FORT LAUDERDALE – It’s time to dance with another familiar foe.
Set to face-off for the second time ever in the postseason, the Florida Panthers will play the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In their only other playoff battle, the Panthers won in five games in Round 2 back in 2023.
“Some similarities to our first round,” head coach Paul Maurice said when asked about preparing for Toronto. “Some high end, elite skill. Good goaltending and good defensive structure for their team. Those things will be the similarities for us that we’ll start with.”
So how did we get back here?
Despite starting later than Toronto, the Panthers punched their ticket to the second round first, eliminating the cross-state rival Tampa Bay Lightning in five games in the first round.
Avoiding the possibility of a stressful Game 7, the Maple Leafs pushed through to the second round with a 4-2 win over the Ottawa Senators in Game 6 on Thursday.
The top seed in the Atlantic Division, Toronto will have home-ice advantage in Round 2.
Of course, that shouldn’t deter the Panthers, who went 3-0 on the road against Tampa Bay.
“They obviously won the division this year,” defenseman Seth Jones said of the Maple Leafs. “They’re a very talented team, very offensive. We have our work cut out for us, but we’ll do the right things the next few days to prepare for that and get ready for Game 1.”
After leading the Panthers in scoring with 81 points (39 goals, 42 assists) in the regular season, Sam Reinhart logged a team-high six points (two goals, four assists) in Round 1.
Despite returning from a long stint on LTIR, Matthew Tkachuk rounded back into his usual playoff form quickly against the Lightning, notching five points (three goals, two assists).
Spreading out the offense, Sam Bennett (three goals, two assists), Eetu Luostarinen (one goal, four assists), Anton Lundell (two goals, three assists) and Aleksander Barkov (one goal, four assists) all had five points, while 15 different Panthers had at least one point.
In net, Sergei Bobrovsky went 4-1 with a 2.21 goals-against average and .901 save percentage.
Across the ice, William Nylander, who always seems to bring his A-game against the Panthers, led Toronto in scoring in Round 1 with nine points (three goals, six assists).
As for the other three members of the “Core 4” for the Maple Leafs, Mitch Marner had eight points (one goal, seven assists), Auston Matthews had seven points (two goals, five assists) and John Tavares had five points (three goals, six assists).
Between the pipes, Anthony Stolarz went 4-2 with a 2.21 goals-against average and .901 save percentage.
In order to reach the Eastern Conference Final for the third straight year, the Panthers will have to get past a few familiar faces in Stolarz, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Steven Lorentz.
Even though they each only spent one season in South Florida, all three players left a lasting impact as key members of the team’s first-ever squad to win the Stanley Cup back in June.
