Pre-Game Skate (3/21/16): Florida Panthers (40-23-9) @ New York Rangers (40-24-8)

And we’re back on the road! Hang onto your hats, kids, this road trip is going to be a wild one. Luckily, the Rangers aren’t as scary as they could be right now. Except for that Lundqvist guy. Never mind, forget I said anything.

The Numbers

Team Breakdown

	Florida Panthers	New York Rangers
Record	40-23-9 (1st Atlantic)	40-24-8 (3rd Metropolitan)
GF/60 (5v5)	2.4	2.5
GA/60 (5v5)	2.1	1.9
CF/60 (5v5)	49.5	52.4
CA/60 (5v5)	51.4	56.7
PDO (5v5)	101.5	102.3
Power Play	17.0% - 42 for 247 (22nd)	18.0% - 35 for 194 (17th)
Penalty Kill	81.2% - 190 for 234 (16th)	77.3% - 163 for 211 (28th)

Individual Leaders

	Florida Panthers	New York Rangers
Points	Jaromir Jagr - 55	Mats Zuccarello - 53
Goals	Jaromir Jagr - 24	Derrick Brassard - 25
Assists	Jussi Jokinen - 38	Keith Yandle - 35
P1/60 (5v5)	Jaromir Jagr - 1.92	Mats Zuccarello - 1.76
iCorsi/60 (5v5)	Nick Bjugstad - 13.0	Rick Nash - 19.5
CF% rel (5v5, SA)	Brian Campbell - +6.0%	Keith Yandle - +5.3%
PenD (5v5)	Aleksander Barkov - +9	Viktor Stalberg - +6

Goalie Matchup

	Al Montoya	Henrik Lundqvist
Record	10-5-3	31-19-6
Sv%	.924	.922
AvgShDA (feet)	35.13	30.02
ReboundAg/60	1.28	1.95
RushShotAg/60	2.63	4.36
GAA	2.04	2.42

* – Stats are courtesy of Corsica.Hockey and Hockey-Reference.com

Projected Lineups

Florida Panthers

#11 Jonathan Huberdeau	#16 Aleksander Barkov	#68 Jaromir Jagr
#36 Jussi Jokinen	#21 Vincent Trocheck	#18 Reilly Smith
#26 Teddy Purcell	#27 Nick Bjugstad	#24 Jiri Hudler
#28 Garrett Wilson	#41 Greg McKegg	#48 Logan Shaw

#7 Dmitry Kulikov	#5 Aaron Ekblad
#51 Brian Campbell	#6 Alex Petrovic
#46 Jakub Kindl	#3 Steven Kampfer

#1 Roberto Luongo

#35 Al Montoya

New York Rangers

#61 Rick Nash	#16 Derrick Brassard	#19 Jesper Fast
#20 Chris Kreider	#21 Derek Stepan	#36 Mats Zuccarello
#10 J.T. Miller	#12 Eric Staal	#13 Kevin Hayes
#15 Tanner Glass	#28 Dominic Moore	#25 Viktor Stalberg

#27 Ryan McDonagh	#8 Kevin Klein
#93 Keith Yandle	#5 Dan Girardi
#18 Marc Staal	#22 Dan Boyle

#30 Henrik Lundqvist

#32 Antti Raanta

The Hat Trick

Post-Deadline Highs-Lows Three weeks after the Rangers went all-in by acquiring Eric Staal in exchange for one of their top prospects (think Ian McCoshen for a Panthers comparable in terms of place in the system) and a pair of picks, their possession numbers have bottomed out. They have a 44.1% shots for percentage right now, good (bad?) for last in the league, while the Panthers are improving right when they need to — they’re currently ninth in the league over that same time span at 51.7% — likely because their more marginal moves in Teddy Purcell and Jiri Hudler are doing exactly what they were intended to do: provide Nick Bjugstad with NHL caliber wingers and give Florida three scoring lines.

Speaking of Big Nick… With three goals in his last four games and eight points over his last eight games, I’m going to go ahead and say it: he’s ba-ack. Not that he ever really left, on an individual level. Since his return from battling migraines through December, Bjugstad has been shackled to replacement level players like Logan Shaw and pure scorers like Brandon Pirri, who simply is not a good match for him. He’s looked good at times, but his production has suffered as a result. During Barkov’s concussion, when Bjugstad was put back with his old friend Jonathan Huberdeau, his shot generation took off again, finally. It continued to improve when Kyle Rau replaced Huberdeau on that line when Huberdeau was concussed. With Hudler and Purcell, he has two smart, veteran players who will get him the puck where he needs it — and that’s all Bjugstad needs to score, as we’ve seen time and time again.

The Pittsburgh Connection I don’t have a third thing, so here’s a cute picture of JT Miller and Vincent Trocheck with Washington Capitals prospect and fellow American Hero Riley Barber.