Tampa, Florida – The Battle of Florida is over.
Maybe permanently.
Florida’s panthers destroyed the lightning of Tampa Bay for a second consecutive playoff series, this time exploding their most bitter rival of the playoffs on their own ice while the Indomitable Defending Champions did a short work of their opponent, winning match 5 by a 6-3 decision.
The next for the panthers is a second -round battle against the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Senators of Ottawa.
Next for lightning? This is perhaps a question for another day, but like the Bruins of Pittsburgh and Boston’s Bruins before them, he went out with the old and with the new in the Eastern Conference, and it is clearly the time of the Panthers.
Even the opposing coach could not deny him.
“It was our turn,” said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper after his team fell with a groan in the five -game series. “Now it’s theirs.”
Rarely a coach so successful and accomplished as Cooper praised another team with such a conviction as he did the day after this series.
Cooper, without even asking a question, sat down in front of journalists and praise provided on the panthers, who stretched an embuse to lightning during most of this series.
“They have an exceptional team,” he said. “Not an average team. It’s an exceptional team.”
It is a team that turned out to be much better than its own. And Cooper knows it.
Cooper returned two years to explain why Florida had a time so easy to win this series. It was in 2023 that the Panthers of the Outsiders fell behind the powerful Bruins 3-1 in the first round of their series before returning to stun the world of hockey and Boston in seven games.
This is the moment that officially marked the change of guard at the Eastern Conference. Panthers have not lost a series against an oriental team since then. Tampa Bay has not won it since.
“I think two years ago, they play Boston and they broke 3-1 against the champions of the presidents (trophy),” said Cooper. “They come back and win this series. If they don’t win this series, which knows what’s going on? They come back and win. They get a good atmosphere about how to win. It’s learned. It is an art. Fortunately for us, we have had it for 10 or 12 years. ”
No one could deny this, but no one can deny that it is indeed the time of the panthers now. After what Florida did against a trendy choice of the Stanley Cup in the first round, it may well be the favorite to win the Stanley Cup again.
“They did a great job to build a brand and build a team, and they are rewarded for this,” said Cooper.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper and Panthers coach Paul Maurice shakes hands after match 5 (Mike Carlson / Getty Images)
Match 5 was really a microcosm of the series.
Although it was the only game in which the panthers did not hit first, it didn’t matter. Florida is larger, more difficult, faster and much better defensive.
Then there is the depth.
“This team is so deep – scary deep,” said Florida striker Evan Rodrigues. “I think this is one of the reasons why we have won this series in five. You could feel that our depth bore them. They had injured guys, and we were fresh and so deep. Our plan is always to carry the other team. This is what we want to do.
Victor Hedman led all the players with 26:37 of Ice Time but was not himself in this series. Then there was Nikita Kucherov, who played 23:34. He was detained aimlessly for a 15th consecutive game in the playoffs. And he was particularly excruciating on Wednesday, spitting one washer after another.
Florida took its time with the washer and hit it on every occasion. It worked.
“He wants to make a pass then disappear on the ice,” said Rodrigues about Kucherov. “That’s what he does, and he’s so elite. So we hit it again and again, every opportunity we have. We removed his room. “
Florida, so dominant in this series, beat Tampa Bay in all imaginable ways.
Match 1 was an old -fashioned eruption.
Match 2 was a duel of goalkeepers between the future renowned temple, Sergei Bobrovsky by drawing the best party of Andilevskiy.
Match 4 will remain memories for its violence, and in the end, there is no team in the NHL that will go out with the champions when the gloves stand out.
Match 5 was a barn burner, filled with odd-man rushes. It should have been to the taste of Tampa Bay, but that was not the case.
“Well, look at our depth, once again,” said Rodrigues. “You have Brad Marchand, (Anton) Lundell and Lusty (Eetu Luostarinen) on our third line,” said Rodrigues. “It’s difficult.”
Indeed, it is.
Marchand recorded a few aids and appreciated his best game of the season. Lundell added 3 points. Luostarinen had four.
“We continued to push,” said Marchand. “We have continued to improve over the game. Everyone intensifies at one time or another. This is what makes a very good team. This depth. You are counting on this.”
When the round trips finally slowed down in the third period, it did it because Florida had their heads and it wanted to slow down the game. Lightning had no chance when the panthers calmed down.
“This is what the third period looks like,” said Maurice.
Playing without Hagel, an anthony Cirelli less than 100% and a strangely ineffective Kucherov was simply too much to lightning.
Tampa Bay, since his remarkable three -year race in the Stanley Cup final – which has led to two championships – has now lost three consecutive series in the playoffs. He was increasingly ineffective in each.
Florida, on the other hand, tends again. The Panthers emerged from this healthy series and having a renewed boastful.
Someone still has to beat the panthers in a series for the best of seven to dethrone them. It is uncertain if a team can remove it. He became very certain of the first stadiums in this series that Tampa Bay was not able to eliminate them.
The two coaches indicated that this series, and this rivalry in general, was excellent for the continuous growth of hockey in Florida.
“Hockey here is much alive,” said Cooper. “Win aid. It helped when we win. This clearly helped in southern Florida. In the end, people like to get attached to the winners. They built an excellent fans’ base there. ”
Maurice conceded to have a little fan by him while drawing this series.
“I would buy season tickets for the four games that will be played (next season) for this alone,” said Maurice about the rivalry between these championship organizations.
Then the guy who could be the smartest hockey coach had something wrong – something that rarely happens.
“We are in the same place with our teams,” said Maurice. “It’s good to be the ticket seller in the two cities.”
Lightning and panthers are not in the same place.
Until someone says the opposite, the panthers are in a separate league.
It really seems to be their time.
“We believe in ourselves,” said Rodrigues. “Now we just have to continue.”
(Top Photo: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)
