The greatest rivalry in Florida: What led up to Panthers Game 1 win over Lightning

Sunday afternoon was a successful day for the Florida Panthers in their 3-2 Game 1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

 

For historical accounts, winning their first round one opening game since 1997 is a nice addition for the record books, but with half of the current Panthers team not even being old enough to skate in 1997 ( if they were even born),  it’s an insignificant stat to them. 

 

Now, what is important for the Panthers is the early series lead, the win on home ice and obviously a great performance against their biggest adversary — the Lightning.

 

A Rivalry Brewing 

Last season, the Panthers experienced the grind it takes to reach the Stanley Cup Final. They know how grueling it is, the ups and downs and ultimately the 14 players who remain from the 2022-23 team understand just how tough it is to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup. 

 

But before they tasted victory and defeat in the playoffs, it was mostly just defeat — by hand of the Lightning.  

 

In 2020-21, the Panthers ran into the Lightning, the defending cup champions, in round one. As the higher seed and with home ice, hopes were high for the Panthers. The buzz quickly died down  as they lost both games 1 and 2 and ultimately the series in six games. Nine players still remain from that team.

 

Tampa would go on to win a second consecutive Stanley Cup. 

 

The following year was a historic one for the Panthers. They won the Presidents’ Trophy, set a franchise record for points, were the highest scoring team in the league and finally won a playoff round for the first time since 1996. 

 

A clear cup favorite, they would once again run into the Lightning — this time in the second-round. 

 

Over the course of the season, the 2021-22 Panthers team was way better than the team which lost in the first round the previous year.

 

Once again with home ice, an improved team and series win under their belt, the assumption was a better fight would be seen from the team in Sunrise…

 

Florida got swept.

 

The loss was brutal, disappointing, embarrassing, it was bad. This couldn’t happen again, so general manager Bill Zito played his hand. 

 

The Panthers didn’t retain then interim head coach Andrew Brunette, instead hiring a veteran to run the bench, Paul Maurice.

 

Matthew Tkachuk was brought in from Calgary while Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar were on their way out of town.

 

All chips were put on the table and what could have been seen as a gamble at the time, turned into a heist by Zito.

 

A season after Tampa swept them, the Panthers reached the Stanley Cup Final with a new franchise player and a new head coach behind them.

 

The apparent third playoff ‘Battle of Florida’ was brewing from the second Tkachuk hit South Florida, as he fired away in his introductory press conference with, “I hate Edmonton, but I hate Tampa more now.”

 

This season, Florida won their division again, this time in the final game of the regular season. A loss in game 82 against Toronto would have set them up with home-ice in a series against… Toronto — a team whom they beat in five games the previous postseason.

 

A matchup against the Lightning would be the reward for winning the division and the Panthers did just that, lighting up the Leafs 5-2 en route to the Atlantic title — setting up another matchup with their cross-state rivals. 

 

Florida. Tampa. Playoffs. This is what hockey fans wanted.

 

“I don’t know if they feel the same way, but I would sit here and say they are our biggest rivals,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said before Game 1.

 

Eleven players on the Panthers playoff roster were there when they got swept in 2022 and the feeling hasn’t been forgotten.

 

“We remember a couple of years ago how our season ended,” Anton Lundell told Five Reasons Sports before Game 1. “The Battle of Florida is always pretty heated and both teams want to win so bad.”

 

GAME 1

Going into Game 1, it felt like this matchup had some more buzz to it than the previous two. People around the league acknowledge that Maurice’s Panthers play hard and aggressive playoff style hockey.

 

“Previously (they) really hadn’t had a taste of (playoff) success,” Jon Cooper said pregame. “ Now they have and I’m sure they are hungry for more,” 

 

As you’d expect, when the puck dropped shortly after 12:30 p.m. local time for Game 1, Amerant Bank Arena was juiced. The fans were buzzing as the Panthers came out hot — scoring the first goal and controlling the opening 15 minutes of the game.

 

“I thought the fans here were amazing. Our fans have been so good all year.” Matthew Tkachuk said. “Coming out for the first period, I had goosebumps… they’re very passionate down here, I love playing in front of them. I had chills definitely during that first period.”

 

It was a game you’d expect from two teams of their caliber and it fit into how Florida wants and needs to play to take down the Lightning.

 

Both sides played aggressive hockey, with 116 combined hits. Players like Aleksander Barkov, who isn’t known for his physicality, led all Panthers skaters with six hits.

 

A key matchup going into the series was the Panthers penalty kill against the deadly Lightning power play. Florida has seen far too many times how Tampa’s powerplay will carry them to victory.

 

Tampa did score once on the power play, but it was too little too late as the Panthers had a two goal lead when Steven Stamkos finally got the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky with 10 seconds left in regulation. 

 

Florida did relatively well staying out of the box, only taking two penalties in the game. They had a huge kill in a tied game midway through the second period to keep things even as the game went into the third.

 

The Panthers had three power plays, capitalizing once thanks to Carter Verhaeghe’s goal just 58 seconds into the third.

 

Matthew Tkachuk had the game winner, by way of an empty net goal with 2:05 left in the game — giving the Panthers much needed breathing room as there was still plenty of time on the clock with the game then 3-1.

 

Goaltending from both sides was huge in the game. Unsurprisingly, Andrei Vasilevskiy had another big performance, keeping the game close when Florida had their spurts of domination. Sergei Bobrovsky only saw 19 shots all game, but he was peppered by the Lightning’s late barrage as the clock expired. 

 

“It seems like every game he makes a phenomenal save. You saw what he did last year in the playoffs”, Carter Verhaghe said of Bobrovsky’s performance. “He was our best player and kind of our best player all year, again. We have so much faith in him back there, he’s our backbone.”

 

Plenty Left To Go

Obviously, the win was huge for the Panthers. A home-ice advantage is only beneficial if you actually make use of it — otherwise the ball is now in the road team’s court.

 

Statistically, Florida is one game closer to winning the series than the Lightning, but it’s a best-of-seven for a reason and neither of these teams will go away until there’s no more hockey to be played.

 

Mentally, taking a 1-0 series lead at home is important. The Panthers fought themselves out of a 3-1 hole in the first-round last year against Boston, but playing from in front is always better than clawing back up from the bottom. 

 

In the playoffs, there’s no time to ponder. You have to learn, and adapt quickly and move on even faster. 

 

The Panthers showed up in Game 1 and won playing Panthers hockey. Now, they need to build on that if they want to take a 2-0 series lead into Tampa later this week.