2024 Eastern Conference Final Odds & Preview
Rangers eye first Cup Final berth since ‘14; Panthers looking to repeat as East champions

The Florida Panthers will try to continue the Sunshine State’s reign of dominance when they square off against the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final.
The Panthers are the reigning Eastern Conference champs and back in the final four for the second straight year. Florida rolled its in-state rival Tampa Bay Lightning in five games in the first round then took down the Boston Bruins in six games in the second round.
A team from Florida has represented the conference in the past four Stanley Cup Finals. The Lightning won the East in three straight seasons before last, winning consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021.
The Rangers are the last team to potentially deny the Panthers a second straight Cup Final berth. New York, which won the Metropolitan Division and Presidents’ Trophy with a 114-point campaign, is 8-2 in the playoffs, reaching the ECF with a sweep of the Washington Capitals and six-game series win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
Game 1 of the best-of-7 series will be Wednesday at Madison Square Garden. Here’s what fans and bettors can expect, the NHL odds breakdown for the 2024 Eastern Conference Final.
Florida Panthers vs New York Rangers 
Day/Time:
Location: Madison Square Garde, NY
Streaming:
Rangers An Underdog Again
New York finished with the NHL’s most regular-season points and will have the home-ice advantage for the third straight series after its four-point advantage over Florida in the NHL Eastern Conference standings.
Still, the Rangers are an underdog for the second straight series. They were about a +140 underdog in the second round against the Hurricanes and have +130 odds to win the Eastern Conference against Florida — a 43.8% implied probability.
The Rangers could very well represent the East since they have been opportunistic. New York has a 31.4% power play, third-best in the NHL and second of the remaining playoff teams, and 11 of New York’s 35 postseason goals have come on the power play.
Plus, New York’s penalty kill has chipped in a playoff-high four short-handed goals in 10 NHL games.
Still, the Panthers are a worthy favorite. They have arguably the East’s deepest roster, which features Selke Trophy winner Aleksander Barkov, Rocket Richard Trophy runner-up Sam Reinhart and Vezina Trophy finalist Sergei Bobrovsky, plus pesky superstar Matthew Tkachuk, who finished second on the team with 88 points and has 14 points in the playoffs.
Fourteen different Panthers players have scored a playoff goal, and they have been an elite 5-on-5 team, scoring 28 of their 39 goals at even strength.
Unlike the Hurricanes, the Panthers haven’t had the yips on the road in the playoffs — they’re 4-1 in away games this postseason and have won 12 of 17 playoff games away from Sunrise over the past two playoff years.
New York will need to remain opportunistic, but that won’t be easy against the Florida PK, which ranks third in the NHL in the playoffs (86.1%). If you’re checking NHL scores for the series, these should be tight, low-scoring games.
Regular Season Series
The Panthers won two out of the teams’ three matchups and earned five of a possible six points against the Rangers. They also scored at least three goals in every game, though New York backup goalie Jonathan Quick played in the teams’ first meeting, a 4-3 Florida win on Dec. 29 in Sunrise.
The Rangers’ lone victory came in a 4-3 result in a shootout March 23 at MSG.
New York’s power play scored three times on nine man advantages against the Panthers during the regular season and limited Florida’s power play to just two goals on eight man-advantage opportunities.
Bobrovsky had a .919 save% against the Rangers, stopping 91 of 99 shots in the three games. Shesterkin had an uncharacteristic .898 save% against the Panthers in his two regular-season starts.
Goaltending the X-Factor
Even though Bobrovsky is a Vezina finalist, the Rangers could have the advantage in net.
Igor Shesterkin has been New York’s most important player, leading all playoff goalies in saves per game (29.8) and sitting second behind only Boston’s Jeremy Swayman in goals-saved above average (6.12).
Shesterkin drastically outplayed Carolina’s tandem of Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov in the second round. Shesterkin finished with a .923 save% in the second round, superior to Carolina’s combined number of .901.
Bobrovsky has been solid in these playoffs but not as dominant as he was when he carried the Panthers to the Cup Final. The veteran has the fourth-best goals-against average (2.37) among qualifying playoff goalies, but his GSAA (-0.47) and save% (.902) are just OK.
Still, Florida has already taken down Swayman, arguably the hottest goalie in the field, which makes it capable of doing the same to Shesterkin. Florida is scoring 3.55 goals per game in the playoffs and outshooting opponents by an average of 33-24 per game, and for all his dominance, Shesterkin allowed at least three goals in five of the six games against the Hurricanes.
Florida just needs Bobrovsky to make all the saves he’s supposed to, and the Panthers should win.
Power Outages
The Rangers power play has gotten them to this point, but they may end up meeting their match in the conference final.
Florida has the third-best penalty kill in the playoffs to this point since it has given up just five power-play goals against in 36 short-handed opportunities. It has given up just one goal in its past 19 power plays against and has two short-handed goals in that span, with Barkov and Brandon Montour each scoring man-down goals.
The Rangers power play was third-best in the NHL Team Stats during the regular season but scuffled down the stretch in the Carolina series. After starting the playoffs 10 for 23 with the man advantage, New York closed the second round with just one goal in its final 10 PPs.
New York’s aggressive penalty kill held Carolina’s second-ranked PP to just two goals on 21 power plays during the second round. The Rangers have the second-best PK in the playoffs at 89.5%, which is why they are in the third round.
For all the high-end skill, Florida has a middle-of-the-pack power play in the postseason. The Panthers PP is rolling at 22%, eighth-best among the 16 playoff teams, and was 6 for 29 (20.7%) against Boston — though that was buoyed by four power-play goals in Game 3.
Each side has a dominant PK, but the Panthers will still want to stay out of the box since they have the better 5-on-5 team. Florida has a dominant 54.23% Corsi-For at 5-on-5 in the playoffs and has outscored its opposition 28-21 at even strength.
The Rangers have the worst-remaining 5-on-5 Corsi-For percentage (45.8%) and have actually been outscored at even strength, 22-20, in the playoffs. They will want to take advantage of their man advantage as often as possible.
Prediction
It’s tough to make NHL predictions this time of the year, but Florida is playing like a team on a mission. It should handle the Rangers.
Panthers in 6.
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