Florida Panthers Look to Close Out Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 6
The Florida Panthers have a chance to close out Toronto Maple Leafs, meet Carolina Hurricanes in Eastern Conference final with a Game 6 victory on Friday night.
After falling into a 2-0 hole to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Florida Panthers have a chance to close out the series at home in Game 6 and join the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final after securing three consecutive victories.
The Panthers knew they could get here. After all, they have risen to the occasion at the face of adversity countless times throughout their back-to-back runs to the Stanley Cup Final in 2023 and 2024.
Florida erased a 3-1 series deficit to the same Boston Bruins team that had an NHL record-breaking regular season, it recovered after the New York Rangers took a 2-1 series lead off of back-to-back back-breaking overtime winners and it gutted out Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final with its back against the wall after watching a 3-0 lead vanish.
This series will be a fine collection to that list of stories, but the Panthers know it will be left unwritten until they secure a fourth win.
“At the end of the day, the job’s not done,” Aaron Ekblad said. “There’s still a lot of work to do — to go home, recover and have our best game at home in Game 6.”
Perhaps that has been the big difference in demeanor between these two clubs.
Ever since the Panthers gave the Maple Leafs the slightest bit of pushback, the tables turned drastically.
The fast-paced rush attack that was lighting the lamp for Toronto was stymied, the Panthers found a way to get bodies to the net after the Maple Leafs held them outside and blocked a barrage of shots through the first two games, and Florida found ways to win games.
Where Toronto is rush-happy and reliant on its top talent to score, Florida plays through its opponent, getting bodies in front, pucks on net and playing within its stucture.
While Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner have been held off the scoresheet completely in this series — and their team being held to just one goal in the past two games almost as a result — the Panthers have gotten by without Matthew Tkachuk scoring a single goal in this series.
The Panthers have gotten goals from 17 different players and points from 22 of the 23 skaters who dressed in a game this postseason. All 23 men on that roster stay within that hard-nosed structure, harass the opponent on the forecheck, and it has led to wins regardless of who is putting the puck in the net.
Florida looks to do more of the same as it looks to close this series out in six games.
“I think it’s a lot of patience in our game,” Gustav Forsling said. “We don’t need to score two, three or four goals in the first period. We want to stay with it and play our game, and we know we are usually getting the result we want.”
Look Back At Game 5
P&P+ Podcast: FLA/TOR Game 5 Recap
There were plenty of possible outcomes for this Game 5, but I’m not sure how many people expected a Panthers whitewashing was on the cards. It was domination in a way that almost felt cruel. One team who has thrived in these spots before and one who hasn’t. For as dominant and complete as the victory was, there’s still one more game to win, no matter wh…