The Florida Panthers are now up 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Final series over the Edmonton Oilers and head to Western Canada with a golden chance to lock a stronghold on their efforts to hoist Lord Stanley’s chalice.
The Oil played well in Game 1 and the Panthers looked rusty, but it looked like the same old dominant Florida in Game 2 as they played heavy, fast and physical playoff hockey against an Edmonton team appearing frustrated by it all. The Edmonton desperation was readily apparent when Leon Draisaitl threw a nasty head hit on Sasha Barkov that knocked the Florida captain out of the game after he’s been a dominant force all through the postseason.
Leon Draisaitl just Sam Bennett’d Aleksander Barkov pic.twitter.com/MNguatUWkQ
— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) June 11, 2024
Florida is currently doing the same thing to Edmonton that they’d done to Tampa Bay, Boston and New York in the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and it almost feels like a foregone conclusion that they’re going to finish off the deal. It also feels like a great deal of unfinished business will be taken care of after Florida made it to the Stanley Cup Final last season before ultimately falling short vs. the Golden Knights.
“I think it started at training camp,” said Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov. “Everybody’s mindset is the same. I noticed when the guys first came in, they weren’t just satisfied with last season. They wanted to get going and be in this position again. That determination and that mindset affected all of us.”
The pertinent question for Boston Bruins fans is whether Florida’s amazingly dominant run makes you feel any better about the B’s falling short in a six-game second-round series. Obviously, the Bruins weren’t happy about failing to at least push it to seven games when B’s management was performing their autopsy evaluation on the Centennial season as a whole from beginning to end.
“Everybody knows I have twin boys. So I kind of look at things in twos that way, really appreciative of the organization, and everybody involved, whether it be obviously Mr. Jacobs, Cam [Neely], Charlie [Jacobs], and all throughout the year, how we went about to put on a centennial season,” said Don Sweeney. “I get a chance to be around the players, and [see] how receptive they were to handle a lot going on behind the scenes, [and] a lot of change. I think our players with new leadership, accepted those challenges, embraced those challenges, and carried forward on the ice for a very productive, rewarding season.
“The twin side says that we’re bitterly disappointed that we did not push this [second round series] to the very least to a game seven, to extend that series, to continue to challenge for what our ultimate goal is and that’s to win at the most important time of the year. We put together a team that was very, very competitive [in the] regular season. We fell short in the playoffs in some areas that certainly this summer we need to continue to address.”
It was not all that upsetting or shocking that Boston fell short against Florida while being vastly outshot and dominated in the third period while plagued by an inability to consistently break the puck out against Florida’s frenetic, pounding forecheck. And it underscored Boston’s inability to consistently score in the Stanley Cup playoffs as their 2.38 goals per game in the postseason was among the lowest for teams in the NHL playoff field.
Many of the Bruins players were tipping their hat toward the Panthers after it was over, and Brad Marchand had been knocked out for much of the middle of the series after a punishing hit from Sam Bennett that went unpenalized. That’s been a pattern as so much of Florida’s edgy play has been condoned by the league during the postseason with a distinct lack of punishment for hits like Bennett on Marchand, or Kulikov on Alexander Wennberg.
A little late… but thats playoff hockey 🤷🏿♂️
— P.K. Subban (@PKSubban1) May 25, 2024
Thoughts? #nhl #playoffhockey #nyr #fla #nyrangers #rangers #florida #panthers #hit #nyc #newyork pic.twitter.com/vNZ5V64adc
But that is not something the Bruins were going to complain about as much they must acknowledge the need to play a little more Florida if they want to taste greater postseason success.
“The leadership group in here is amazing. To be a part of this group was really special. We really do have a close-knit group in here and I was so fortunate to be a part of that. We came up short, it’s unfortunate but you gotta give Florida a ton of credit for bringing their game every single night,” said Pat Maroon. “We can sit down, point the finger but we're not. But for me, I had the best experience in my life, in my career to be a part of this group and be a part of this. These guys that really truly care.
“When you go through teams and [my family has gone] through a bunch of teams. I felt like this team was it. I really did. Just because of how everyone is and how they act and how they treat everyone. You could tell the leadership group, it's a trickle-down effect in this group and it goes a long way.”
But the in-your-face way the Panthers have carved through the NHL like a hot knife through margarine, has it changed the perspective of Boston Bruins fans? Were the Bruins a little better than perhaps everybody thought during the playoffs as they were actually one of the teams that made Florida really work for it, along with the New York Rangers?
Florida coasted through Tampa Bay in the first round with a gentlemen’s sweep and it looks like they are going to eliminate Edmonton without too much oomph required. At least the Bruins and the Rangers pushed Florida to six games in a postseason where it doesn’t look like anybody has what it takes to make the Panthers even have to play a winner-take-all Game 7.
Still, this is, at best, some kind of consolation prize since Florida isn’t going anywhere with a core group that’s sticking around even if they may start losing salary cap pieces like unrestricted free agent Sam Reinhart. The Bruins will need to find some way to better combat a hard-nosed, blue-collar team like the Panthers that boasts both skill and old-school toughness, and a forecheck that nobody consistently solved during the postseason.
“If you’re not generating enough scoring chances or giving up too many scoring chances, that’s where we really get concerned,” said Jim Montgomery. “At times in the playoffs, we weren’t generating enough scoring chances. And that’s the concerning part. We knew where we needed to try to continue to get better throughout the series.”
That’s the bottom line whether or not Florida finishes off the job and proves in short order that they are the best team in the NHL after coming up painfully short a year ago.