It’s the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It is the hardest trophy in sports to win. It will be a grind to win 16 games to raise the Stanley Cup in June.
For the third time in four seasons, the Tampa Bay Lightning will battle the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which will begin this weekend.
These two teams are no strangers to one another. They have a healthy dislike for each other as both teams have been top teams in the Atlantic Division.
The Panthers won the season series from the Lightning, taking two out of three games and outscoring the Bolts 15-9.
Florida took the first game of the series 3-2 back on December 27. The Panthers then blew out the Bolts 9-2 on February 17, before the Lightning finally took down the Panthers in the season finale 5-3 in Sunrise with Andrei Vasilevskiy making 50 saves.
These two state rivals have faced off twice in the playoffs, with the Lightning winning both series.
Lightning And Panthers Have A Playoff History
In 2021, the Lightning beat the Panthers in six games in the first round of the playoffs. 2022 saw the Bolts sweep Florida in the second of the playoffs.
In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Lightning are 8-2 against the Florida Panthers and have outscored the Panthers 37-20 in those 10 playoff games.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice looks forward to the battle and thinks it will be an excellent matchup for the fans. “It’s going to be great. Both teams know how to play hard, both teams have some high-end skill on it. It’ll be a great battle, great for the fans.”
Lightning coach Jon Cooper says this matchup means a bit more since the Panthers are also from the state of Florida. “We’ve played them in the playoffs. And we’ve had great wars with them. Florida probably means a little bit more because it’s in-state. These two teams have kind of grown up together in the last five years. And expect the unexpected. They’re a ton of fun playing these games against them. And so I would expect nothing different than a fun series.”
Panthers Goaltending Is Top Five In The League
All-star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is having his best season since winning the Vezina Trophy in 2016-17. Bobrovsky is 36-17-4 with a 2.37 GAA and a .915 save percentage. Backup Anthony Stolarz has also put up some stellar numbers, going 16-7-2 with a 2.03 GAA and a .925 save percentage.
The Panthers have the number two defense in the league, giving up just 2.41 goals per game. On the other hand, the Lightning have the number five offense in the league, scoring 3.51 goals per game.
Andrei Vasilevskiy will be between the pipes for the Lightning. The former Vezina and Conn Smythe winner struggled to get into form as he had back surgery during the off-season, missed training camp, and didn’t play his first game until late November.
When the Lightning won nine games in March, Vasi looked like he had found his game and was ready for a long playoff run.
The top two lines for the Panthers boast some of the best of the best talent in the NHL. When you can roll out two lines with Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, Vladimir Tarasenko, Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk, and Carter Verhaeghe, your chances of winning are pretty good.
The Lightning will counter with the fifth-best offense in the NHL, led by Art Ross Winner Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov becomes just the fifth player in NHL history to put up 100 assists, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Booby Orr, and Conner McDavid. He is also the first winger to notch 100 assists.
Kucherov won the NHL scoring title for the second time in his career with 144 points.
Brayden Point and Anthony Duclair, the former Panther, will round out the Lightning’s top line. Point led the Lightning in goals with 46.
Steven Stamkos, Anthony Cirelli, and Brandon Hagel will round out the second line for the Lightning.
On paper, the Panthers may have a slight edge. The Panthers’ goaltending has been better than advertised. Vasilevskiy struggled to get into playing shape early in the season, but he seemed to hit his stride in the second half.
Jon Cooper knows this is a different Panthers team than they have faced in the past. “They’re different because they’ve won of late now. They didn’t achieve their ultimate goal, but they did make it to a Stanley Cup final, so now you throw a little bit of that confidence or whatever you want to call it. They have a great coach back there, so they’ve taken some steps forward, and then they went into this year and didn’t miss a beat.
Intangibles Favor The Lightning
The Lightning roster has players with tons of playoff experience. This team has experienced almost everything you can experience in the playoffs. The Lightning have won and lost Stanley Cups. They lost in the conference finals; they lost in the first round. They have experienced it all.
I think the Lightning’s playoff experience will be the difference. They have been there before and know what it takes to go on a deep playoff run.
With the NHL’s playoff format, it’s a shame that these two teams have to meet in the first round. These two teams should play in a second-round playoff matchup or play for the right to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.
This will be a long series; it will be a very entertaining series.
Author’s Prediction: I like the Lightning to win in seven games and move on to play the winner of the Toronto-Boston series in round two.