The Florida Panthers got their latest playoff series off to a strong start.
Traveling to Lenovo Center in Raleigh, the Panthers skated to a resounding 5-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.
It was Carolina's first loss on home ice during the postseason.
Playing in a hostile environment is nothing new to the Panthers, who have emerged as one of the top road teams during the playoffs.
So far, Florida holds an impressive 6-2 mark when playing away from Sunrise.
Not too shabby, especially when considering that the Panthers will not have home ice advantage in the Stanley Cup Final, if they get past the Hurricanes, that is.
We've still got a ways to go before we have to start worrying about that.
Let's get to the Game 1 takeaways:
POWER PLAY POWERS WIN
Simply on the surface, Florida picking up a pair of power play goals during their Game 1 win was a huge part of it.
Any time you get contributions from special teams, particularly during the playoffs, it's a big key to winning.
Doing against the Hurricanes' penalty kill, which has been by far the best during the postseason, is an even bigger deal.
Does it mean that Florida is going to dominate special teams during the conference final? Probably not.
The early success does give the Panthers something to hang their hats on as they continue grinding away against a team that is not that dissimilar than Florida is in a lot of ways.
"That's important," Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said of the power play success. "This whole thing is a confidence game, so you can get to the next game feeling good about it. They're going to make adjustments. There's a lot of broken play goals in this. We have almost identical penalty kills, so there's not usually the stuff you see on TV where it's seven passes to the seam, the pucks are all contested on both team's penalty kills. So you get a couple to go for you, you get to feel a little bit better, you get a little more confident in handling the pressure of the other team's pressure, you don't get frustrated."
ADJUSTING TO CANES’ RUSH
As the Panthers have worked their way through the Eastern Conference postseason bracket, they have faced some very strong, and very different, playoff opponents.
There is going to be an adjustment period when going from trying to defend a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs and then facing Carolina, a group that does things very different than the Leafs.
As Maurice explained, it's nothing they haven't had to do before, but there is still going to be a learning curve.
"I didn't love our game tonight, but I understood it," Maurice said. "It's a significant style change. The Game 1 is that first look at what your game looks like in a completely different opponent. So we will have to continue to build that game and get better. We had some good finishes, I thought they had good chances they didn't finish on. It's a little bit what it looks like when these two teams play. Sergei (Bobrovsky) was very strong. It's a different style of rush game than we've seen, so we were just okay with how we handled it. We have to make adjustments, but I maybe have felt that in our first game in each of the previous two (series). We went into Tampa and won, but we scored three power play goals, I think on three chances, and that was 30 minutes in the game and it's like 6-2 or something like that. And then we went into Toronto, and we struggled with their rush offense, so we've got work to do."
CAN'T STOP WON'T STOP
The keys to Florida's success are no secret.
They're physical, they're aggressive and they're excellent when it comes to playing a strong, five-man defensive unit.
It's that strong possession defense that drives Florida's transition game and ultimately, their offense.
Now they must find a way to adjust to defending a team that is very similar to Florida in a lot of ways, and then turn that defense into offense.
"It's a different style than we've seen," Maurice explained. "Tampa and Toronto are so dynamic up the middle of the ice, they'll break off early and go. I think by the end of the series, we had an understanding of it. (Carolina) was more of the double swing off the weak side that we didn't pick up very well. So this is true of Carolina and us: We probably both value puck pressure as much as anything else, and I don't want to sacrifice the puck pressure on a couple of plays that they get in behind us. We're not reckless with our forecheck, which it's fairly defined, but when you play a team like this, and they get in behind you, or they get odd-man rushes, you're missing some sort of change of sides detail. And every team is different. So there'll be teams with center-under on the breakout, there's center-over on the breakout, there's a whole bunch of different ways teams do it, you just have to see it and then adjust to it. So I didn't think we were great with that adjustment. We had guys pulling off when they shouldn't, guys going forward when they shouldn't, but this isn't anything new for us. Because of the way we play, we deal with this all the time. Now, that doesn't mean we're going to get it sorted out. I think you saw during the (Stanley Cup) Final last year, I'm not sure we ever had that thing sorted out, but we at least understand our vulnerability in the way we play, and we won't sacrifice that aggressiveness to cover off. That's what Bob is for."
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Photo caption: May 20, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Nate Schmidt (88) controls the puck during the third period against the Carolina Hurricanes in game one of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Lenovo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
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