The matchup between the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes is arguably one of the most unpredictable of all the play-in series. There's enough talent on both teams to make some serious noise in the playoffs, but only one will advance.

The Hurricanes finished the regular season with a better record, but this series may be more even than many think. Let's break it down.

Schedule

*If necessary

Tale of the tape

Season series

The Rangers dominated the Hurricanes, sweeping the season series 4-0. New York didn't even concede a point to Carolina, winning all four games in regulation.

Key players to watch

Sebastian Aho

It's hard to believe Aho turned only 23 years old last week. The young Finnish star has now strung together two straight elite seasons, recording 68 goals and 151 points over his last 150 games. In what should be a high-flying series, the Hurricanes will need Aho to be at the top of his game.

The majority of the Hurricanes' scoring comes from their top line, which features Aho centering Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen. The trio combined for 77 markers this season, accounting for 40% of the club's goals. Among forwards who have logged 800-plus minutes of ice time this season, Aho ranks eighth in Corsi For rating at 56.79. Teravainen and Svechnikov rank just ahead of him in sixth and seventh, respectively.

Aho creates magic, and he proved himself in his first taste of the playoffs last season, posting 12 points in 15 contests. The Hurricanes play a sound defensive game, but they'll depend on Aho and the top line to generate offense.

Mika Zibanejad

Most will focus on Hart Trophy nominee Artemi Panarin when analyzing the Rangers, but Zibanejad deserves a lot of attention, too. It's clear what Panarin brings to the table, but Zibanejad showed this season he's just as dangerous when hot.

The 27-year-old led the Rangers with 41 goals despite playing only 57 games. The center's goals-per-game rate (0.72) was the NHL's best this season. He was arguably the league's hottest player before the campaign was paused on March 12, racking up 25 goals and 44 points in the 31 games since Jan. 1.

New York now hopes Zibanejad picks up where he left off, as beating the Rangers will be much more difficult if he catches fire.

Hurricanes can win if ...

The Hurricanes need to stick to their identity. Carolina is a pesky team that can play both sides of the puck extremely well and strike at any moment.

The Canes are one of the league's best possession teams. They rank 11th in goals for and 11th in goals against. Their power play is the league's eighth-best, while the team's penalty kill ranks fourth.

Carolina is an extremely balanced squad, and the Hurricanes can play a different style depending on their opponent or the game situation. The Rangers will certainly have their hands full.

Rangers can win if ...

It may be a tough pill to swallow for Rangers fans, but rookie netminder Igor Shesterkin needs to be in net for most of the series for New York to have a chance. The Russian phenom only played in 12 games this season, but he went 10-2-0 with a great .932 save percentage.

The Rangers allowed a lot of goals while spending plenty of time in the defensive zone this campaign. They ranked 23rd in goals against per game (3.14), 28th in five-on-five Corsi For (46.73%), and allowed the ninth-most shots on goal (1,789).

As good as Henrik Lundqvist has been in the past, the Hurricanes will test the Rangers often. Yes, he played extremely well in three games against Carolina this season. But the 38-year-old is coming off his worst statistical campaign. Nearly eight months after his last game versus Carolina, it will be a whole new story in the qualifying round.

With a guaranteed back-to-back game in the series, Lundqvist should get at least one start. Overall, though, Shesterkin is much more capable of weathering the storm in a short series with little room for error.

X-factors

Jaccob Slavin

When Dougie Hamilton went down with a broken leg in January, Slavin stepped up to fill the gap on the blue line, playing significant minutes in mostly a shutdown defensive role. But he also chipped in offensively with six goals and 30 assists.

He ranked sixth among all players in shorthanded ice time, and Slavin is a large reason why Carolina boasts one of the league's best penalty kills. With Hamilton nursing a new injury and possibly unavailable for most of the qualifying round, Slavin will need to step up once again.

Tony DeAngelo

DeAngelo produced a breakout year with the Rangers this season, recording 15 goals and adding 38 assists in 68 games. He finished the campaign ranked fourth among all defensemen in points.

The 24-year-old can be a bit of a defensive liability. He starts nearly 60% of his shifts in the offensive zone, but that's not necessarily an issue. If he can continue his elite offensive play and help keep the puck in the Hurricanes' zone as much as possible, DeAngelo will be a very valuable asset for the Rangers.

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Paul Maurice has a theory about the rhythm of a new hockey season.

"It's kind of like when you're (horsing around) with your brother," the longtime Jets head coach said. "You start pushing and then next thing you know you're throwing haymakers. There's no play-fighting in hockey."

Maurice's analogy carries extra weight in these strange times for the NHL. The league plans to stage a compact 24-team postseason tournament - beginning Saturday - following a nearly five-month break, which is the approximate length of the offseason for non-playoff teams in a normal, non-pandemic year. The 16 teams that face elimination right away are going to have to go from zero to haymakers quickly.

"It's not October, where you can go, 'OK, we had a slow start but we found our game,'" Stars interim head coach Rick Bowness said. "You don't have that luxury. If you're looking for your game going into these playoffs, it's going to be a short ride."

