The Eastern Conference Final is almost upon us and for the first time this postseason, we have an almost guaranteed idea of who will be starting in net for each team.

The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers have perhaps had the two hottest goaltenders all playoffs and that will probably continue into this round too.

A matchup featuring two top end teams is bound to be a fun one, so let’s take a look at who will be the goaltenders for this series.

Starters

Frederik Andersen

The go-to starter in Carolina’s crease will be none other than the Great Dane. Andersen has been tremendous this postseason, with some of the best stats in the league and he’ll be getting the chance to build on his success with the first start against the Panthers.

Andersen has been calm and cool in net, coming up big when he’s been called upon. He’s worked perfectly with Carolina’s defense to clear out pucks and facilitate breakouts and has been a stalwart presence. He was a bit shaky down the stretch against New Jersey, but that can be chocked up to a lack of continuous starts in the regular season and coming off of an illness.

He should be good to go, and if he keeps up his high level of play for Carolina, they’ll be sitting pretty this series.

Sergei Bobrovsky

Playoff Bob is back.

After a couple of disappointing seasons, Bobrovsky has been rock solid for the Panthers in the first two rounds of the postseason. While he did a decent job against the Boston Bruins, (because really it was the offense that won that series), he was incredible against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

If he can carry that momentum into this round, he’ll be a handful for the Canes.

However, his penalty kill numbers have not been great and the Panthers overall have struggled while down a man, perhaps an area Carolina can try to capitalize on.

Reserves

Antti Raanta

After a valiant first round series against the New York Islanders, Raanta has taken a back seat throughout the remainder of the playoffs. To be fair to him, he was ill for almost the entirety of the last round and so now that he’s healthy, there’s always the chance he could get in for a game depending on how things go.

But with the way Andersen is playing, that chance may be slim.

Pyotr Kochetkov

Kochetkov has gotten the short end of the stick this postseason, being simply the guy to take the beating when a game gets out of hand. His time will come, but that time is not now, especially with Andersen and Raanta both seemingly healthy and ready to go.

Alex Lyon

Yet another Hurricanes connection, Lyon got the Panthers to the postseason after Bob went down with an illness and even started the first few games against Boston before the starter job went back to Bobrovsky. Lyon is a calm and cool veteran, but odds that the Canes see him this series are slim with the way Florida's main man has been playing.