The great thing about the current format of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is that you are guaranteed to see a team that you’ve seen so many times in the first couple of rounds. We saw it in the last round with another pass at the Islanders, and we’re going to get it again with the series against the Rangers. It’ll be the third time in five seasons that the Canes will have faced the Rangers in postseason play, and if not for the Rangers stumbling against the Devils last season it would have been the fourth.
The two teams have been circling each other since that 2022 season.