It’s been another busy week at The Breakdown and that has led to some planned pieces falling by the wayside. Time constraints ruled out individual Knicks and Rangers previews so we’re giving you next best thing, a joint preview for the co-tenants that live under the pin wheel ceiling. There is plenty of excitement so let’s dive into the matchups and get ready for each teams respective game series. Afterall, the Garden is Eden right now.

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Rangers

Our first preview takes us to the ice, as the Rangers will get their second round series underway in just a few hours. This time they lock horns with the Carolina Hurricanes who already dispatched the Islanders and will be looking to claim a second victim from The Big Apple. These two have met in the playoffs twice in the last four years. The first of which was, if you dare to call it one, an opening round playoff series in the Toronto COVID Pandemic bubble, a series the Hurricanes won with ease. The follow up came in the spring of 2022, a thrilling seven game series that the Rangers won on the road in a rout, punctuated by the frequently memed Filip Chytil goal that even managed to shut Ray Ferraro up.

Unfortunately, the series will be handled by the ESPN crew, so I recommend ear plugs or using the radio feed, so you don’t have to hear Ferraro or PK Subban. Back to the ice, this postseasons edition of the Rangers and Canes rivalry sees them meet on a far more even keel than the last two matchups. While both brought plenty of talent to the table in the previous meetings, there were more obvious flaws in both teams that showed through as the series dragged on. There isn’t much separating these two teams as they have similar forward cores, talented blue lines, solid special teams, and high-level coaching. In my opinion there are two clear keys to this series that need to be watch closely. The first, one you might call rather surface level, is the Rangers holding an advantage in goal with Igor Shesterkin over Canes netminder Frederik Andersen.

I don’t say that as any disrespect to Andersen, as when he plays, he puts solid numbers, but he is not on Shesterkin’s level and has a shaky playoff history. While his overall postseason numbers are good, he has struggled in critical elimination games in years past in Anaheim and Toronto. Shesterkin will of course have to hold up his end of the bargain in this series as well as the Hurricanes typically accumulate a high volume of shots on net in games, pulling the trigger from just about anywhere on the ice. While this can at times work to their benefit, we have also seen it work against them as they don’t get lots of high quality looks in games and the opposing goaltender starts to really feel it and shut them down. Shesterkin himself did this in 2022, putting on a clinic in several of the games in that series and has continued to do so against the Canes in regular season games since that last spring meeting.

The second key to this series is bit more matchup specific as the Rangers will need to work hard to cope with Carolina’s swarming offensive approach. Unlike the Capitals in round one, the Canes will play much more aggressively in the o-zone as they typically look to pressure the opposition and keep them trapped in their own end. We have seen the Rangers go through fits and starts against this very approach in head-to-head meetings with Carolina the last few years. The Rangers cannot become content to just flip pucks up the ice and make “hit and hope” passes out of the zone against this kind of opponent. The defenseman need to skate pucks to safety and make good firm plays on the puck when exiting the zone. Getting out clean will make all the difference in the world for the Blueshirts in this series and will allow them to apply pressure on the compromised Canes blue line instead of being stuck in their own zone. Carolina will be without stalwart d-man Brett Pesce for at least the first two games of this series and the Rangers will look to exploit former Blueshirt Tony DeAngelo’s weaknesses as he fills in.

If they can manage the puck and Shesterkin is on his game, the Rangers just need to let their home ice advantage take care of the rest. The World’s Most Famous Arena was a bit tame in round one, but you could probably chalk that up to the slow-paced low event games the Capitals forced to be played. The much-disliked rivals from North Carolina on the other hand should wake everyone up, though it shouldn’t take much as New York City is alive with playoff fever for the Knicks and Rangers right now. There is no doubt this will be a difficult series for the Rangers, one that probably goes deep but, in the end, I think they will pull it out. It’s just a question of whether it happens at Madison Square Garden…or at “MSG south” in Raleigh.

Prediction: Rangers in 6

Knicks

The second half of our preview takes us to the hardwood, as the Knicks will get their second round series with the Pacers going Monday night at the Garden. The orange and blue won their war of attrition with the Sixers on Thursday thanks to some late game heroics from Josh Hart. With the physical battle behind them, the Knicks draw an opponent who is nearly the polar opposite in terms of style, the Indiana Pacers who are fresh off upsetting the Bucks in round one. This of course is a rivalry from years gone by that featured some thrilling moments that have come to help define both franchises. These two teams played five times in the second or third round between 1994 and 2013. Three of those clashes came in the Eastern Conference Final, which the Knicks won two of (1994 and 1999), while the Pacers won it in 2000. The other two meetings came in round two in 1995 and 2013, both won by the Pacers in heart breaking fashion.

This rivalry has seen it all over the years and this chapter should be intriguing to watch as well. The Knicks enter the series as heavy favorites despite losing two of the three head-to-head meetings in the regular season. Indiana can be a handful defensively at times with the shooting prowess of Tyrese Haliburton, Aaron Nesmith and stretch big man Myles Turner. The Knicks will try to match that offensive output with big games from the red-hot Jalen Brunson and his diverse cast of sidekicks. Don’t be surprised if this series features some higher scoring games as the regular season meetings saw both sides fill it up at times.

There are a few keys to this series that are worth keeping tabs on as it progresses. The first being the Knicks getting a few more bodies into their regular rotations during this series. Down the stretch of the opening round against Philly, Tom Thibodeau was using just seven players after losing Bojan Bogdanovic earlier in the series. It feels like this matchup presents a good opportunity for him to lengthen the bench and use Precious Achiuwa and Alec Burks a bit more to lighten the load on the big guns. While Burks didn’t see the floor in round one, Achiuwa acquitted himself quite well in game four in Philadelphia, which should make Thibs feel more comfortable using him.

Aside from getting a few more hands on deck in this series, the Knicks will need to maintain their usual defensive style of play while also winning one key matchup in particular. They will need to use OG Anunoby, who did not feature in any of the three regular season meetings against Indiana this year, to lead their smaller lineup defensively against the Pacers jump shooters while winning down low in the paint at both ends. Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson (and perhaps Achiuwa) will draw the tough assignment of battling one of the games top power forwards, Pascal Siakam. Siakam is a fabulous big man, who serves at times as the Pacers long big man in the post given how Turner looks to shoot from the outside. Outplaying Siakam, who was a champion with the Raptors, won’t be easy but the Knicks have the personnel to outrebound and defend him in this series which should make the difference.

While the Pacers certainly won’t roll over and die, I think this is very favorable matchup for the Knicks, one that would be extremely disappointing to lose. If they can control the keys we mentioned above and stop making the end of games such fire drills, they should take care of business in this series against a team that will struggle to defend them. Game one at the Mecca ceiling can’t get here fast enough!

Prediction: Knicks in 5

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