A marquee matchup is on tap tonight when the Florida Panthers (41-16-4) face the New York Rangers (40-17-4) at Madison Square Garden in a battle between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. The red-hot Panthers have won ten of their last eleven games, including Saturday afternoon’s 4-0 blanking of the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena. Sergei Bobrovsky posted his fourth shutout of the season and Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues and Aleksander Barkov scored the goals in the dominant win over the much-improved Red Wings. Florida enters tonight’s tilt leading the NHL in points (86), wins (41), point percentage (.705), and goal differential (+57).
Like the Cats, the Metropolitan Division-leading Rangers enter the game on a tear. They are 11-1-1 in the last thirteen games, although they have lost two of their last three. After having a ten-game winning streak snapped in a upset loss to Columbus, the Rangers bounced back by beating the Blue Jackets on home ice three days later before dropping a 4-3 shootout decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs in an enthralling Saturday night matchup at Scotiabank Arena. Artemi Panarin leads the Broadway Blueshirts with 35 goals, 49 assists and 84 points. The 35 goals are a career-high.
- WHEN: 7:00 p.m. ET
- WHERE: Madison Square Garden – New York, NY
- ON THE TUBE: Bally Sports Florida, MSG
- ON THE DIAL: 560 WQAM (D/B), 1230 The Gambler (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
- SOCIALS: #TimeToHunt, #NYR, #FLAvsNYR, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
- ENEMY INTEL: Blueshirt Banter
- FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 2 of 3 (1-0)
- LAST MEETING: @FLA 4, NYR 3 – (Recap) 12/29/2023
- NEXT MEETING: March 23, 2024
- PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Bobrovsky (30-11-2 .918 / 2.30 4SO) / New York: Shesterkin (26-12-2 .911 / 2.66 1SO)
- PLAYER STATS: Florida / New York
Monday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)
- BOSTON (35-13-14 84P) at TORONTO (35-17-8 78P) 7 p.m.
Idle: DET (72P), TBL (72P), BUF (62P), MTL (56P), OTT (53P)