SUNRISE, Fla. — When the Florida Panthers say the job isn’t over, that they’re not finished, that their lofty objective heading into this season is not nearly complete, well, all of us — especially the Edmonton Oilers or Dallas Stars — better believe them because they’re not even hiding the fact that winning their second consecutive Eastern Conference championship Saturday night was nothing to celebrate.
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Of course, they were happy.
Who wouldn’t be?
You can’t win the Stanley Cup without winning one of the two conferences, but after almost fulfilling their lifelong dreams last June only to fall short against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Panthers treated this latest Prince of Wales Trophy after a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers so casually and, frankly, like what it is — a necessary prerequisite to get to the actual prize they’d prefer.
“Last year after we finished the Carolina series, pandemonium’s not the right word, but the energy level postgame was through the roof,” coach Paul Maurice said. “Slightly subdued this year relative to that. Lots of happy people, but maybe we’ve got a little more experience now. And I feel like even on the bench it wasn’t insanity when the buzzer went.”
No, it was so, so business as usual.
No throwing gloves and helmets in the air. No piles of players jumping up-and-down.
Just hugs and high fives, almost like a regular season win in February.
And this time, unlike last postseason when captain Aleksander Barkov defied his coach’s advice and touched and celebrated with the Prince of Wales Trophy, Barkov barely looked at it. Almost faked touching it.
Paul Maurice wanted to make sure his captain knew what to do with Prince of Wales Trophy this year. 😂 pic.twitter.com/vfQEWTYnSM
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 2, 2024
Last year was different though, he said. As Sam Bennett said after Saturday’s win, the Panthers were just happy to be there after squeaking into the playoffs, upsetting the record-setting Boston Bruins in the first round and sweeping Carolina in the third. The Panthers deserved to celebrate after getting to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1996.
This year? Barkov listened to Maurice’s instruction, as well as all his teammates who agreed he shouldn’t touch the trophy due largely to superstition or, as Maurice said, “Silly games.”
“I think we needed to do something different and that’s what we did,” Barkov said when asked about not touching the trophy after NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly presented it to the captain.
The @FlaPanthers get reacquainted with the Prince of Wales Trophy! 🤝 🏆 #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/GufcsSgKrj
— NHL (@NHL) June 2, 2024
Then, after the game, inside the locker room, there was no loud music. Just a couple of prideful claps during the postgame speeches.
It is not easy to lose in the Stanley Cup Final and make it back the following year. The Panthers are the first team to do that since the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009 after losing to Detroit the year before. The Penguins, incidentally, won that Cup in 2009.
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And since the NHL expansion era in 1967-68, the Panthers are only the sixth team to make the Stanley Cup Final after losing the year prior (besides Pittsburgh, the others being the 1983-1984 Oilers; 1977-1978 Bruins; and the Blues in 1968-1969 and 1969-1970).
But losing to Vegas last year was a source of motivation heading into last offseason. Two weeks after the defeat, Panthers players, led by Carter Verhaeghe, rented ice in South Florida to hold informal practices for those teammates who spend their offseason here.
The tone was triggered naturally by Barkov.
Last August, in Stockholm at the NHL’s European Media Tour, Barkov sat down with The Athletic and said, “A lot of times when you get that close and lose, you go into the summer and lack motivation. I can tell you that won’t be the case for me and won’t be the case for us.”
The standard this year was different. Despite that short offseason, Panthers players came to camp stronger, faster and more motivated than ever.
And management did a tremendous job signing three NHL defensem*n in Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov, with Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour hurt. GM Bill Zito also improved the penalty kill by grabbing big right-shot center Kevin Stenlund.
But it was Barkov, Maurice said, who made clear what this season would be all about.
“Barkov, because he is the face, the driver and the captain, does set a bar for work,” Maurice said. “How hard he drives the team is the expectation for everybody else. He will not stop and he won’t quit. How does anybody else?”
The Rangers may have won the Presidents’ Trophy, but the betting favorite heading into the series was Florida because it was the deeper team. Not only do the Panthers have star power up and down the lineup, but they also are, unlike the Rangers, elite at five-on-five. They have incredible special teams, are relentless on the forecheck and have the luxury of Sergei Bobrovsky in net. He allowed two goals or fewer in 10 of his past 11 playoff games.
