2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs
Going to Toronto: Florida Panthers Face Maple Leafs in Round 2
The last time the Panthers faced the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs, their fans famously chanted ‘We Want Florida!’ outside their arena as it looked like the top-seeded Bruins were going to be upset in the first round.
Turns out, the Maple Leafs did not get what some of their fans may have expected.
The Panthers, the last team to make the playoffs that season, won the 2023 Eastern Conference semifinals against the Leafs in 5 and eventually went on to play in the Stanley Cup Final.
Here we are again.
On Thursday night, the Maple Leafs beat the Ottawa Senators 4-2 in Game 6 of their first-round series.
Toronto moves on and will play host to the Panthers in Game 1 of the 2025 Eastern Conference semifinals. Washington and Carolina will play in the other semifinal.
The Maple Leafs won the Atlantic Division; Florida finished third.
The two teams have changed quite a bit since 2023, with Radko Gudas barking in the face of goalie Joseph Woll after the Panthers won Game 5 being the lasting memory of that series.
Gudas is now in Anaheim; Anthony Stolarz, who backed up Sergei Bobrovsky with the Panthers last season, is now the starter over Woll in Toronto.
The Leafs have three members of the 2024 Stanley Cup champions on their roster aside from Stolarz: Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Steven Lorentz play big roles in Toronto as well.
2025 NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS: GAME 1
FLORIDA PANTHERS @ TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Best-of-7 Series
- When: TBA
- Where: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto
- National TV/Streaming: TBA
- Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
- Series Schedule — Game 1: @Toronto TBA; Game 2: @Toronto TBA; Game 3: @Florida TBA; Game 4: @Florida TBA; Game 5*: @Toronto TBA; Game 6*: @Florida TBA; Game 7*: @Toronto TBA.
- How They Got Here: Toronto d. Ottawa 4-2; Florida d. Tampa Bay 4-1
- This Season (Panthers Won 3-1) — At Florida: Panthers 5, Leafs 1 (Nov.27); Panthers 3, Leafs 1 (Ap. 8). At Toronto: Panthers 3, Maple Leafs 2 (March 14); Maple Leafs 3, Panthers 2 (April 2).
- Last Regular Season: Tied 2-2
- All-time Regular Season Series: Toronto leads 51-40-7, 7 ties
- All-time Postseason: Panthers d. Maple Leafs 4-1 (2023 ECS)
Don’t mind the road start at all, in fact, I prefer it. We play the same regardless. we adopt a ” us against the world ” kind of mentality. I think this series will look like the previous one in the sense that , on paper, our third line should be able to win thier fair share of battles. Obviously with the “core four” this is a top heavy team, thier top six is as good as anyones, and they’ve gotten a bit “heavier” with that addition of Tanev and the emergence of Mathew Knies as a legitimate power forward.… Read more »
I am confident we will prevail again. The delusional Leafs fans thought they would sweep Ottawa, but nearly got taken to a 7th game in the 1st round after leading 3-0!!! I think we will win again like in 23. We’ll split in Toronto, then win both games at home. Toronto will win game 5, and we will win game 6.
Are they still chanting “we want Florida”? Seems to be crickets this time, “eh”?