FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers are getting some welcomed rest as they await their opponent for the Eastern Conference Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Florida advanced with a 6-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5 of the first round at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday. It can now only sit back and watch with the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs play Game 6 on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, NESN, TBS, MAX).
Boston has a 3-2 lead in that best-of-7 series.
“It is good because we do not take days off in a series,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said at the Panthers’ practice facility Wednesday. “Now, you are working twice as hard as you would like to be because you have two teams you have to video prep for.
“There is not that much aberration in anyone’s game that these guys have not seen it before. It’s good to get some rest, not so much for fatigue, but for bruises, right? The standard minor injuries that players get in every game from blocking shots and stuff like that. You get a little rest, get that cleaned up, and you get ahead of it.”
One side of the East playoff bracket was filled Tuesday when the Carolina Hurricanes eliminated the New York Islanders with a 6-3 victory in Game 5. Carolina will face the New York Rangers in the second round.
As for the Panthers, Maurice gave his team off Tuesday. On Wednesday, it held meetings and did off-ice workouts. Practice will resume Thursday.
“This feels great. It is a pretty tight schedule playing every other day, competing as hard as you can pushing your limits is pretty hard,” center Anton Lundell said. “It’s fun as well. This time is huge for us. We’re trying to recover and get some energy back.”
Florida forward Sam Reinhart and a large number of his teammates paid close attention to Game 5 of the Bruins-Maple Leafs series Tuesday. Toronto avoided elimination when Matthew Knies scored at 2:26 of overtime for a 2-1 victory, forcing a Game 6 back home.
“I think you pay attention to every game in the playoffs,’’ Reinhart said. “It is the best time of year as a player, and as a fan. Certainly, that series is something we are focusing on, keying on more than the others right now.
“You have to take advantage of this opportunity both physically and mentally to rest, but we’re excited about that next challenge, whomever it may be.”
Florida, Maurice said, is getting good at waiting.
Last season, the Panthers had six days between rounds after eliminating the Maple Leafs in five games in the second round. They then had 10 days between sweeping the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Managing the time off, Maurice said, is key.
“Do not be afraid of it, especially early in it,” Maurice said. “We took two days at the end of the regular season off the ice, but the training is going on. It’s going on right today, as hard as it can be, because you have some recovery days. We’ll go two-day blocks. We came out right against Carolina, even though they owned the first 10 minutes of that game. … By the time we got to Vegas, it did not matter how many days we had off.”
Usually, teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs need extra time to get players rested and healthy after a grueling series. Although the Panthers lost just one game in their series against the rival Lightning, it was hard fought.
And Florida escaped relatively healthy.
Center Sam Bennett was the only player injured in the first round; a shot from teammate Brandon Montour struck him in the second period of a 3-2 overtime win in Game 2 on April 23.
Maurice said that Bennett, who was expected to be out week to week, would resume skating Thursday and is a “very real possibility'' to return in the second round.
Florida, meanwhile, will try to stay busy while the Boston-Toronto series unfolds.
“Mentally and physically, it is a grind in every series,” Reinhart said. “It is its own battle with its own challenges. We just have to take advantage of times like this.”
