Rangers face Panthers in Eastern Conference Finals

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- It begins again. To win a Stanley Cup, you need to win four rounds in the Stanley Cup playoffs and generate 16 wins.

The Rangers have not won a cup in 30 years and have just one cup victory in the last 84 years. Madison Square Garden might be the Mecca, but it is not exactly the title town.

The Rangers open up the Eastern Conference final Wednesday night against the Florida Panthers, a team that went 2-1 against them during the regular season.

The road only gets tougher moving forward for a team that won 55 games and the President's Trophy in the regular season. Dispatched from Washington and then Carolina in the first two rounds.

But in the next two rounds, this is when legends are born in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

This Rangers team was built for this series and another. It was years in the making, after a rebuild, trades, drafts, player development, coaching and regime changes.

The longest-tenured Ranger is winger Chris Kreider, which is why so many celebrated his natural hat trick in the series-clinching victory over the Hurricanes. But this series is about Panarin, Mika Trocheck and Fox.

Florida has just as much firepower, if not more, in Matthew Tkachuk, Barkov, Reinhart, Tarasenko and Verhaeghe. They won 52 games and had 110 points in the regular season. Their puck possession, speed, play-making ability and grinding physical nature will challenge the Rangers for sure.

The Rangers do have a slight edge in goal with Igor Shesterkin.

Buckle up, folks; this will be an absolute war between two great hockey teams that both feel it is their time.

Now, it is on the Ranger stars to truly shine when the games matter the most, and the time is now.

Until next time, New York, I'm Marc Malusis.