SUNRISE, Fla. — There was a variety of feelings that the Florida Panthers all loved within the instant aftermath of securing their first convention finals journey in 27 years.
Extreme pleasure and elation at first. Then a quieter, extra contemplative celebration. And then, exhaustion.
“They get to enjoy it,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice mentioned Saturday, “until the puck drops again.”
Dominated within the second spherical final 12 months. Dominators within the second spherical this 12 months. Florida’s offseason of danger has formally paid off. The Panthers are headed to the Eastern Conference Final for the primary time since 1996, after beating Toronto 3-2 in additional time on Friday night time to complete off one other playoff stunner.
They ousted the Maple Leafs in 5 video games, after ousting a record-setting Boston group in seven video games in Round 1. Their reward: The Eastern Conference Final in opposition to Carolina, which eradicated New Jersey. The NHL hasn’t mentioned when the Panthers-Hurricanes collection will begin.
“Nobody in the world thought we were going to be in this position right now,” Panthers ahead Matthew Tkachuk mentioned. “But we don’t care what anybody’s opinion is on us. We know that it’s probably going to be very similar going into this round against a team like Carolina that had a tremendous season and has had tons of success the last bunch of years.”
PHOTOS: Panthers relishing 1st journey to NHL’s convention finals in 27 years
This place, although, was a part of the vacation spot that the Panthers had in thoughts final summer time.
Florida had the most effective file within the NHL final season and obtained swept out of the second spherical by Tampa Bay. The Panthers didn’t completely blow up the roster, however massive adjustments have been made. Leading scorer Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar have been traded to Calgary for Tkachuk, and Maurice was introduced in regardless that interim coach Andrew Brunette wished to maintain the job.
The adjustments have been for a function: normal supervisor Bill Zito and the Panthers’ braintrust knew that group, as constructed then, wasn’t adequate to win a Stanley Cup. It wanted an edge. It wanted Tkachuk.
So far, so good. The Hart Trophy finalist hasn’t completed it alone – the Panthers appear to have a brand new hero each night time, and Sergei Bobrovsky has been lights-out in web – however Tkachuk has swagger and appears to have heightened the swagger of these round him.
“I’ve got two kind of drivers of this,” Maurice mentioned. “One is Bill Zito, who did more than just change the coach with that mentality – ‘we’ve got to play a different game than we played.’ The other is the kind of willingness that the players said yes. It got a little tough there … but the players were good about it.”
The Panthers took a giant swing on the commerce deadline final season, loading up for the playoffs by buying Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot. Giroux was stellar within the playoffs for Florida, Chiarot was an instantaneous contributor, however each moved on over the summer time. They have been definitely not the the reason why Florida didn’t make a deep playoff run in 2022.
This season, the Panthers held agency on the deadline – even with a group at risk of lacking the playoffs at that time. And right here they’re, 4 wins from the Stanley Cup Final, eight wins from hockey’s largest prize.
“These guys, they truly care about each other,” Maurice mentioned.
Fans in Toronto chanted “We Want Florida” earlier than this collection began. Tkachuk observed – and observed that he wasn’t listening to these chants Friday night time when the collection was over.
“A lot of people weren’t expecting a lot from us, including a bunch of Leaf fans before this series,” Tkachuk mentioned. “We weren’t hearing much of those chants afterward and that felt nice.”
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