Panthers find ‘a lot we can learn’ from stunning Game 4 Cup Final loss

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Sergei Bobrovsky keeled over, falling awkwardly into the crease. The puck had already slipped past him, at that point, sneaking between his legs, Bobrovsky’s knees buckling and his body landing on his back in the crease.

He rose slowly, sitting, reaching for his stick, nothing more he could do.

He was asked, later, what he had seen on the play, as Leon Draisaitl shoveled the puck toward the Florida Panthers net, as it touched off Florida defenseman Niko Mikkola, as it crossed the goal line, as the Edmonton Oilers celebrated and the Panthers gingerly picked themselves up.

“It doesn’t matter at this point,” Bobrovsky said. “It is what it is, and we move on.”

It was all the Panthers could do in the wake of a stunning and demoralizing loss in Game 4 at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday, a game that had once held the promise of putting them on the brink of a second straight Stanley Cup win but instead ended with a tied series and so many what ifs.

The best-of-7 is now a best-of-3, tied at 2-2, after the Panthers lost 5-4 at 11:18 of overtime, a loss that was so much more dispiriting because of how it had played out.

“The result at the end [stinks], it does. But what are you going to do?” forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “The team that moves on from this, and team that recovers the fastest is going to have the bigger advantage on Saturday. That's it.”

The Panthers had led by three goals at the end of the first period, mostly controlling a game in which they started by taking 11 of the first 13 shots on goal. They even got what seemed to be a dagger, a goal by Anton Lundell from the slot with 42 seconds remaining in the period.

It had all gone up in smoke in the second period, that lead vanishing slowly and then all at once, starting with a goal by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at 3:33 on the power play. Still, though, the Panthers led by two goals.

Then, in the span of 2:18, goals by Darnell Nurse (12:47) and Vasily Podkolzin (15:05) reset the game.

It was tied. It was anyone’s to win.

“I felt we were a little bit slow,” Sam Reinhart said of the second period. “I think we were watching the play develop, as opposed to playing on our toes, and that's obviously how they got back in the game.”

And then Jake Walman scored, at 13:36 of the third period, to take the lead.

And then Reinhart scored, with 20 seconds left, to send it to overtime.

“It was unreal,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “Pure elation and excitement on the bench.”

What had happened to the Oilers in Game 2, when Corey Perry scored the latest game-tying goal in Stanley Cup Final history at 19:42 of the third before Brad Marchand won it for the Panthers in double overtime, had essentially repeated itself. Reinhart’s game-tying goal had become the second latest in Final history.

The series would go to overtime for a third time in four games, only the fifth time in NHL history that had happened.

It would not end the way Florida had hoped.

Instead, when it ended, there was pure elation, excitement on the Oilers bench. There was only regret on the Panthers’ bench.

Still, this Florida team is too veteran to let it crush them, has been through too much to let one game devastate them, even one as tough to swallow as Thursday’s.

“If you plan for seven games, that means you’re losing three of them,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, noting that each of the Panthers’ two losses in the series had come in overtime.

Because if anyone has dealt with disappointment, has managed emotions, has come back from the depths of despair, it is this Florida team. They did, after all, allow the Oilers three straight wins after going up 3-0 in last season’s Cup Final, setting up a winner-take-all Game 7, which they then won 2-1.

They know, as they have said repeatedly, how to take a punch.

They have now, certainly, taken a punch.

“A lot of the success in postseason is how you handle your losses,” Reinhart said. “They're going to happen, especially when you get down to the last two teams. You’ve got two of the best teams going at it. So you’ve got to expect to lose at some point. There's a lot we can learn from and come back strong in Game 5.”

They have been here before. They have been through it. They know how difficult this is.

“There’s a reason both teams are here, right?” Ekblad said. “This is the Stanley Cup Final. This is the hardest trophy in hockey to win, and both teams are resilient and strong and have some amazing players that can do some amazing things. It’s going to take all of us. That’s the message. Stay together and find a way to get it done.”

They will not have much time to think about this one, not much time to let it go. Both the Panthers and Oilers will hop on planes on Friday, bound for Edmonton, with only a single day separating Game 4 and Game 5, set for Rogers Place on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).

“Take our first period, take our third period, the beginning of overtime,” said Tkachuk, who scored at 11:40 and 16:56 of the first period, both goals coming on the power play. “I thought we did a lot of good things. Yeah, it’s the best of 3. With losing this one tonight, we’ve got to go in there and win one eventually. Hopefully we can do it [in] Game 5.”

Because the goal, ultimately, remains the same for the Panthers: Just as they had to when they entered Game 4, they still have to win two more games in the Final. They just now have three games in which to do it.

So, what now?

“Learn from it. Forget about it,” Ekblad said. “Obviously it [stinks]. You never want to be in the situation where you give up a three-goal lead, but that’s life in the playoffs. It’s not supposed to be easy.”