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In addition, while many look at them as an offensive juggernaut, their bread and butter is on the defensive side of the puck. They allowed the fewest goals in the NHL during the regular season and are quite comfortable playing in even or one-goal games.
The Panthers shut down the Rangers’ big guns all series. Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox had no goals. Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin had one each.
Five of the six games in this series were one-goal games, and every game had a one-goal lead at some point in the third period. No team in the playoffs has been better than the Panthers in the third (25-11 score advantage).
“We have a very deep team,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “I mean, there’s guys (like Ryan Lomberg and Nick Cousins) that are not even able to be in the lineup right now that are huge parts of our team and have been huge parts of our season and in playoffs. So it’s just a different feeling. This year, we’re getting contributions from everybody. It doesn’t matter who it is on any given night — like somebody’s gonna step up. Somebody’s gonna score the goal, it’s gonna be a different guy blocking the shots. We’re all capable of doing everything, especially defense.
“The buy-in from everybody is so big. We expected to be back here. Obviously, nothing’s guaranteed, but we were expecting this the way we’ve been working, the way we’ve been dialed in and detailed. We’re very happy to be back, but the job’s not finished.”
Saturday was a game where the Rangers did a good job on the Panthers’ top two lines, but Bennett opened the scoring in the first period with his fourth goal of the series by finishing a give-and-go with Evan Rodrigues.
But as Tkachuk indicated, anybody can step up on this Panthers squad and the line that was going all night was the third line of Eetu Luostarinen–Anton Lundell–Vladimir Tarasenko. Lundell scored what Maurice called the “de facto winner” in Game 5 in New York and the three teamed up for the eventual winner in Game 6 in Florida. Luostarinen, who was sensational from the opening faceoff, set it all up with a hard-nosed forecheck before Lundell set up Tarasenko for the winner.
It was the trade deadline pickup and 2019 St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup champion’s first goal of the series and third of the playoffs.
Vladimir Tarasenko’s first goal of the Eastern Conference Final is a massive one! @FlaPanthers | #TimeToHunt | #StanleyCup
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) June 2, 2024
What Maurice particularly loved for two games in a row was how the Panthers got to their game in the third period. It started on this night with Montour flattening Alex Wennberg, and the Panthers skated the Rangers into oblivion from there.
As Maurice said the day before, “The enjoyment of the game, and this is new for me, comes from my understanding that I’m not really that important here. I mean it. There’s a great line: ‘Don’t be so humble. You’re not that good.’ It’s the players. And when they’re going they don’t need me.”
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And that goes especially for their attitude heading into the season.
It may sound arrogant, but for the Panthers, it’s Cup or bust.
They are singularly focused and serious about the goal at hand, and that could spell trouble for whichever team — the Oilers or Stars — that comes out of the West.
“It starts with training camp and the belief in this group that we weren’t going to be satisfied just making it to the Stanley Cup Final,” said Bennett. “We put in a lot of hard work to get back here, and it took a lot. But again, we’re not satisfied yet. We still have a job to do.”
As Tkachuk said, the Panthers were perfectly fine with last year’s short offseason because that’s what they want every year.
“There’s nothing better than playing hockey in June,” Tkachuk said. “Just a lot of motivation, dedication, commitment. The right pieces were added, some great pieces added, and just one mindset of doing whatever it can to get back to it. And I thought the guys that were here last year have done an unbelievable job coming back for the start of camp with this on their mind.
“So we are not done yet. We’re very happy with the way this playoffs has gone for us winning the first three (rounds), but it’s a different feeling this year for sure.”
NEVER A DOUBT pic.twitter.com/sOwwsq5i9W
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) June 2, 2024
(Photo: Joel Auerbach / Getty Images)
Michael Russo is a senior writer covering the Minnesota Wild and the National Hockey League for The Athletic. He has covered the NHL since 1995 (Florida Panthers) and the Wild since 2005, previously for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Michael is a four-time Minnesota Sportswriter of the Year and in 2017 was named the inaugural Red Fisher Award winner as best beat writer in the NHL. Michael can be seen on Bally Sports North and the NHL Network; and heard on KFAN (100.3 FM) and podcasts "Worst Seats in the House" (talknorth.com), "The Athletic Hockey Show" on Wednesdays and "Straight From the Source" (The Athletic). Follow Michael on Twitter @RussoHockey