While attention in the lead-up to the qualifying round has centered on how players are adapting to unprecedented conditions, coaches are also wrestling with the various unknowns associated with the restart. This is all new to them, too.

Near the top of the list of unknowns is the kind of hockey ahead. Should we be anticipating the looseness and fast pace of a typical October, when goal-scoring traditionally rises? Or will we see tightness and physicality that typically resembles April, when scoring dips?

"You could have a hybrid," Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said. "I think there'll be a little bit of - what do you call it? - early sloppiness in games, but I also think there'll be a great emphasis put on detail, doing things right, making sure you're not beating yourselves. You're in the playoffs, so if you beat yourself you're going to regret it."

There's a fine line between adopting a collective mindset that's proactive instead of reactionary; the last thing a team wants to do is gift wrap wins for its opponent.

"Mistakes lose you games, so that'll be the focus, I'm sure, of all 24 teams," Tippett added.

Nashville's John Hynes is one of six playoff head coaches hired or promoted during the shortened 2019-20 regular season. He was on the job two months before everything stopped. Training camp 2.0 allowed him to drill down on systematic details, practice habits, and overarching philosophies. Hynes knows his players and the West better now, but he's as unsure as anybody about what the on-ice product will look like once games that matter resume.

"You've gone through training camps where every team's only had one exhibition game (scheduled Tuesday through Thursday) and there's a lot of time off. Sometimes that may (result in) some looseness or some mistakes, especially with the intensity level that I think everyone's going to be able to play with, and the energy level that guys are going to (bring every shift)," said Hynes, who joined the Predators after more than four years in the East with the Devils.

Another wrinkle of the restart has been the liberal use of scrimmages.

Coaching staffs around the league varied in how frequently they used them to replicate game-like situations. Some were longer and more intense than others, resembling actual games. The Maple Leafs went as far as hiring AHL-level officials for practices, only to be told by the league that doing so created an unfair advantage. The experiment lasted just one day.

Unlike a normal NHL preseason - which can drag on thanks to roughly two weeks of team workouts followed by an eight-game exhibition schedule - each club's time, energy, and resources have been directed solely towards the present. Each team gets a single exhibition game in the restart, making it incredibly valuable.

"This (camp) feels completely different, and it's not the fact that it's July," Maurice - who's coached 1,600 regular-season NHL games - said late last week. "I've almost got the opposite (mentality). I was concerned coming into camp, not knowing what to expect, that we were going to have a hard time grabbing these guys' attention. And then by the third day I realized they all understand we've got to get ready for playoff games. It's been, I'm going to say, more focused than a normal training camp."

Rod Brind'Amour and his Hurricanes assistants kept Week 1 of camp on a familiar track. Players heard plenty about themselves, receiving refreshers on the ice and in the video room about how to navigate various in-game situations. But by the second week, some of the attention shifted towards studying the rival Rangers, who beat Carolina 4-0 in the season series.

"In (a normal) training camp, you're not even talking about the other teams, ever," Brind'Amour said. "So, now, you have to start (a week out). You're talking about the other team because the games count so much right away."

Information about the playoff format leaked a month ago, providing staffs with far more scouting runway than usual. The Hurricanes should be fully prepared to defend against Hart Trophy finalist Artemi Panarin and the Rangers in their best-of-five series. Dallas, one of the top four teams in the West, will compete in a three-game round-robin series against the Avalanche, Blues, and Golden Knights, so Bowness assigned one team to each of his three assistants. Dallas' full pre-scout was already finalized, he said last week.

Mind you, there is danger in having too much time on your hands.

"I've seen different scenarios where I think the overpreparation was paralysis by analysis," Tippett said. "I've been a big believer that you better make sure your team is up and going at their full max, their full strength, because it doesn't matter what your team does if you're not going to play to your capabilities."

Said Maurice: "We all have our networks, so when (the schedule) comes out, you call your guys, other NHL head coaches or assistant coaches that you know, and you just start throwing around ideas." But, he later warns: "You've got to be ready because your pre-scout doesn't matter. The systems at the end of the day will not matter if your team cannot play at the pace of the game. So (that's) your (No. 1) priority."

From a health perspective, NHL coaches had a difficult decision to make before teams congregated for camps July 13, and then again over the weekend when teams departed for hubs in Edmonton and Toronto. COVID-19 is believed to have a greater impact on older people and 16 of the 24 head coaches are at least 50 years old. (Panthers assistant coach Mike Kitchen, who's 64, opted out of the restart prior to Phase 3.)

Officially, the NHL doesn't require coaches to wear a mask behind the bench. A few them, though, including 56-year-old Rick Tocchet, have been taking precautions, like wearing a face covering during on-ice sessions.

Which brings up yet another question about this unique scenario: How will the absence of fans affect a coach's job in the Stanley Cup Playoffs?

"I'm not a big barker on the bench," Tocchet said with a smile. "I will a little. But I'll probably be a little louder (now). Less screaming and more talking to help out the team, to tell the guys that the guy by the bench has time with the puck, or to change and get a guy off the ice. (Normally) I might yell, and you're in some of these buildings where they can't hear the coach because of the fans. The players like to use that as an excuse, right? 'I didn't hear you, coach! It was the fan noise!' Now they know. If I want them off the ice, they're going to hear me."

