MIAMI — Texas Rangers pitcher Max Scherzer believes he cleared an initial hurdle toward returning to the club after his bullpen session in Miami on Saturday.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner has not pitched for the defending World Series champions this season following back surgery in December.

Scherzer threw approximately 25 pitches before the Rangers’ second game of their series against the Miami Marlins. If he continues to show no ill effects, the next step would be for Scherzer to face hitters in a batting practice session.

“That’s completely determined on how I recover,” Scherzer said Sunday. “You can’t get ahead of yourself. All you can do is do this, your body responds, and you do more. I felt great. I felt I finally turned a corner on this.”

Scherzer attempted an earlier return last month but was sidelined by another setback. He experienced soreness in the thumb of his throwing hand after a minor league rehab outing April 24 and was transferred to the 60-day injured list May 15.

“My arm has always been fine,” Scherzer said. “Now it’s like the search engine light just won’t go off. There is something wrong with the engine. We addressed it, and now everything is flying on all cylinders. Now I can ramp up.”

The 39-year-old Scherzer, who has won 214 games over a 16-year career, joined the Rangers at the trade deadline last season. Scherzer made eight starts with Texas during its American League pennant-winning run. He started the third game of the World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks but was lifted after three scoreless innings because of his back.

“We’ll see what the next move is,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “We’re looking at facing hitters, live [batting practice] deal. That’s not etched in stone. So I have to get with the trainer and with Scherzer and see if he’s ready for that.”

SUNRISE, Fla. — The New York Rangers didn’t see this end coming.

They were the Presidents’ Trophy winners on the strength of a 114-point regular season. They breezed by the Washington Capitals and defeated the Carolina Hurricanes handily to reach an Easten Conference final against the Florida Panthers.

But that’s where it all fell apart for the Rangers, who lost 2-1 in Game 6 of their series on Saturday night, eliminated from the postseason in the third round for the second time in three seasons.

“What we built as a team here, it just felt special this year,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “It felt like we had something in this room. It was a bond. [It’s] probably too soon to elaborate more.”

Trouba, in particular, came under fire for his performance on Saturday. New York’s rugged defenseman misread a play at his team’s blue line late in the first period, allowing Evan Rodrigues to feed Sam Bennett for Florida’s opening score.

That was Bennett fourth goal in the series, tying teammate Matthew Tkachuk‘s franchise record for most markers in a conference final in Panthers’ history. His three-game goal streak also tied a Panthers playoff record.

Trouba’s slow reaction contributed to the Rangers being in an early deficit they never overcame. Vladimir Tarasenko scored his first goal of the conference final — against the veteran’s former team to boot — midway through the third period to give Florida a 2-0 lead.

By the time Artemi Panarin notched his first of the series — with New York having already pulled goalie Igor Shesterkin — there was just 1:39 remaining. Too little, too late from one of the Rangers’ stars who had failed when it mattered most.

It wasn’t just Panarin, though. Mika Zibanejad didn’t score against Florida. He and Chris Kreider — who had one short-handed tally in the series — combined for only three shots in Game 6. And while Panarin broke through eventually, his line with Vincent Trocheck — who led the Rangers in postseason points with 20 — and Alexis Lafreniere were stymied by the Panthers all night.

New York lost on Saturday its third straight game by a single goal. Shesterkin’s excellence — he posted a .935 save percentage and a 2.25 goals-against average in the series — simply wasn’t enough to continually overcome the Rangers’ inability to get pucks past the Panthers.

“[After] one-goal games, you think about every little play, every missed opportunity, every mistake,” defenseman Adam Fox said. “It hurts. When games are that tight, it sits with you, every little play you maybe could’ve done differently.”

Shesterkin earned accolades from both dressing rooms following the loss, and Florida’s coach Paul Maurice compared the goalie’s showing to a legendary run from the NHL’s Hart Trophy winner in 2002.

“I haven’t seen a series by a goaltender like that since [former Montreal Canadiens goaltender] Jose Theodore in 2002,” Maurice said. “He was brilliant in this series. He was pretty good.”

It was the rest of New York’s lineup not providing enough backup. The Rangers never found the right formula to rattle Florida. And New York’s momentum-sucking power play didn’t help matters. The Rangers were 0-for-1 with the extra man in Game 6 and 1-for-15 in the series, a long drop from the club which held the league’s third-best power play in the regular season (26.4%) and entered the series even better (at 29.7% in the playoffs).

New York stumbled too often. And there was no comeback magic left in the Rangers — despite them having earned an NHL-record 34 come-from-behind victories in the regular season and six more in the postseason.

“They got to their game more consistently,” Kreider said. “They were dialed in on what they were doing.”

The loss could signal changes for the Rangers. It’s an unsettling feeling for New York to sit with given the promise of this season and how swiftly it ended with a thud.

“The culture we built here, the camaraderie, that’s something we’re going to have to turn over,” Fox said. “It sucks to think this year is over, but what we built is strong.”

