The Florida Panthers find themselves in a daunting situation. After eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they secured a matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto won the Atlantic Division which assured them of the home-ice advantage.
Everyone in the hockey world expected this series to be close. However, the first two games did not look that way. The Maple Leafs lead the Eastern Conference Semifinals 2-0, and now the scene shifts to Sunrise, Florida, for games three and four. There are several reasons why the Leafs have gotten this early stranglehold on the series.
Florida's rush defense and inability to defend on the backcheck have cost them severely. However, while fans might be hitting the panic button, the people inside the locker room have remained calm and confident. This series is far from over, and a few adjustments are all that's needed for Florida to climb back and make this a series.
After Thursday morning's practice, head coach Paul Maurice, along with forwards Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell, reflected on that attitude and mindset at today's press conference. The team is comfortable and at ease with the fact that they are playing at home for Game 3. Paul Maurice touched on that early in his presser.
""We've been a good home team this year for sure. And you get the positive feedback of good things that you do, and we got a two-on-one with Matthew early in that game, and he almost finds a hole. So you get a completely different review. You start feeling better about yourself, better about your game, just on that. So it'll be good to get home.""Paul Maurice
Lundell was asked about that as well at the end of his presser with Sam Reinhart.
"Yeah, it's going to be awesome, [to] get in front of our own fans and get all the energy and try to really show that. You know, get the energy from the fans, and you know, push, push hard, you know. But it's going to be awesome to get home."
As far as the adjustments are concerned, Paul Maurice gave his thoughts about that, heading into Friday night's clash. He specified that the adjustment comes with how they play and the foundation of their gameplan and what makes them successful.
"We've gone on the road and lost two one-goal games. Our game's not perfect, neither is their's. So you're looking for an adjustment to the foundation more than an adjustment to something unusual."
For Reinhart, the previous experiences of the team's past playoff wars are something they can draw on to come back in this series. When speaking about that aspect, he showed that the players are focused on taking this playoff run one game and one day at a time.
"It's important to kind of draw back on it. I mean, I think when you look at the playoffs, you know that the day in between, whether you won or you lost, is important as ever to kind of recover and regroup. You know, no matter what happened the night before or a couple of nights prior, you know, doesn't change... how we would go about our day. It's about recovering and putting the best foot forward to play our best game tomorrow night and get back in this thing."
Reinhart also emphaszied how one win for the Panthers can change everything, a case that Cats have seen plenty of times before.
"You win one game or you lose one game, and it can kind of change anything. I think a lot of success in the playoffs is how you control your losses and how you learn from it. You know, a couple tight games and you know we're sitting there looking at you know, there's a lot of things we can do better and that we can build on. So, you know, right now it's just about refocusing, re-energizing and being ready to go tomorrow."
There's no question about what either of the three men said this morning. These guys have been through a lot over the last three seasons. They came back froma 3-1 series deficit against Boston in 2023. In last year's Eastern Conference Final, Florida trailed 2-1 against the Rangers after three games before closing out the series in six.
Of course, they were also forced to play a Game 7 against Edmonton in the Stanley Cup Final after being up 3-0. This group has had its fair share of playoff adversity and has answered the call every time. We will see if Florida can do the same for Game 3 in Sunrise on Friday night.