George Richards, FHN Publisher
CORAL SPRINGS — The begining of the most successful two regular seasons in Florida Panthers history started two years ago in Toronto.
Actually, it has not even been two years since the Panthers were unceremoniously dumped by the Islanders in a four-game qualifier.
Based on what the Panthers have done — and have become — it certainly feels longer than that.
”Forever, really,” coach Andrew Brunette said.
”I’ve almost forgotten about it, honestly,’’ said MacKenzie Weegar.
The Panthers you all know and love of today were born of that depressing, uninspired quick series against the Islanders.
They called it the postseason, but it was not the playoffs.
The Islanders went on to beat Washington in the 2020 Stanley Cup playoff bubble, but the Panthers quickly packed and flew home dejected and ready to make some serious changes.
And they did just that.
The rumors that the Panthers were moving on from general manager Dale Tallon surfaced in the hours following Florida’s 5-1 loss to the Islanders.
The Panthers’ traveling party packed up and flew back to Fort Lauderdale almost immediately after that loss on Aug. 7 and the mood on the flight was, but various accounts, a depressing one.
A once-promising season, one that got off to a solid start but sputtered down the stretch before Covid-19 shut things down, was over.
“Right now, it sucks,’’ said goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 33 saves in a painful-to-watch loss. “It’s disappointing, it’s frustrating. … We have to learn from it. We still have a great group of guys. It’s a great locker room. We’re close to each other. We lose as a team, we win as a team. It’s disappointing, but we’re going to be better next season.”
Players had seen the reports about Tallon — the team’s gregarious leader — surface before they took off for home but the Panthers were quiet about their plans. A couple of days later, the team confirmed what everyone knew already.
Tallon, the builder of these Panthers, would not be given a new contract.
“For the last decade, Dale raised the team’s profile, attracted key players to South Florida and brought character and class to our franchise,” owner Vinnie Viola said at the time.
The team Tallon built would soon be torn apart.
Of the 20 players who dressed — including backup goalie Chris Driedger — only 11 returned the following season.
Bill Zito, who replaced Tallon after an extensive month-long search, started to remake the roster almost as soon as he settled into a Fort Lauderdale hotel room which would become his home for his first few months in town.
“The excitement is overwhelming me right now,’’ he said the day he was hired. “I can’t wait to get to work.”
Zito started right away and has kept trucking along.
Currently, only six players who played in that Toronto bubble remain with the Panthers.
That’s a lot of change in just under two years.
“It feels like a completely different team,” said Weegar, one of the Toronto Six. “We have come so far from where we were back then. We’re in this moment right now, and that’s where we are. We’re kind of staying in the moment and not really looking back on that team that was in the bubble.”
A number of the moves came swiftly. Mike Matheson and Colton Sceviour were the first to officially go, traded to Pittsburgh for Patric Hornqvist.
Free agents Radko Gudas, Anthony Duclair, Carter Verhaeghe and Ryan Lomberg were among the free agents signed.
Mike Hoffman, Mark Pysyk, Evgenii Dadonov, Brian Boyle and Erik Haula were not brought back.
Later, Brett Connolly and Riley Stillman were traded (one as a cash dump, the other a casualty of it) and Keith Yandle was bought out.
Florida also add the likes of Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart as well as Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot.
Yeah, a lot happened in a short amount of time.
“It is a completely different group and a completely different feel,” Brunette said. “Hornqvist has been a big part, him and Gudas, they have really upped our compete, our grit and our resilience. They have kind of become the identity of this group. Bring in a Bennett and his tenacity.
“People think of us as a high-scoring, offensive team. In reality, we’re really tenacious and we’re resilient. We’re gritty on pucks. We have talented players but how hard we work on the puck is what makes us as good as we are.”
As Bobrovsky predicted in 2020, the Panthers were a much improved team the next season.
Florida got off to a terrific start in 2021 and had, by points percentage, its best regular season in franchise history.
The Panthers ended up being the second-seed in the Covid-Central Division playoffs where they were knocked out of the first round in a thrilling six-game set with the Lightning.
This season, well, we don’t need to get into what happened this season.
From the ashes of that depressing week in Toronto have risen a true Stanley Cup contender.
The Panthers — built around Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad and Weegar (who were drafted by Tallon) — come into the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the entire NHL.
Florida is a heavy favorite to advance to the second round for the first time since 1996.
Few would have believed that in August of 2020.
If you said you did, well, you’re probably not telling the truth.