George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers will begin their quest for the Stanley Cup in earnest on Tuesday night when they open up the postseason at home against the Washington Capitals.
As the top team in the NHL — Florida clinched the Presidents’ Trophy last week — the Panthers are a heavy favorite to beat the Capitals and move on down the road.
But postseason hockey is a different animal.
The Panthers found that out last year when they won five of eight against the Lightning, only to lose their opening round series to Tampa Bay in six games.
Being the top team means getting every team’s best on any given night.
The Panthers have been talking about that for months, about how they have been playing with a target on their backs.
But in the playoffs, teams are playing for everything they hold dear.
It really is ‘win or go home’ and that brings an intensity different from anything this team has faced in its record-breaking regular season.
The pressure, as Florida captain Sasha Barkov said Sunday, is on every single team still playing.
Only for the Panthers, there probably is more pressure than on other teams.
”Obviously there is pressure on every team,” Barkov said. “Expectations are part of it. I think we handle the pressure pretty well, we enjoy the pressure. We play really well when under pressure. I think it’s a good thing.”
The Panthers, unlike teams such as Tampa Bay or Washington, has not proven anything in the recent past.
Not yet, anyway.
Florida has not won a playoff round since that memorable run to the Stanley Cup Finals back in 1996.
That was 26 years ago.
“The most pressure, for me, is on Florida,” said former Arizona coach and TNT analyst Rick Tocchet. “They have had such a magical season, people are starting to go to Florida games again, starting to fill that building.
“I don’t think it will happen, but it would really suck for that franchise if they go out in a whimper in the first round or early in the playoffs. I think there are high expectations for that team. I am looking for a long run which puts pressure on that team.”
Since 1996, the Panthers have been knocked out of the first round in 1997, 2000, 2012, 2016 and 2021.
In 2020, Florida got bounced from the prelims by the Islanders.
Washington, Florida’s opponent in this opening round, won the Cup in 2018 but has been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round every year since.
Still, a number of their players have won before, and figure they can again.
The Panthers have individual Cup champions in Patric Hornqvist and Carter Verhaeghe but they won elsewhere.
Florida’s core, homegrown players — Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad, MacKenzie Weegar — have never been to the second round.
It is something which has alternately frustrated and motivated them.
“I think if Florida can just get over the hump, get over that mental hurdle of the first series, I think they’re going to be fine,’’ said former NHL forward Paul Bissonnette, now a studio analyst for TNT.
“In the East, there’s just no easy draw. Regardless of the question marks in goal and how they defend, they have been doing a better job of that. Washington does have that experience and are playing with house money in a sense. That core group comes in like, ‘hey, if we can go on another rip, that’s just gravy.’
“I think there’s a lot of pressure on Florida but I am confident they’ll get past the first round. The East is just a joke. I look at it and there is no easy rounds.”
As great a story as the Panthers are, they have plenty of admirers out there hoping they go far.
But there are just as many people — perhaps more — hoping they fail, just so they can say ‘told ya so.’
The Panthers are not worried about public perception.
They just want to win.
Make no mistake, the Panthers are loaded.
Absolutely stacked.
The Panthers have talent oozing out of their pores and can simply overwhelm teams. All things being equal, Washington does not have much of a chance in a seven-game series against a team of this caliber.
Again, the playoffs are a different style, a different pressure. Every shift really does count.
In theory, the Panthers know this.
“I think we learned how hard it is and what it takes,” coach Andrew Brunette said of losing to Tampa Bay last season.
“We watched firsthand how Tampa handled themselves and what it took for them to beat us. We threw everything at them and they stayed resilient, stayed within their gameplan. That’s something we want to do. We had some emotions take over last year in certain games either with penalties or trying to make big hits and maybe getting away from how we have to play.
“We need to manage our emotions and that will be a big thing for us. Hopefully, we learned. This will be a great experience against a veteran team that is as deadly as any team in the league.”