Before walking out of the room following their second consecutive Eastern Conference Final win, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice left a message for his team. 

“You’re all f*ing brilliant, I love every one of ya.”. 

The Panthers are set to open the 2024 Stanley Cup Final at home on Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers and they’ll have 13 returnees from the 2023 team that fell short in the Final to Vegas. 

After retooling in the offseason to make a deeper and stronger team, the Panthers have shown they have a special group of players in Sunrise. But it’s not just the on-ice product. 

This year’s Panther team is as close of a group as you’ll see in professional sports. They ride and die together and it has been that way all season.  

“It starts at day one of training camp when Mo (Maurice) sets the standard of how hard things are gonna be,” Steven Lorentz said on when the team started to get close. “It’s not always going to be the most fun, but when you see a group of guys buy in, it doesn’t matter what your background is or where you’re coming from, where you played before. As long as you got that number of guys — whether it’s 20-25 guys — pulling on the same rope, eventually you’ll come together, and you form bonds and friendships that last a lifetime.”

Before Game 5 of the ECF in New York, the Panthers group were their usual selves at morning skate. 

The team was loose; they laughed, cheered and joked around while taking their line rushes. 

They weren’t in an easy situation — tied in the series, on the road at Madison Square Garden. Yet the calmness of the team was backed up by a message that the team has made clear all season.

“We really like each other,” Gustav Forsling said after the Game 5 morning skate. “[We] like to hang out with each other, we care about each other. So I think that goes on the ice too.”

Forsling was right. The bond they have clearly shines on the ice and it has elevated as the playoffs continue. 

Playing on the road isn’t easy, especially in the postseason. But Florida truly hasn’t seen a drop off in their play when they leave Sunrise, if anything, they’ve been even better away from home.. 

Winning six out of eight road games over this playoff run — compared to a 6-3-0 record at home, the Panthers haven’t strayed away from their game when they leave the sunshine state and a lot of that can be relayed back to the team’s closeness. 

Between the chartered flights, team meals and most importantly, the poker games, the guys love being on the road together. 

“One of my favorite things to do is just play poker in the team suite and on the plane. I think about those times being the things that I’ll remember most about my time in the NHL,” said Aaron Ekblad, the second longest tenured Panther. “Especially on runs like this and last year where you’re together so much. Those moments are definitely one’s I’ll never forget.”

What jumped out to me the most and what I believe truly ties this group together is when Niko Mikkola awarded Jonah Gadjovich the game puck following their Game 5 win over the Rangers. 

Gadjovich, who was a fairly consistent face in the lineup when healthy during the regular season, hasn’t appeared in a playoff game to this point. He was away from the team for pretty much the entirety of the Conference Final as his partner was giving birth to twins. On the night that he returned, he was presented the game puck from his teammate,

In Paul Maurice’s nearly minute long post ECF win speech, he told the team there’s two things that he takes away from that part of the journey (the ECF) they are on.

One takeaway was their great third period to clinch their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final berth, the other was when Jonah Gadjovich was given that puck. 

“There’s 27 of you, everybody’s important,” Maurice said to his team after the ECF. “Everybody’s a lead dog, we’re all part of the pact.”

From captain  to the 27th skater that hasn’t touched the ice — everyone in that room is treated the same. 

The Panthers have created something special in Sunrise and this team won’t go down without a fight. 

And if that fight becomes a war when the Stanley Cup Final rolls around later this week, you better believe they are fighting that war together. 

Teams that lose in the Stanley Cup Final usually don’t get another chance for a long time, if ever.

But for the Florida Panthers, their second chance could come now.

Last year, Florida watched in heartbreak as the Vegas Golden Knights hoisted the Stanley Cup in front of them.

After a year of fighting like hell, the Panthers are back to where they were last season — playing for a spot in the final.

After defeating the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the ECF on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, the Panthers have put themselves in a position to win the Eastern Conference at home and get back to the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight year. 

‘REDemption’ is the playoff slogan for the current Panthers team and they can give themselves a chance to do that on Saturday night in Sunrise. 

“There’s no reason to be nervous,” Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. “We’ve been in a lot of situations like this, so it’s just business as usual, play our game and you on’t really think about all the outside, all the other stuff that’s going on… We got to win a hockey game, so that’s our focus.”

The opportunity for redemption is rare in today’s NHL. If the Panthers were to finish the job and win the Prince of Wales Trophy, they’d become the first team since the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Penguins to make the Stanley Cup Final after losing the previous season.

Pittsburgh ended up winning the Cup that year. 

Before speaking of the final, let’s circle back to May 24, 2023 — Game 4 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Final.

The Panthers held a 3-0 lead over the Carolina Hurricanes and had a chance to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1996, on home ice in Sunrise.

With the game tied in the dying seconds of regulation, Panthers star forward Matthew Tkachuk scored one of the most iconic goals in franchise history — beating Frederik Andersen with just 4.3 seconds remaining in the game to send his team to the Cup final.

