Why Carolina is afraid of the Rangers
It’s the New York Rangers vs the Carolina Hurricanes, a match up the Canes do not want
The format for the resumption of the NHL season has been determined and something very interesting happened along the way. The New York Rangers will play the Hurricanes and that was a match up that Carolina did not want.
The report is that the vote of the NHLPA on the 24 team playoff format was 29-2 with two teams opposed to the expanded playoff. While it had been expected that the Pittsburgh Penguins would vote against it, they ended up going with the vast majority of teams and it was the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Carolina Hurricanes who were the no votes.
The two @NHL teams that voted against @NHLPA 24 team format were playoff teams. @Canes and @TBLightning https://t.co/bizAbf6mMR
— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) May 23, 2020
That raises the question of what those two teams had against the format. When it comes to the Hurricanes, the New York Rangers are the answer.
Why Carolina voted no
The Carolina Hurricanes were playoff bound when the season was suspended. They were sitting in the first wild card spot with 81 points, two points ahead of the Rangers. The key thing is that they had only played 68 games compared to 70 for the Blueshirts.
The Hurricanes were riding a three game winning streak when play was stopped and they had one of the easier schedules the rest of the way with two games each against the Devils and Sabres and a single game against the Senators, all non-playoff teams. The combined points percentage for the team that they were facing was .580.
The Rangers had only 12 games left with four games against non playoff teams. Their schedule was slightly harder as they faced teams with a combined .582 points percentage. Based on the competition, the expectation was that the Rangers would have been hard pressed to catch the Canes.
So, Carolina thinks they would have made the playoffs regardless, so why face a team that wouldn’t? That’s one reason. The other is overwhelming domination of the Blueshirts over the Hurricanes for the last 14 years.
This season the Rangers swept the four times they played, outscoring them 17-9. It’s more than that. The last time the Rangers lost a season series to the Hurricanes was in 2005-06. In the 14 years since, they have won the season series nine times and tied five times. The Blueshirts’ record against Carolina since 2005-06? It’s an unbelievable 37-14-1.
No wonder the Canes don’t want to play the Rangers. Another factor is that there are so many transplanted New Yorkers in North Carolina, watching the Rangers play in Raleigh can feel like a home game for the visitors.
And finally, although there is a question of whether he will actually start, Henrik Lundqvist has owned the Carolina Hurricanes throughout his career. This season he won three starts against the Canes, allowing seven goals and stopping 125 of 132 shots for an incredible .947 save percentage. He had his best game of the season on November 7 in Raleigh, stealing a 4-2 win for the Rangers with a 45 save performance.
In his career, he is 33-12-1 against Carolina with a 2.00 goals against average and a save percentage of .934. The only team he has had better statistics against are the Detroit Red Wings. Jordan Martinook is the Hurricanes NHLPA rep and you can be sure that Lundqvist and the dominance of the Rangers was on the minds of the Carolina players he surveyed.
For the other team that voted against the format, the reasons were much simpler.
Why Tampa voted no
Tampa was the second team to vote against the 24 team format and it’s pretty simple to determine why. The Lighting have more to lose this playoffs than any other team. They are coming off a shocking first round sweep by the Columbus Blue Jackets last season and are smarting from recent losses in two Conference Finals and one Stanley Cup FInals.
The Lightning played this season smartly, starting slowly and building momentum until they had reclaimed their status as one of the top teams in the NHL. However, they, more than any other team, know the danger of playing a hot underdog in the early rounds. Not only that, they will be playing a team that will have won a hard fought best of five series while the Bolts would have been engaged in a best of three round robin that will determine first round seedings. No matter how important that seeding is, there is no way those round robin games will have the intensity of the play-in series.
It’s all good for the Rangers
While the Blueshirts cannot go into the play-in round overconfident, there are many reasons why they should feel good about first round match-up with the Carolina Hurricanes. While the Hurricanes will be regaining the services of Dougie Hamilton, recovered from a fibula fracture, they will still be without Brett Pesce, out after shoulder surgery.
As for the Rangers, they will get Chris Kreider back from his broken foot and the rest of the team is healthy.
As far as intangibles go, Brady Skjei will have something to prove following his deadline deal to Carolina. As for the Rangers, Greg McKegg and Phil Di Giuseppe are both former Hurricanes looking to do well against their former team. Of course, we will also have the Marc Staal vs. Jordan Staal sibling match up.
Whether Lundqvist will get the nod (and there are certainly reason he should) of it is Igor Shesterkin, the fact is that the Rangers have had unusual success against the Hurricanes and that will weight heavily on their opponents. Whether that will override the experience that the Canes gained from their unexpected run to the Conference Finals remains to be seen.
The best news for the Rangers is they are beginning to dominate the conversations about teams expected to make hay in the post season. It’s a storyline we’ve covered before, but the noise is getting louder now that a return to play looks inevitable.
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