The latest Battle of Florida did not disappoint, other than for fans who were hoping for a longer series.
In perhaps one of the bigger surprises of the first round, the Florida Panthers took out the Tampa Bay Lightning in just five games, capped off by Wednesday’s 6-3 victory at Amalie Arena.
While it may be the second straight year that Florida has knocked out Tampa in a five-game, opening round matchup, the two series’ felt quite different.
Last year featured some intense, tight-scoring games that were full of physicality.
This time, there were several substantial hits, but it was more quality over quantity in that regard, and while last season’s series featured almost all one-goal games, this time there wasn’t a single game that was decided by less than two goals.
Now Florida will wait to see who emerges from the Battle of Ontario.
Let’s get to the final takeaways from the Tampa series:
SHUTDOWN CITY
After allowing Tampa to pepper Sergei Bobrovsky with 13 shots during the second period and keep the puck in his zone for much of the frame, Florida came out for the final 20 minutes with one goal in mind.
It was time to take the Lightning to Shutdown City.
During last year’s playoff run, Florida was unstoppable when it came to holding a third period lead.
So far this season, they’re off to a good start.
With a desperate Tampa group throwing everything they had at the Panthers, Florida held strong and kept Bobrovsky relatively clean considering the situation.
Overall, the Panthers can be pleased with their defensive effort during the third period, but Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice knows that there almost certainly will be more difficult battles ahead.
“We had good goaltending, some good shot blocks,” Maurice said. “I think for a team to continue to grow, we actually have to find a way to be better than we were in the third. It was reasonably smartly played, because in the position the Tampa found itself, with their skill set, then they had to take some chances.”
BIG SAVE SEQUENCE
The biggest test of the game for Bobrovsky came during the early stages of the second period.
Brayden Point entered Florida’s zone with speed and slid a pass to Erik Cernak, who was cutting down the slot straight at the net.
Bobrovsky saw the play develop and attempted to poke check the puck off Cernak’s stick, but Cernak was able to draw the puck to his backhand and fire a shot toward the far post.
Kicking out his right leg, Bobrovsky got his leg pad on the puck while doing the splits, sending the rebound back into the slot.
Following the play, Gage Goncalves found the puck and nothing but space between himself and Bobrovsky. He moved in close before trying to beat the sprawling Bobrovsky toward the opposite post, but Bob pushed off with his right leg and stopped the puck with his glove.
It was an unreal pair of saves that happened in the blink of an eye.
Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) on XGOOD LORD BOBROVSKY PUTTING ON A CLINIC!!
“Sergei (Bobrovsky) was really good all night, but the two saves in the second period were, if they had happened in the last two minutes of the game, that’s all we would talk about. He saved the game,” Maurice said. “But they happened in the second period, and more goals went in, you end up under-appreciating how important that was.”
NASTY RIVALRY SERIES
This was the fourth time in five years that the Panthers and Lightning have met in the postseason, but it was by far the most contentious.
It wasn’t that there were a ton of hits or overly physical play, or even that many post-whistle scrums.
There were just a handful of incredibly violent and borderline hits that will likely end up being what is most remembered about this series.
Bottom line, as Sam Bennett said, these teams are just finding ways to hate each other more and more.
“I would buy season tickets for the four games that will get played next year, on that (series) alone,” Maurice said. “I would have Bruins tickets for when we played Boston, and now Tampa. There’s a real similarity, the first Boston series was very heavy, the next Boston series was mean, like, it was nasty. That’s kind of what happened here. Two teams right in their prime, very competitive men, Tampa has had success, so it got nasty this year because of the playoffs last year, and the fact that we’re rivals, but we’re also at the same place with our teams, you know, legitimate teams. It’s good to be the ticket sales guy in both cities.”
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