finals

[Crease]

They’re back! Won’t be easy and I have my own prediction, but very happy to be here. Summer hockey is the best.

All games on ESPN.

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[redwhiteandblue]

Booked my plane ticket last night, sitting outside PNC Arena, while Canes fans tried to start fights with Rangers fans. Loved every second of it.

Already have tix for Sundays game in the 100s. Let’s go!!!

 

[HANK30]

LOL

 

[Ruggs225]

I love the 8pm starts. Thats my kids bedtime. So i can get them ready and then watch the fame without interruption

 

[Draft Guru]

Just some food for thought here.

Rangers are obviously a young team, playing with house money. They’ve made it this far perhaps a little earlier than expected.

Blackhawks “dynasty” began with a crushing Conference Finals defeat to a veteran, defending Cup Champion team in the Red Wings back in ‘09. The Hawks got a bitter taste of defeat, being so close to the prize. They then went on to win Cups in ‘10, ‘13 and ‘15.

I have full confidence that this team CAN beat Tampa. They have home ice and they’ve played real well against that team all year. Whatever happens though, this is the beginning of our window and I’m looking forward to the ride.

 

[Chytilmania]

Barring injury, I'd be surprised if either team has a 2 game lead at any point. 7 game series with the last game at the Garden, I like those chances.

 

[Fatsam98]

I love the 8pm starts. Thats my kids bedtime. So i can get them ready and then watch the fame without interruption

Same here. Although I told my 6 year old he can stay up with me on Friday for Game 2

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

This is freaking awesome. Just hope we put up a good fight.

 

[Chytilmania]

Rangers are obviously a young team, playing with house money. They’ve made it this far perhaps a little earlier than expected.

Once we hit Game 7 against Carolina there was no more playing with house money. It's very hard to go this deep, they need to win.

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

Same here. Although I told my 6 year old he can stay up with me on Friday for Game 2

32 now and I watched the game with my dad and wife last night. It's my wife's first season as a "real" fan. I told her how rare it is to make the ECF and that I could only recall 5 times. Mentioned that the first was when I was 7 and Gretzky and Messier led them to the ECF against Phi. Told them how Dad let me stay up for the entire run playoffs and he just laughed. I'll never forget that.

 

[LokiDog]

We’re going to win this series. Igor will come out supreme.

 

[ZiGOODejad]

Someone ask the spittin chicklets crew how they feel. Oh wait nobody gives a f*** how they feel.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I wish Florida won.

At the same time, Who knows what happens here. I didn't think they'd beat Carolina and Point is most likely going to continue to miss time.

 

[HANK30]

Does anyone have any statistics about how much a layoff effects a team heading into the next round? Tampa won't have played in 9 full days by the time the puck drops. in 2019 Boston had almost 11 days of rest between the the ECF and SCF and they managed to go 7 games vs St Louis...

 

[Draft Guru]

Barring injury, I'd be surprised if either team has a 2 game lead at any point. 7 game series with the last game at the Garden, I like those chances.

Rangers have yet to lead in a series, so I’d be happy with a 1 game lead at any point this round.

Winning game 1 would do wonders for this team.

Hopefully can have a good start to this series and catch Tampa on an off night as they shake off the rust.

 

[Chytilmania]

Rangers have yet to lead at any point in a series, so I’d be happy with a 1 game lead at any point.

Winning game 1 would do wonders for this team.

Hopefully can have a good start to this series and catch Tampa on an off night as they shake off the rust.

We've dealt with tough breaks in both Game 1s. I hope we catch Tampa sluggish out of the gates and steal Game 1. That could go a long way.

 

[will1066]

TB regenerated their 3rd line with Hagel, Paul and Colton. That's a line to watch out for.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Does anyone have any statistics about how much a layoff effects a team heading into the next round? Tampa won't have played in 9 full days by the time the puck drops. in 2019 Boston had almost 11 days of rest between the the ECF and SCF and they managed to go 7 games vs St Louis...

It depends. 9 days is a long time to go with out playing. I wouldn't want that for the Rangers honestly, they have a ton of guys who tend to get rusty after pretty long layoffs.

I'm sure that Tampa is happy to have the rest but as the series goes on that rest will matter less. 9 days isn't going to make up for the amount of hockey they've played in the last 22 months.

 

[Cuckoo4Kakko]

I'll say the same thing I said last round. Try to not get swept. This is house money. Love the experience our kids are getting. Whatever happens happens, but with Igor we've always got a chance.

 

[Chytilmania]

TB regenerated their 3rd line with Hagel, Paul and Colton. That's a line to watch out for.

I haven't watched them, how do you think the kid line will fair against them?

 

[romba]

Does anyone have any statistics about how much a layoff effects a team heading into the next round? Tampa won't have played in 9 full days by the time the puck drops. in 2019 Boston had almost 11 days of rest between the the ECF and SCF and they managed to go 7 games vs St Louis...

Saw a bunch of posts with stats backing it up that teams tend to play better the next series after playing the full 7 games. Then saw some other anecdotal evidence that teams who play 2 rounds in a row of 7 games tend to lose the next round (like Rangers in 2012), except for the Heavy Kings of course.

 

[Rschmitz]

Lightning fan coming in peace, the Rangers are probably the only team left I think can beat the Lightning, they have all of the right pieces, and were definitely better than the Canes. Not sure why you all aren’t getting the respect you deserve, whoever wins this I think wins the cup, the west teams are not built for playoff hockey.

Ok, that’s the last nice thing I am going to say about y’all until this is over, see you in the playoff forum!

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

It depends. 9 days is a long time to go with out playing. I wouldn't want that for the Rangers honestly, they have a ton of guys who tend to get rusty after pretty long layoffs.

I'm sure that Tampa is happy to have the rest but as the series goes on that rest will matter less. 9 days isn't going to make up for the amount of hockey they've played in the last 22 months.

Also have to take into account that Tampa has played a shitload of hockey the last few years. A cup in August in the bubble. A cup last year in July. And now another run here. I'm really hoping they hit a wall. We played them tough all year, but obviously playoffs are a different animal.

 

[Cmox]

LOL

What Biz doesn’t know is that the Rangers turn back ups into Patrick Roy.

 

[romba]

For all his braindead moments in the O zone, Trouba's leadership, mostly solid defending, and crushing open ice hits really matter in the playoffs. Having forwards think twice about taking a hit to make a play, or needing to have their head on a swivel can really change how teams play and take them off their gameplan. Let alone actually knocking guys out of the game/series.

Kucherov scares me though. Guy is an offensive and PP wizard. We really need Panarin to rise to the challenge.