Florida Panthers center Sam Reinhart. Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

Panthers, Rangers haven't slowed down despite injuries to key players

Originally posted on Daily Faceoff | By Hunter Crowther | Last updated 11/22/23

Happy U.S. Thanksgiving! If you’re Canadian, well, take the opportunity to enjoy more turkey!

On the National Hockey League calendar, U.S. Thanksgiving has become an unofficial marker of the league being one quarter into the season. Some around the game say that if you don’t have a playoff spot or aren’t close to one at this point, you likely won’t be playing postseason hockey this spring.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli shares two teams out of the Eastern Conference who have changed his opinion of them the most the first six weeks of the regular season: the Florida Panthers and the New York Rangers.

Frank Seravalli: I have to admit, I was completely wrong about the Florida Panthers. I thought they would be in a spot similar to what the Edmonton Oilers are in right now: a good team with deficiencies, needing to have a monster final 60 games of the season to get back in the playoff race.

They were missing their top-two defenseman in Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour. Those guys are now back, and not only did the Panthers survive, they have thrived on the back of a ridiculous offense. Sam Reinhart is having an unreal season, they’ve had competent goaltending and guys like Oliver Ekman-Larsson have picked up the slack and played 23 minutes a night.

Another team that’s completely changed my view of them, by way of their coaching change, has been the New York Rangers. We had been talking for the last few seasons about Gerard Gallant, how loosey-goosey this team was in front Igor Shesterkin, and how over-reliant they were on Shesterkin to bail them out on most nights.

They’ve got an incredible defensive core, they’re extremely mobile, they’ve buttoned things up in a big way under Peter Laviolette, and their offense continues to shine. Artemi Panarin is a Hart Trophy-candidate to start the year. Those are two teams in the East that I think have been incredible to start, and have really changed my view of them, in terms of how we think of them as a Cup contender.