While the Panthers Cinderella run would come to an end in just five games against the Knights, it helped shape the current team — which is far stronger on paper than the previous —  for what they need to do to finish the job.

“The summer was very very fast. I don’t know if sadness is the right word but we know how hard it is to get there and the missed opportunity,” said Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, who went 21 years between Cup Final appearances. “It was also somewhat peaceful because I don’t think there was anything left of our team.”

Maurice said the sadness of the loss was gone once he began prepping videos for training camp. The Panthers only used their playoff tape for the camp videos. That’s when Maurice said he “got in a good mood.”

“You start to remember the plays, the effort — all that. But the people,” Maurice said with a smile. “How to drive the net? Well that’s the Radko Gudas clip… I appreciated the year. All of my sense of loss was gone probably about the middle of to late August last year when I started going through the video of the season.”

The Panthers run last year was special. They learned how to win against the best, but more importantly, they learned how to take a loss and move on.  

Heading into Saturday’s potential series clincher, the Panthers say they won’t stray away from their game. And unlike the position they were in last year against Carolina, the series is 3-2, not 3-0.

“You got to treat it like a regular game. Especially with how tight the series is,” Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour said. “This is a team (the Rangers) that’s on the brink of their season being finished so we expect their best. It’s going to be a nice, loud building for us and you’re going to get our best as well so it’s going to be a good game.

Their chance for retribution is just around the corner, all they have to do is take it — and they can on Saturday night in Sunrise.

FORT LAUDERDALE — The message in the Panthers room ahead of Game 4 is consistent with what they’ve done all postseason  — play their game.

Sunday afternoon’s loss was no doubt a gut-wrenching one for the Panthers, as they fell 2-1 in the series after losing consecutive games in overtime. 

After overcoming a two-goal deficit in the third period to force overtime in Game 3, the Panthers looked the more dominant force. 

Despite holding an overwhelming 108-43 shot attempts advantage over the Rangers on Sunday, the final bounce fell in favor of the road team and now the Panthers trail in a series for the first time since Game 1 of the second round. 

The Game 3 defeat was not a usual one for the Panthers. The chances created discrepancy was huge, but it was a rare night where more than two goals found the back of Sergei Bobrovsky’s net. 

“I don’t think that’s the story in the game. Seven of our last eight we’ve given up two [goals] or less. That’s who we are, that’s what we do,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said on Tuesday. “We put up a lot of shot attempts, good for us, that was an addition. Gave up five goals, so we don’t like that, but we gave up 44 shot attempts, so we didn’t abandon the game defensively.”

A Game 4 loss won’t be the end of Florida’s season, but it will put them in a less than ideal situation, facing elimination on Thursday night in New York. 

Knowing what’s at stake on Tuesday, the Panthers were their normal, loose selves at morning skate.

“I think we all know the situation we are in and I think we are excited about it,” said Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov. “We are excited about the challenge. We know our game plan, we know what we need to do, we just need to go out and execute.”

At various points throughout the season, Maurice has pointed out how he doesn’t have to say much to his guys throughout the game to get them going. 

His team is keeping the status quo and it appears they once again won’t not need much encouragement for the task at hand.

“We had the normal meetings (today) and we got a plan for this game, that’s about it,” Niko Mikkola said.

While nothing has been confirmed, the Panthers may once again change up their fourth line for Game 4. At Tuesday’s morning skate, Kyle Okposo and Steven Lorentz replaced Ryan Lomberg and Nick Cousins during line rushes. 

Maurice said “it may be one, it might be both,” when speaking about the possibility of Okposo and Lorentz coming into the lineup. 

“Some of its health, some of it is we think they look different. There’s a different kind of offensive zone thing that both guys do,” Maurice said about Lorentz and Okposo. “It is not a tipping point and it’s not the thing to put your team over the edge, the energy, that excitement. Sometimes you put the new players in and they get pretty fired up and give you a good boost.”

Based off line rushes in warmups, this is how the Panthers could line up tonight. 

Verhaeghe-Barkov-Reinhart

Rodrigues-Bennett-Tkachuk

Luostarinen-Lundell-Tarasenko

Lorentz-Stenlund-Okposo

Forsling-Ekblad

Mikkola-Montour

Ekman-Larsson-Kulikov

Bobrovsky 

Stolarz

Puck drop is 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 28, from Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.

Under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, the world’s most famous arena, the Florida Panthers walked into the Rangers house and gave them their best display of Panthers hockey.

The Rangers have been phenomenal at MSG all season, posting a 30-11-0 record in the regular season and a 4-1-0 home playoff record in the first two rounds.

Entering the series, Florida was well aware of what they needed to put forth against the Presidents’ Trophy winners. 

On Wednesday night, they did just that — it was a near perfect road game. 

The Panthers became the first team to shut out the Rangers this postseason, defeating the boys in blue 3-0.

