FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Like their namesake mascot, the Florida Panthers are a uncommon breed.
The Panthers are bodily and feisty. Expert and speedy. As prone to outscore as outhit an opponent — maybe in the identical sport.
Florida could be an all-around overachiever. The workforce has top-tier expertise — on each side of the puck — with a killer intuition. It is an enviable mixture, one the Panthers used to separate from the pack these previous 12 months. However Florida wasn’t at all times so confident.
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There have been years when the Panthers had been an afterthought — a warm-weather novelty. However over time, Florida rewrote the narrative and grew right into a workforce with powerhouse potential.
However there was nonetheless one thing lacking: these key substances to take the Panthers from one-and-done playoff runs to perennial Stanley Cup contenders.
It did not occur in a single day. The adjustments had been deliberate and calculated. And what has come out of them is the Florida bruisers we see now, entrenched in a second consecutive Jap Convention finals bout, with a watch on making one other Cup Closing look — if they’ll vanquish the New York Rangers, who at present lead their best-of-seven, 2-1.
That is the primary time Florida has trailed in a postseason sequence this spring, after vanquishing the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins in 5 and 6 video games, respectively. They usually had a selected rhythm in these matchups: irritating, free-flowing and stuffed with finesse.
Florida is annoyingly incapable of being rattled. That is the Unhealthy Boy Panthers at their finest.
It has labored to this stage. Channeling that very same power possible is the components to get Florida again on the proper aspect of its battle with the Rangers.
STANLEY CUP WINNERS aren’t inbuilt a day. Neither was this model of the Panthers.
It was late Might 2022 and Florida was skating essentially the most gut-wrenching handshake line in franchise historical past.
The Panthers had compiled a 122-point common season to earn the Presidents’ Trophy because the membership with the most effective regular-season file. They had been purported to be Cup contenders. As a substitute, they’d been swept out of a second-round sequence by their in-state rival (and up to date two-time Cup champion) Tampa Bay Lightning.
That ending hit Florida arduous. The Panthers’ lineup was crammed with proficient skaters, led by Jonathan Huberdeau and his 115-point marketing campaign within the 2021-22 common season, meant to hold them to a proverbial subsequent degree. Huberdeau went dead-quiet within the playoffs although, producing one aim and 5 factors in 10 video games — and including simply two helpers towards the Lightning.
Florida gave the impression to be spinning its wheels. Regardless of incomes regular-season success, the Panthers hadn’t superior previous the second spherical in a playoff sequence since dropping within the 1996 Stanley Cup Closing. Heck, the Panthers had made solely six postseason appearances complete since that defeat.
Florida wanted a shift. It went with one thing seismic.
It was late July 2022, almost two months to the day since Florida’s playoff loss. The Panthers had already parted methods with interim head coach Andrew Brunette and introduced in veteran bench boss Paul Maurice. Change was underway.
After which got here the believe-it-or-not headline: Huberdeau — together with defenseman MacKenzie Weegar — had been traded by Florida to Calgary for Matthew Tkachuk, who was additionally signed to an eight-year extension price $9.5 million per season.
The Panthers shifting on from Huberdeau was surprising, however totally intriguing. It isn’t typically a workforce trades its silky-smooth main scorer after the best marketing campaign of his profession, and even much less widespread to focus on a “pest” like Tkachuk in return.
However Tkachuk was extra than simply the Flames’ agitating playmaker; he was additionally coming off a career-best season with 42 targets and 102 factors. The swap signaled Florida was prepared for a redo, taking its first step towards crafting an id that, as soon as outlined and embraced, may propel the Panthers farther than they’d been in 25 years.
THERE’S SOMETHING ASPIRATIONAL about how Florida performs the sport. One thing particular.
Boston Bruins ahead James van Riemsdyk noticed it firsthand within the Bruins’ second-round playoff sequence, when the Panthers despatched Boston packing for the second yr in a row. Florida managed to out-Bruin the Bruins with snarl, sass and ability. The intestine punch proved deadly for Boston’s postseason hopes, a harsh actuality for van Riemsdyk to revisit whereas additionally respecting how the Panthers put up such a combat.
“They’ve a variety of good gamers, however there’s that sure additional degree of … I do not know if nastiness is the proper phrase, however simply that aggressive kind of spirit,” van Riemsdyk stated. “A variety of these guys have that as one in all their prime attributes, that kind of in-your-face fashion that they play. They are a bodily workforce and could be an agitating workforce due to being in your face and underneath your pores and skin. That, mixed with all of the ability and the skating ranges and hockey sense these guys have, it is the important thing mixture with their group.”
