Panthers deserved to win this series and advance to the Stanley Cup Final. They were the better, bigger, heavier, stronger and hungrier team. Rangers were soft af and were scared and passive. Panthers initiated the play and were much more physical. Panthers spent a lot of offensive zone time in the rangers zone. They had the puck for most of the time.
Artemi Panarin, usually the most dangerous/skilled forward of the rangers, was completely invisible in this eastern conference final and only came out to play too late. He didn’t make any impact. He scored his only goal of the series in the last 2 minutes of the game. Too little, Too late!
They dominated and drove the play convincingly in four of the six games. The two games the panthers didn’t outrageously dominate ( game 2 and game 5) were close, back and forth see-saw affairs, they were games that both teams could have won.
Only Opportunistic counter-attack scoring, special teams(especially the power play) and excellent goaltending performances by Shesterkin kept the Rangers alive and made this series closer than it really was. Panthers dominated the rangers at even strength
in 84 years? There was the '94 Cup. What was the last chip before that? 
