The New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens will face off in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 1996 when New York won the series in six games. However, there is a great deal more at stake this season as both sides will do battle in the Easter Conference Finals.

How they get here
The Rangers have played a league-leading 14 playoff games and have managed to overcome two long seven-game series in the state of Pennsylvania. The team ousted the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 after blowing a series lead three times. They topped that performance by eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins after coming back from a 3-1 deficit and conceding just three goals in the final three games.

Montreal swept the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round before taking down the Boston Bruins in a heated seven-game series.

P.K. Subban leads Montreal with 12 points this playoff season while Brad Richards leads the Rangers with nine points.

Season Series
The teams met for the first time on Oct. 28 in New York; Montreal managed a 2-0 win with a shutout from backup Peter Budaj. The second meeting of the season as also a shutout in which backup Cam Talbot stopped 19 shots in a 1-0 win. Canadiens' goalie Carey Price stopped 33 shots in the loss. The final game of the season between the two clubs came on April 12, when Montreal defeated the Rangers 1-0 in overtime; Price made 41 saves in the shutout. The Rangers outshot Montreal in two of three games; the two sides got 27 shots apiece in the first meeting.

Forwards
The Rangers forward group is a rather deep team that features Richards, Martin St. Louis, Derek Stephan, Rick Nash, Benoit Pouliot and Mats Zuccarello among others. Richards leads the team in scoring this postseason while St. Louis, Pouliot and Zuccarello each have eight points.

The team needs more contributions from Nash who has yet to score a single goal in the postseason and has one goal in 26 playoff games for the Rangers. He was the team's leading goal scorer during the regular season with 26 goals.

Montreal's collection of forwards features Max Pacioretty, Lars Eller, Thomas Vanek, Daniel Briere, David Desharnais, Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Plekanec among others. Briere is arguably the team's best playoff performer with 115 points in 118 career playoff games. He has not gotten much ice time in the postseason this year, but has proven lethal (as Boston can attest in Game 7) when given a chance. Vanek has been golden for Montreal in these playoffs with eight points in 11 games including three power play goals. Eller and Gallagher lead the forward group with nine points each.

Edge: Even

Defense
The Rangers' defense is arguably the deeper of the two with such blue liners as Aton Stralman, Marc Staal, Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi among others. The four have combined for three goals but have been terrific in shutting down such top stars as Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux. McDonagh averages more minutes than any other Rangers' defender

Montreal's top defenders include Subban and Josh Gorges. Subban has been one of the best players in the entire playoffs with 12 points and four goals; he has seven power play points thus far and is a big reason why Montreal's power play is clicking. The second pair of Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin is a solid shutdown pair that usually starts in the defensive zone.

Edge: NY Rangers, but not by much

Goalies
Henrik Lundqvist is tied for the league lead in save percentage with .931. He was dominant in the last three games against the Penguins and only allowed three goals in the entire stretch. More importantly, he is 4-0 in elimination games this season and is the main reason why the Rangers have made it this far in the postseason.

Price has been just as good these playoffs with a .926 save percentage. He was not particularly special in the four-game sweep of the Lightning but was stellar against the Boston Bruins and only had a sub .929 save percentage in two of the seven games. He has only conceded one goal in the last two games and was the biggest reason why the team eliminated the Bruins in Game 7.

Edge: Even

Special Teams
The Canadiens' power play has connected 26.3 percent of the time; the team has 10 power play goals in 38 chances. Vanek has three power play goals while Subban has seven power play points.

Meanwhile, the Rangers' power play has been abysmal in the postseason with only a 10.9 percent conversion rate. The team struggled throughout most of the Flyers and early part of the Penguins series on the power play but turned things around in Game 5 thanks to a goal from Chris Kreider on the man-advantage. The team's Game 7 winner was also scored on the power play by Brad Richards.

On the penalty kill, the Rangers have a slightly better statline with an 82.9 success rate when down by a man. The team dominated the Penguins in this regard and only conceded one power play goal in the entire seven-game series. On the flipside, the Rangers have been in the box 41 times thus far.

The Canadiens' penalty kill is slightly worse and has stopped 80 percent of the opposition's power plays thus far. Montreal is one of the lowest penalized teams in the postseason thus far and has gone to the box just 25 times.  

Edge: Montreal Canadiens

Why Rangers will win:
The Rangers rallied around St. Louis' personal tragedy and smothered the Penguins in the final three games of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Moreover, the team rallied from a 3-1 deficit and should feel confident. Look for the team to continue building its confidence in front of Lundqvist, who is thirsty for the Cup at this stage in his career.

Why Canadiens will win:
The team is coming off an emotional series win and Price is playing at the top of his game. Subban has also emerged as a hero and seems to love playing for the team. Vanek has added some much-needed goal scoring and seems to be a major piece moving forward. Throw in the fact that Montreal has rarely looked weak in the playoffs and you have a team of destiny.