That wasn’t at all times Florida’s calling card. The commerce for Tkachuk appeared to let the Panthers pivot. Not that their outcomes had been seamless instantly.
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Florida began poorly in Tkachuk’s first season. On the 2023 All-Star break, the Panthers weren’t even in a playoff place. Florida clawed its means out of the Atlantic Division dregs from there although to succeed in the postseason because the Jap Convention’s ultimate seed.
The Panthers took that designation personally.
Florida rallied to knock off the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins of their first-round sequence, breezed previous the Toronto Maple Leafs within the second spherical, swept the Carolina Hurricanes within the convention finals — after which ran out of gasoline towards the Vegas Golden Knights in a disheartening Cup Closing loss.
That have set the desk for Florida’s subsequent chapter. The Panthers had been extra “large canine” than underdog in 2023-24, ending atop the Atlantic standings with a 110-point effort. Tkachuk was Florida’s second-leading scorer (with 26 targets and 88 factors in 80 video games) to go together with the workforce’s third-most penalty minutes (88).
The one Panthers common forward of Tkachuk in that class? Sam Bennett. He and Tkachuk are lower from the identical material: Bennett contributed 20 targets and 41 factors by means of 69 video games, with 100 penalty minutes as well. Within the postseason, each skaters have been invaluable — Tkachuk paces the Panthers with 18 factors, whereas Bennett has three targets and 6 factors. Total, Florida has additionally doled out essentially the most hits (632) and picked up essentially the most penalty minutes (191). But right here they’re standing sturdy with a possibility to make repeat Cup Closing visits.
If the Panthers’ specific model of circus wants its ringleaders, then Tkachuk and Bennett match the invoice.
“[Bennett] performs a mode that’s possibly the prototypical Florida Panther id,” Maurice stated. “The best way we wish to play, he embodies that. After which there’s what it does for the remainder of the lineup.”
Maurice’s evaluation rings true. Simply ask the fellows who play towards Bennett and Tkachuk at this most important, heightened time of yr.
“It is that unicorn sort of participant that may be comfy taking part in these a number of kinds,” van Riemsdyk stated. “A bunch of men on their workforce would qualify to be put within the class like that. You level to a man like Matthew Tkachuk. He is solely been there for now, what, two seasons? They usually’ve had a substantial amount of playoff video games, gained a variety of playoff rounds, so it is simple to level to him [as a spark].
“Sam Bennett has a variety of these traits [too]. It is simply that good combine of getting a few of that [extra] stuff of their video games, however they’re additionally guys who can play and do all of it. And people guys are constructed for that playoff fashion. It is arduous to play towards and what makes them so profitable [as a team].”
Florida misplaced Bennett briefly within the playoffs when he was injured in Recreation 2 of the Panthers’ first-round sequence towards Tampa Bay. He was unavailable till Recreation 3 towards Boston, and Maurice famous previous to the Jap Convention finals how Tkachuk’s evolution — from nuisance to nuanced — has made the winger extra harmful.
“He is been excellent,” Maurice stated of Tkachuk. “We misplaced Sam Bennett … and that is when not solely did [Tkachuk] step up [playing] with Anton Lundell, however he was additionally main the [team].”
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Maurice stated Tkachuk has grown right into a management position, notably because the begin of the season.
“He was extra disciplined; he is matured with this group over two years,” Maurice stated. “I’d by no means wager towards him arising with some heroics, but it surely’s actually not the one factor we have now to count on from him now.”
Florida has adopted Tkachuk’s lead. The Panthers aren’t involved with propriety or being well-liked; they’ve discovered the way to toe the road whereas staying on the proper aspect of NHL regulation, even when the opposition would not at all times agree with the calls — or lack thereof.
That was on show within the Boston sequence when Bennett — in his Recreation 3 return — smashed into Brad Marchand and precipitated an upper-body harm that held Marchand out till Recreation 6. There was no penalty on the play, and Marchand stated he thought Bennett “bought away with a shot” on the interplay.
Bennett drew the Bruins’ ire once more in Recreation 4 when he shoved Charlie Coyle into goaltender Jeremy Swayman after which scored a power-play aim that tied the sport for Florida (and the Panthers went on to win, 3-2).
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Sam Bennett evens rating with clutch power-play aim
Sam Bennett takes benefit on the facility play and nets an enormous aim for the Panthers to even the rating towards the Bruins.