New York hoped to be heading home for a Game 7. Instead it will return with unanswered questions about what’s next.

“Our guys fought this year; they bought in right from the start,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “We make it to this point and it’s disappointing. When you start something like this … you do it to go the whole way. So there’s a disappointment right now that sets in with our group and our intentions we had throughout the year. Nobody was expecting to be on this end of it.”

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Prince of Wales Trophy was carried onto the ice when time expired, as an arena filled with Florida Panthers fans roared in delight and dozens of players and staffers rushed over to pose with the prize.

Last year, the Panthers touched the trophy.

This year, they didn’t. The message was clear. The Stanley Cup is the only one they want.

For the second straight year, they have a chance at hockey’s greatest prize. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 shots, Sam Bennett and Vladimir Tarasenko scored, and the Panthers are headed to the Stanley Cup Final again after beating the New York Rangers 2-1 on Saturday night.

“We touched it last year and it didn’t work for us,” Bennett said of ignoring the trophy, the one presented to the Eastern Conference champions. “So, we thought we’d try something different this year.”

The Panthers — who lost the Cup finals to Vegas last year — won the East title series in six games. Florida will face either Edmonton or Dallas for the Cup, that series is set to start on June 8.

“It is hard to play, but we like to think it is harder to play against. It takes a lot of buy-in, a lot of hard work,” Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk said of his team’s style during his on-ice, postgame interview on ESPN. “We have worked so hard since training camp and practices. We are really happy to be back. It is special for us to be back in this position after such a tough loss last year.

“I remember going around in the locker room after the loss in Game 5 [to the Golden Knights], going on and telling everyone that we will be back. Well, we are back right now. We are really excited.”

Artemi Panarin scored with 1:40 left, and Igor Shesterkin stopped 32 shots for the Rangers, who had a 2-1 lead in the series — then lost three straight, costing them their season. It was New York’s longest losing streak since mid-January and means that, for the 11th consecutive year, the team that finished with the NHL’s best regular-season record won’t go on to win the Stanley Cup.

“Listen, our guys fought this year,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “They bought in right from the start. It’s disappointing; when you start something like this you don’t do it to get three wins in the playoffs or five wins in the playoffs. You do it to go the whole way.”

If Edmonton — which leads the West finals 3-2 — advances, Game 1 of the title round will be on Florida’s ice. If Dallas wins the West, the Stars will have home-ice advantage for the title series. The Oilers can clinch that series Sunday night.

Florida will play for the Stanley Cup for the third time. The Panthers were swept by Colorado in 1996 and lost 4-1 to Vegas last season. It’s also the third time in the finals for Panthers coach Paul Maurice, who lost with Carolina in 2002 and then with Florida last year.

Maybe the third time is the charm for them both.

“My enjoyment of the game — and this is new for me — comes from my understanding that I’m really not that important here,” said Maurice, who, at 57, is bidding to be the second-oldest coach to win his first Stanley Cup; Bruce Cassidy was 58 when Vegas gave him his first title last year. “And I mean that. There’s a great line, ‘Don’t be so humble, you’re not that good.’ It’s the players. And when they’re going, they don’t need me.”

Florida’s win meant it has now been five consecutive seasons that a team from the Sunshine State won the Eastern Conference; Tampa Bay won the Prince of Wales Trophy in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and now Florida has gone back-to-back. The Panthers also are now the 15th active NHL franchise to make the Cup finals in consecutive seasons.

The Panthers also ousted the regular season’s best team — the Presidents’ Trophy winner — for the second consecutive year. Last season, Florida stunned Boston in Round 1, winning Game 7 on the road. This time, it was the Rangers who fell to Florida, which became the first franchise to eliminate the No. 1 overall seed in consecutive years since Pittsburgh did it to Washington in 2016 and 2017.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said. “I thought we tried to throw everything we had. It just wasn’t enough today.”

And for Bobrovsky, taking down No. 1 is evidently his thing.

He was in net to beat the top overall seed for the third time in six years — the Rangers this year, the Bruins last year and Tampa Bay when he was in Columbus in 2019.

“We were right there,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “We just came up short.”

Bennett opened the scoring in the final minute of the first period, sending the puck to Evan Rodrigues, getting it back and one-timing a shot over Shesterkin’s glove into the upper right corner of the net. It was the third straight game with a goal for Bennett, matching his longest streak of the season and marking the first time he’s had such a run in a postseason.

Bennett had a takeaway near the blue line with about five minutes left in the second period that created a great chance, one that had Matthew Tkachuk skating down the slot with only Shesterkin in front of him. Shesterkin made a toe save, though Tkachuk didn’t get much on the shot since Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller swung from behind and hit him in the wrist with his stick just before the shot got off.

Tarasenko was alone on the side of the net midway through the third for an easy one, making it 2-0.

The Rangers didn’t go quietly. Shesterkin went to the bench with 2:24 left and Panarin scored 44 seconds later, cutting the Florida lead in half. But the Panthers killed off the rest of the clock, and with that, the celebration was on.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.