George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers will start the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs at home after beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0 on Monday night.
By beating the Lightning for the second consecutive game, the Panthers clinched second place in the Central Division over Tampa Bay.
Florida’s first-round series against the defending Cup champion Lightning will start this weekend with the possibility NBC will choose Game 1 for its national broadcast on Sunday afternoon.
The NHL is expected to announce the full series schedule as early as Tuesday.
Florida Panthers Stanley Cup playoff merchandise available HERE
To earn home ice in the opening round, the Panthers needed to finish ahead of the Lightning in the standings at the conclusion of this two-game, season-ending series.
They did.
”I thought we did great, especially the last two games,” Anthony Duclair said. “They were chippy, emotional games headed to the playoffs. We stick up for each other, have been all year and that’s not going to change.”
Florida wrapped up its regular season with aplomb, winning the final six games as the Panthers went 5-2-1 against the Lightning.
”You want to finish as high as you can,’’ Joel Quenneville said. “Down the stretch, we were fighting for the top spot with Carolina and both teams were in the chase mode. When that ended, we wanted points in both games. The guys did a lot of good things, Driedgs was special; coming off some time off to have a game like that is just outstanding.”
The only team the Panthers did not have a winning record against in the Central this season was Carolina.
Tampa Bay ends the first season on a three-game losing streak.
On Saturday, the Panthers and Lightning literally fought it out, the two teams combining for 154 penalty minutes as Florida won 5-1.
Things were a lot more subdued on Monday night as both teams were missing key pieces either out of precaution or, in Pat Maroon’s case, a suspension.
The list was long enough to bring up recollections of Panthers-Lightning preseason games in Orlando.
On the shelf for Florida: Jonathan Huberdeau, Sam Bennett, Noel Acciari, Brandon Montour, Patric Hornqvist and Sergei Bobrovsky.
For the Lightning: Maroon, Ondrej Palat, Barclay Goodrow, Ryan McDonagh and Victor Hedman.
Penalties were down but there were a couple of bouts just nothing like what went down on Saturday night.
Not only were their fewer aggressors on the ice, but the officials appeared to have the quick whistle.
The final tally was: Tampa Bay (eight penalties, 19 minutes); Florida (seven, 19).
HISTORIC NIGHT
Daniel Walcott got his rookie lap Monday night, jumping onto the ice before the Lightning warmups as the 27-year-old made his NHL debut after a career in the minors.
Things would get more exciting.
A few minutes later, the Lightning are believed to have made NHL history when coach Jon Cooper started Walcott, Mathieu Joseph and Gemel Smith — the first all-Black line to ever start and NHL game.
Florida had Duclair start the game so four of the 12 players on the ice for the opening drop were Black.
”I noticed that in the locker room when I saw the lineup,’’ Duclair said. “That is great to see. I am so proud. Just the way the way the NHL is moving forward is great to see. For those guys, I am sure it was special and for Walcott, it was his first game. I am sure he was very pleased. But it was an unbelievable feeling, even for myself playing against them. It was great to see.”
In the second, Walcott also got into his first NHL fight, going at it with Kevin Connauton.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
The Panthers were hit with a long penalty kill early on as Carter Verhaeghe got hit with a four-minute high-stick call on his first shift back.
Florida killed off the first two-plus minutes then drew a penalty of its own.
MacKenzie Weegar gave the Panthers the 1-0 lead, driving home a drop-pass from Mason Marchment with 4:41 left in the first period.
In the second, it was Juho Lammikko (yep) driving in with the puck on a penalty kill.
Lammikko seemed to catch Andrei Vasilevskiy off guard as Lammikko drove around the goal cage then quickly saw an opening and stuffed the puck home.
”The whole team played great, it was easy to just jump in and play my game,’’ said Lammikko, who ended the season with four goals.
Florida made it 3-0 early in the third after Verhaeghe and Weegar got off and running on a 2-on-1; instead of sharing, Verhaeghe kept the puck himself and scored to all but give the Panthers their third consecutive win over the Lightning this season.
The Panthers tagged on at the end of the period, Radko Gudas’ heavy shot catching Alex Wennberg’s stick on the way in to make it 4-0.
The Panthers did not seem to work too hard for this one as the make-shift Lightning did not threaten Chris Driedger (30 saves) all that much as he ended his second — and likely final — regular season with Florida 14-6-3.
Driedger has three shutouts this season and four in his Florida career.
”Yeah, I kind of just show up and the guys just play fantastic defensively,’’ he said. “I felt good.”
STATS INC.
Huberdeau missed his first game of the season and ended up leading the Panthers with 61 points.
Sasha Barkov ended second in points (58) but first in goals (26) after playing in 50 games.
The Panthers had seven players end up in double digits in goals (Huberdeau, Barkov, Wennberg, Verhaeghe, Hornqvist, Frank Vatrano and Duclair).
Only three players made it into all 56 games: Keith Yandle, Wennberg and Vatrano.
Ryan Lomberg, despite playing in only 34 games, led the Panthers with 67 penalty minutes.
Congrats Ryan!
HONORS FOR THE JUDGE
The Florida chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association selected Driedger as its nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.
The award goes to the NHL player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”
Florida forward Jaromir Jagr is the franchise’s only winner of the award, getting it in 2016. Roberto Luongo was a finalist in 2018.
More on the nomination and what Driedger means to the Panthers later this week at FHN.
GEORGE’S THREE STARS OF THE NIGHT
1. Chris Driedger, Florida
2. Juho Lammikko, Florida
3. Carter Verhaeghe, Florida
PANTHERS ON DECK
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS, ROUND 1
GAME 1: LIGHTNING AT PANTHERS (BEST OF 7)