If Florida has a sure swagger, it is coming from the unhealthy boy personas who aren’t involved about fame, solely setting the tone. It is no coincidence Brandon Montour was additionally mixing it up with Marchand in that sequence through a memorable licking movement. Or that Dmitry Kulikov was noticed in a closely memed “dance” with Bruins’ ahead Justin Brazeau in Recreation 2, when Florida and Boston racked up a complete of 148 penalty minutes and 146 hits. That is simply one other day on the workplace for these Panthers.
“Their workforce actually feeds off of that, once they get guys that drag different guys on the workforce into that sort of [physical] sport,” van Riemsdyk stated. “I feel they do a great job of sticking collectively inside that, and everybody begins to play that fashion the place it’s totally a lot hit-or-be-hit. Even guys who’ve performed a very long time within the league, who’re there for his or her first yr or two, that stuff rubs off on them too. And clearly the final couple of years they have been profitable within the playoffs by sticking to that components.”
FLORIDA DIDN’T FIND its secret sauce accidentally. There was a way to the insanity, a means of trial and error bleeding into their eventual emergence from one season to the subsequent as, ideally, a workforce higher suited to attaining the last word success.
“The phrase that popped in my head is final yr was a wilder group, and I imply that on the ice,” Maurice stated. “It was a lot power. We nonetheless have it. However I suppose the higher option to describe this group is they are a extra targeted group; they are not fairly as humorous. They do not admire my humor fairly as a lot. As a result of they’re like, ‘Get on with it. Get to the vital stuff.’
“They’re very targeted on hockey, and that was true proper by means of [the season]. A bit extra severe. Final yr’s workforce wanted to be a bit of wilder or a bit of bit extra on edge. However this workforce is deeper and is way extra disciplined on the ice than final yr’s workforce.”
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Gustav Forsling would agree. The Panthers defenseman has been sensational within the postseason, gathering three targets and 9 factors in 14 video games whereas averaging over 23 minutes per sport.
He had a vital aim for the Panthers in Recreation 3 towards the Rangers, sending a tying marker previous Igor Shesterkin within the third interval to set off extra time. Florida then misplaced within the additional body when Alex Wennberg beat Sergei Bobrovsky with the sport winner.
That put the Panthers behind in a sequence for the primary time in these playoffs. Getting again on observe means difficult Shesterkin extra in entrance of the web — with out getting in penalty hassle. Forsling is assured Florida’s evolution will permit them to execute with the proper stability.
“You have to play a bit of bit on the road, and I feel we have been superb and profitable being on the proper aspect of it in comparison with final yr,” Forsling stated. “I feel it punished us a bit of bit final yr, took a number of too many penalties, however this yr we have been [better] with that.”
The Panthers have additionally been in a position to maintain the postseason swings in perspective. Outdoors criticism would not have an effect on the workforce’s confidence. There’s little probability any inner doubt will seep in or push Florida away from what they know provides an edge.
“We’re ready to make this a tough sequence for seven video games,” Bennett stated. “That was our mindset proper from the start. It is a effective line within the playoffs. You are attempting to be as bodily as attainable, however there is a line, and also you’re attempting your finest to not cross that line and toe [it] for the entire sequence. I feel we have accomplished a reasonably good job with that. However we are able to at all times enhance on that, as properly.”
What made Florida’s loss in Recreation 3 so irritating was that they placed on a dominant efficiency. The Panthers outshot New York 37-23, held a 108-43 benefit in shot makes an attempt and got here again from a 4-2 deficit within the third. In some ways, Florida did every thing proper. However the end result was mistaken, so the Panthers had been again the subsequent day asking questions on the way to enhance — with solutions simply accessible primarily based on how they’ve prevailed within the postseason thus far.
“Generally you are simply in search of a sure angle,” Maurice stated. “The place can we get higher? The place can we flip that right into a win? That is the coach’s job, to make them stroll out of the room sure of the way to win. That growl, [it’s] simply there’s nothing informal. We [should] be wired and able to go in that room, the depth degree could be fairly excessive, and we be certain that they’re sure about what we’re doing.”
Even the most effective plan cannot assure success, although. The Rangers are a formidable, spectacular and dynamic opponent able to overcoming their very own flaws and discovering success on the hardest nights. The Panthers’ urgency should completely be on show from puck drop for Recreation 4 on Tuesday.
Heading again to New York with a break up is what issues. Florida simply wants the proper street map to get there.
“Undoubtedly [a tough team] once they play to their strengths inside the way in which that they are constructed,” van Riemsdyk stated. “They’ve some high-end gamers at a variety of the important thing positions, and so they have a variety of depth. We see a variety of totally different guys contributing for them. That is why it looks like they’re positively a workforce that is constructed for the playoff-style sport.”