Schmidt proving to be difference-maker for Panthers in Eastern 1st Round

TAMPA -- If Nate Schmidt learned anything during the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it was that depth scoring is often the difference between winning and losing. It was, after all, exactly what doomed his Vegas Golden Knights in the Cup Final against the Washington Capitals.

He just didn’t expect the depth scoring to be, well, him.

Almost 10 months after the Winnipeg Jets bought out the final year of Schmidt’s contract, following a difficult season in which he sat out two of the Jets’ five playoff games, the 33-year-old has been an offensive force for the Florida Panthers this postseason.

In two games against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Schmidt has scored three goals, including both game-winners for the Panthers, who took a commanding 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference First Round on Thursday with a 2-0 win at Amalie Arena.

So, how is he feeling?

“I am feeling that we have a 2-0 lead going home,” Schmidt told NHL.com, his omnipresent grin creeping wider. “And somehow, someway, I found a way to score a couple goals in the first part of the series that ended up being difference-makers, which is awesome.”

As Schmidt answered the question, he started to laugh, a sound both joyful and disbelieving. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. The castoff had, as he put it, somehow, someway, entered his name alongside some of the greatest to ever play the game.

“I mean, someone told me that it’s something to do with Nick Lidstrom, and that guy’s my idol,” Schmidt said. “So, that’s an incredible thing to be in the same conversation.”

Indeed.

Schmidt became the sixth defenseman in NHL history to score three goals through his first two games of a playoff year, joining Lidstrom (1995), Steve Chiasson (1991), Mike O’Connell (1983), Dick Redmond (1973) and George Boucher (1921). He also became the eighth defenseman in the NHL’s modern era (since 1943-44) to score the game-winning goal in consecutive playoff games, joining Lidstrom (2007), Chris Chelios (1995), Al MacInnis (1989), Scott Stevens (1986), Paul Coffey (1985), Ron Greschner (1979) and J.C. Tremblay (1971).

To top it off, he became just the second defenseman in the modern era to score the game-winner in each of his team’s first two games of a playoff year, joining, of course, Lidstrom, who did it for the Detroit Red Wings in Games 1 and 2 of the 2007 Western Conference Quarterfinals.

It is a defenseman’s dream.

“Pretty much,” Panthers defenseman Seth Jones said. “Pretty much. He needs to be keep shooting the puck, that’s for sure.”

The shot that went in on Thursday was just the second of the game for Florida, coming off a face-off win in the left circle by Aleksander Barkov to Sam Reinhart, who passed across to the top of the right circle, where Schmidt one-timed the puck blocker side on Andrei Vasilevskiy at 4:15 of the first.

“You score five minutes into a game, you don’t really think it’s going to be a game-winner,” Schmidt said, laughing once again. “There’s an opportunity that we’re going to probably score more, they’re probably going to get some. You go into a game thinking there’s more than just that.”

But Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky didn’t allow that to happen, his shutout keeping the Lightning off the board, allowing Schmidt’s goal to be all the Panthers would need.

“He’s got a great shot,” Jones said. “He’s being aggressive right now and it’s great to see.”

Especially because it’s so unlikely.

Schmidt is in his 12th season in the NHL and on his fifth team. Once a player who would regularly get at least 30 points, his numbers have trickled down into the teens, with Schmidt getting 19 points (five goals, 14 assists) in 80 games this season, his first with the Panthers after signing a one-year contract on July 3.

“This team, at the beginning of the year for me, you just want to step in and not screw it up,” Schmidt said after Game 1. “Then you start to integrate yourself into this group and find how you bring your own brand to the game.”

He was nervous. Even a veteran, with 661 regular-season games under his belt, was nervous, hoping to find a way into a team that was coming off a Stanley Cup championship, a team that was tight-knit in a way he hadn’t seen since his years with the Golden Knights.

He has done just that.

“Really positive, upbeat, kind of vocal guy, so he fit right in with that,” coach Paul Maurice said. “I would put him in the same category as Seth Jones, in some ways, coming off a bunch of years in a completely different style of play, and he just built his game over the course of the season. The back half of the season he had adjusted to how we play and has been very effective.

“And he falls into that category of veteran player that appreciates and enjoys the playoffs at a really high level.”

And, in these two games, he has been more than even he could have dreamed.

“Here’s the thing, right now, when things are going, you want to keep pressing the issue,” Schmidt said. “I even think in the second period I had a chance on the power play where [Vasilevskiy] makes a great save on a couple of the screens. You feel like you’re getting chances. ... When you get your shot off, good things are happening.”

Which is why he is going to do exactly as Jones said. He’s going to keep shooting.

“I’m going to save my stick,” Schmidt said. “Make sure it doesn’t go anywhere. Some guys will use a new stick every game. No, no, this one’s going to keep coming back.”