Coaches, the most detailed-oriented people in the hockey community, are pondering even the modulation of their voices as the NHL attempts to crown a champion in 2020.

"You can do a lot more coaching between timeouts now if the music isn't too loud. A lot of times that becomes a little bit of a hindrance," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper wondered aloud last week after a scrimmage. "In watching what I just went through now, it might actually make the game easier for the (players). Now, in saying that, for players that really play to the crowd, maybe it'll affect them a little bit? I'll be honest, once that puck dropped, it wasn't even a factor of thinking about the fans. Guys were so dialed into the game. They may not even notice."

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

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The Vegas Golden Knights have arrived in their hub city of Edmonton, but they're missing their top scorer.

Max Pacioretty did not accompany his team into the bubble, instead staying behind in Las Vegas.

"Max had a minor injury in training camp, which we told you guys about," Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer said Monday, according to The Athletic's Jesse Granger. "I expected he would be back by the end of the camp, but he wasn't. It was a little longer than we thought. He's not with us, and he'll join us as soon as he's healthy and able to participate."

Training camps around the league wrapped up over the weekend, and the Golden Knights arrived in Alberta on Sunday night.

Pacioretty last practiced with the club on July 19, according to Granger. One day later, the skilled winger was deemed "unfit to participate," and a couple of days after that, DeBoer said he expected Pacioretty to rejoin the team before it left for Edmonton.

The 31-year-old led the Golden Knights with 32 goals and 66 points while playing in all 71 games, coming a single point shy of his career high while suiting up for 11 fewer contests than he would have played in a typical season.

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Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice believes eliminating travel during the 2019-20 postseason will result in high-quality action on the ice.

"If you look just at the opportunity to be great, for your team to feel good, to be healthy, and to drive at a very high level - which is playoff hockey on steroids - there's a chance that this is as good of hockey as I've ever seen," Maurice said of a postseason without travel, according to TSN.

The 24 teams involved in the league's restart arrived in their respective hub cities Sunday; the Eastern Conference's participants congregated in Toronto, while the Western Conference contingent gathered in Edmonton. The first slate of exhibition games is scheduled for Tuesday.

Maurice believes playing the majority of the postseason in one location will particularly benefit Western Conference clubs such as the Jets, who typically log more travel miles than Eastern Conference teams throughout the regular season.

"For a team like ours, that travel's a factor. You get off the plane at 2 or 3 in the morning enough times, it starts to set you back," Maurice said. "So these guys are going to be really well-rested, really well taken care of, (and) very very focused."

Winnipeg finished the regular season with a 37-28-6 record and will face the Calgary Flames in a best-of-five play-in series. Game 1 is set for Aug. 1.

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Evander Kane and P.K. Subban headline the 31 nominees for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 2019-20, the NHL announced Monday.

The NHL hands out the annual honor to the player "who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.”

Teams determine the nominees, and then a group of senior league executives led by commissioner Gary Bettman and his deputy, Bill Daly, select the winner. The three finalists will be named in early August, and this season's recipient will be announced during the conference finals.

Kane has been the leading voice among active NHL players in the fight against racial injustice and inequality. The San Jose Sharks forward is a co-head of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, which seven current and former players launched in June.

Subban has also been vocal about the cause and donated $50,000 to the fundraising campaign for George Floyd's daughter, Gianna, in early June. He then contacted the league and got them to match the amount. The New Jersey Devils defenseman has made several charitable donations in the past, most notably when he pledged $10 million to a Montreal hospital through his foundation in 2015.

Here's the full list:

Minnesota Wild forward Jason Zucker took home the award last season.

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The NHL administered 4,256 COVID-19 tests from July 18 to 25 with over 800 players tested, and zero positive results surfaced, the league announced Monday.

The league has been revealing results on a weekly basis leading up to its return. Last week, only two positive cases were confirmed.

All 24 teams in the expanded playoffs reported to their respective hub cities on Sunday. Western Conference teams traveled to Edmonton, while Eastern Conference squads arrived in Toronto.

Each club was permitted to bring 52 team members, including players and staff. Everybody will be tested on a daily basis inside the secure zones.

Exhibition games are set to begin Tuesday, with the qualifying round slated to kick off Aug. 1.

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David Pastrnak joined the Boston Bruins at the hub in Toronto, and he's likely to participate in practice Monday, head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed.

Pastrnak and teammate Ondrej Kase had missed the majority of the club's training camp while quarantining. Kase is expected to join the team in Toronto at a later date.

On July 17, Pastrnak's agent said his client was forced to quarantine after being in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, though the winger himself tested negative.

Pastrnak finished the season tied for the NHL lead with 48 goals in 70 games, adding 47 assists for a career-high 95 points. Cassidy said the All-Star isn't showing any signs of rust after missing practices.

"He looks great. Probably needs a haircut," the coach noted.

The Bruins enter the hub as the Eastern Conference's top seed. They're scheduled to play an exhibition game versus the Columbus Blue Jackets on July 30 before kicking off their round-robin tournament Aug. 2 against the Philadelphia Flyers.

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