The “Lyon King” roars as the Florida Panthers close in on the playoffs

When all hope seemed lost, the Panthers found a hero in the king of the jungle

Last week in Ottawa, the Panthers season looked all but finished.

The team was outclassed in almost every way by the Senators as they lost their fourth-straight game, and slipped from the playoff spot they held just a week prior.

With three more games to follow on the road trip, and an already playoff secured Toronto Maple Leafs next on the schedule, Florida was looking for any form of life to get them back on the right track with less than 10 games to go in the season.

Prior to the Leafs-Panthers game last Wednesday, the problems seemed to only get worse for Florida. Panthers’ head coach Paul Maurice didn’t announce his starting goalie for that night, which was suspicious as he has always let the media know who would be in net this season. 

The belief from the outside was that starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky wasn’t ready to go and backup Alex Lyon would have to come into the net.

When the Panthers took the ice at Scotiabank Arena, that theory was correct. Lyon took the crease in a must-win scenario for his team.

In Lyon’s five previous games with the Panthers, he gave up a total of 23 goals, with a 1-3-1 record. 

Lyon, who had given up five goals just a week prior  to Philly, had to face a top-10 offensive team in the league while his team was riding their worst losing-streak of the season. The optimism wasn’t too high for Panthers fans.

However, when the 30-year-old took the crease, he looked like a different goalie than the one we saw in his previous appearances. 

Florida did not look good against Toronto. The team was getting outplayed in the offensive zone and couldn’t generate their usual number of chances at the other end. The only person keeping them in the game was Lyon.

At the start of the season, Lyon was in the AHL playing for the Charlotte Checkers. With Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight already locked into the team, he wasn’t in the discussion for the Panthers’ backup job – just as an option for the third-string.

Well the third-string goalie pushed his team to overtime in Toronto, and possibly saved their season. 

Moments after robbing Auston Matthews from point-blank range with a glove save, the Panthers flipped the ice and won the game with Brandon Montour’s 14th goal of the season.

Lyon, who is referred to by his teammates as the “Lyon King” stopped 38 shots in a 3-2 comeback win, snapping a four-game losing streak.

Following the game, as we do every night,  the media headed to the locker room. When we got to the doors we heard a song blasting from the inside. It was “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” from “The Lion King”.

Lyon’s teammates spoke highly of their goaltender who backstopped them to their first win in over a week. 

“You guys saw it yourself, he gave us every chance to win the game,” Panthers’ captain Sasha Barkov said last Wednesday in Toronto. “He brings the joy to the locker room, to the ice.”

 Lyon broke the Panthers out of their slump, but there was still work to be done with them still sitting a ways away from a playoff spot.

With Bobrovsky still out of the lineup with an illness, the Panthers returned to Lyon on the back-to-back the following night in Montreal. The Lyon King defended his net, or in this case his “jungle”, picking up the win against the Canadiens.

And once again, the locker room was blasting their new post-game song about their king of a goalie.  

With the quick turnaround of wins in Toronto and Montreal, the Panthers had some life with their final game of the trip in Columbus on the horizon. The team went with Lyon for the third-consecutive game since Bobrovsky was still out. He picked up his first career shutout in a 7-0 win against Columbus.

A few days off after the road trip allowed for some scoreboard watching, with the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins who both held Wild Card spots in action.

The Panthers were given a lifeline from the Carolina Hurricanes, who defeated the Islanders in regulation. Florida now controlled their playoff destiny with a game against a surging Sabres team looming. 

In what would be the biggest game of the season to this point (all of them are now), Florida turned to Lyon again with Bobrovsky still out. A win against Buffalo would see the Panthers leapfrog the Islanders into a playoff spot, with a chance of also jumping the Penguins depending on their result that night.

Seven days after his 38 save performance in Toronto which kept the Panthers playoff hopes alive, Lyon picked up 39 saves in a 2-1 regulation win against the Sabres – putting Florida into the first Wild Card spot in the East.

“He battles… there’s no quit in his game,” Matthew Tkachuk said of Lyon after the game. “It brings so much positive energy and it’s really been huge for our team down the stretch going into playoffs to have that type of energy.”

Lyon spoke about his teammates “celebrating” him following games.

“It’s awesome, it’s a testament to the locker room and the culture of the Florida Panthers. I take a lot of pride as well and being a good teammate and being accountable,” Lyon said postgame on Wednesday. “There were games this year where I didn’t play well and they still supported me, [I’m] really appreciative of them.”

Until Wednesday night’s win against Buffalo, Florida had not won four-straight games all season. Their best winning streak of the year came at the perfect time, as they brushed off their four-consecutive losses from the week prior.

In seven days, Lyon has a 4-0-0 record, posting a .959 save % and a 1.25 GAA. He has given up just five goals over that span. 

When the Panthers looked like they reached their end, the king of the jungle found his way to the crease, roaring his way towards the playoffs.