With both squads scoring and playing loose on defense, look for tonight's Panthers, Rangers matchup in New York to go over.
Both of these teams are in goal-scoring mode right now. The Rangers have found the net on 30 occassions in their first eight games of the season while Florida has netted the disk 29 times over 10 games.
It's not just the fact that both sides have been able to score frequently, they've both been leaking them in. Florida has allowed a whopping 37 goals and the Rangers have allowed 32 on the season. The offseason acquisition of Brendan Shanahan is one the major reasons for the increase in New Yorks offense. Its not just Shanahan's scoring ability that the Rangers sought this offseason, but his presence in the lineup takes a lot of pressure off Jaromir Jagr and, with that, Jagr has a lot more ice time. This combination has helped the the New Yorkers to a 5-1-2 over record this season.
A high proportion of goals in any game in the new NHL comes by way of the odd man or two advantage and the Rangers have been connecting on nearly 22% of their power play opportunities so far this year. Given that Florida is only killing power plays at a 78% clip this season and with the referees calling an inordinate amount of penalties, this matchup has the makings of a shootout inside MSG.
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Panthers at Rangers: Over 6½
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