The Carolina Hurricanes face the Rangers in the qualifying round
While the Carolina Hurricanes are focusing on their own game, here are five guys on New York that could potentially end their playoff push before it technically even starts.
As the Carolina Hurricanes get set to face off against the New York Rangers in a best of five play-in series, there are certain guys to keep eye on each and every game. These guys have had a history of not only producing against the Canes but pretty much the entire league. Some of these names are to be expected, while others may come as a bit of a surprise.
The Rangers, a team thought to be in the rebuilding stage at the start of the year, could feed off of these individuals and ride them towards the postseason. With a small margin for error, it isn’t going to take much in terms of momentum to shift this series one way or another, especially without fans in the building to feed off of.
While all the time off and short training camp make this feel like an entirely different season, it goes without saying that you have to think the players all know what occurred during the regular-season series. No matter how much they say it doesn’t matter, in the back of their mind, it’ll eat at their confidence for better or worse. The start will be extremely important for both teams in determining who will shake off the rust and jitters first.
So, without further ado, here are five New York Rangers players that could derail the Carolina Hurricanes playoff aspirations and send them home from Toronto early.