From the very first drop of the puck, the Panthers took their brand of hockey and shoved it in the Rangers face. 

Florida is a team that thrives off hard work down low. They pushed the Rangers with an extremely aggressive forecheck — a specialty for Paul Maurice’s teams. Constant cycling, puck movement up and down the zone, Florida came out for the 8:18 puck drop like a bull that was waiting to leave the pen.

If there was one player that played like a bull in the series opener, it was Matthew Tkachuk. 

Heading into the series, the Panthers star forward was ready to show up in the Big Apple.

“We’re the only game on the nights we are playing. There’s nobody else on so all eyes will be on us,” Tkachuk said ahead of Game 1. “That just adds on to the whole New York City, MSG, playing the number one team in the league. It all adds up right now, this is a very exciting time of year to begin with no matter who you’re playing. And to be playing the New York Rangers, it just adds so much to it. This is a huge stage for us, for our team.”

Tkachuk said the stage was huge for the team and he owned it.

On his first shift of the game, he leveled former Panther Vincent Trocheck behind the net — setting the tone for what was to ensue. Later in the first period, Tkachuk would catch Trocheck again, this time steamrolling the Rangers forward at open ice in what was easily the biggest hit of the game. 

While his physicality was prevalent from the jump, the 26-year-old displayed his offensive prowess to the New York faithful, sniping the first goal of the series past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin with 3:34 left in the first. 

“I don’t put any pressure on myself to score, produce offense. I guess that’s part of my game but at the end of the day it’s not about myself here,” Tkachuk answered when asked if he puts pressure on himself going into the ECF.  “There’s a way bigger goal ahead. Guys on our team that didn’t score tonight were some of our best players… There’s so much buy-in from everybody that nobody cares who’s producing.”

“At the end of the day we’re here for wins, that’s it.”

Finishing the night with three hits, two points, a +3 and the game winning goal, Tkachuk was the best player on the ice that wasn’t named Sergei Bobrovsky. In his five career Eastern Conference Final games, Tkachuk has scored or assisted on all of the game-winning goals. He has five goals and 16 points in 12 games this postseason. 

“I thought tonight (Matthew) righted our team back to the simple parts of our game,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said of Tkachuk’s impact. “You always want to do more. These are the best players in the world and they’re capable of doing more, but sometimes the less is just way better and it’s also quite a bit smarter, and I thought he led in that department.”

Earlier I said Tkachuk was the best player not named Bobrovsky and rightfully so. Florida’s No.1 netminder was a brick wall in Game 1.

Conceding just one goal on 23 shots in Florida’s Game 6 series clincher against the Boston Bruins, Bobrovsky commanded the crease once again in the Eastern Conference Final.

After Tkachuk gave Florida a one goal lead late in the first, the majority of the game remained 1-0 until Rangers forward Alexis Lafreniere tipped in Carter Verhaeghe’s pass into his own goal with 3:48 left in regulation.   

On Wednesday in New York City, 35-year-old Bobrovsky looked alot like he did in last year’s Eastern Conference Final against Carolina — where he gave up just six goals and had a .966 save % in Florida’s series sweep over the Hurricanes. 

Bobrovsky stopped all 23 shots he faced — four coming on New York’s dangerous powerplay — in what was his second shutout in 82 career Stanley Cup Playoff games. His first playoff shutout came exactly a year ago to the date, on May 22, 2023 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final against Carolina. 

“He’s been unbelievable all playoffs. I can’t say enough about him,” Verhaeghe said of Bobrovsky. “He works so hard and to have him back there we have so much confidence… Obviously when we need him he always comes up big.”

One of the biggest story lines entering the series was the goaltending matchup between Bobrovsky and Shesterkin. Undoubtedly two of the league’s premier goalies, the fellow countrymen were neck and neck in the first two rounds, posting very similar numbers.

Florida got two past Shesterkin (they actually got three but one was rightfully overturned due to goaltender interference), before Sam Bennett sealed the game with an empty net goal. 

The Panthers have been great this playoff run in keeping pucks away from Bobrovsky’s net, allowing just 24.1 shots per game. In the second period, Florida kept New York shotless for a stretch of 14:23. 

Bobrovsky’s workload wasn’t intense, but the Rangers had times where they controlled the flow of the game in Florida’s zone. Unfortunately for them, they ran into a goalie on top of his game. 

“I think you have to be a veteran goalie to do what he did tonight. Sit for a while, make huge saves,” Maurice said of Bobrovsky after Game 1. “You’re playing the President’s Trophy winner, the best team in the National Hockey League. They’re getting to get theirs (chances) and he was that good.”

Wednesday was a classic Florida Panthers playoff game. Fast paced, low scoring, great goaltending and some heroics from the big boys. 

The Panthers are now 5-1-0 on the road this post season and will be happy to have already stolen one in New York. The road warriors will probably need to do it again this round if they want to get back to the Stanley Cup Final.