When the curtain fell on the 2024-25 NHL season, the Florida
Panthers skated away with the Stanley Cup for a second year running, which consolidated
their status as the best team in the league. Still, during the regular season,
the Montreal Canadiens played them four times and won every single one, which
is no small feat. When Patrik Laine went to the Cup Final and celebrated the
Cats’ victory with captain Aleksander Barkov, he was teased about joining them
and simply replied he was fine in Montreal, having beaten the Panthers at every
turn this season.
The two sides met for the first time at the end of December
in Florida, after the Christmas break, and rookie netminder Jakub Dobes had
just been called up following Cayden Primeau's demotion. Coach Martin St-Louis
wasted no time testing the young netminder and threw him straight in the deep
end against the reigning champions. The youngster performed exceptionally well,
stopping the 34 shots he received. Meanwhile, Kirby Dach took matters into his own
hands and scored Montreal’s first two goals in a 4-0 win.
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In mid-March, the Panthers rolled into town looking for
revenge but were denied by Samuel Montembeault, who was named the third star of
the game thanks to 21 saves on 22 shots. Meanwhile, the Canadiens scored three
goals despite taking only 15 shots on net. This wasn’t Sergei Bobrovsky’s best
game of the season, far from it.
Two weeks later, the Canadiens were back in Sunrise and grabbed
another win, this one by a score of 4-2. The win was the result of two power
play goals and a lot of tenacity. Montreal took the lead twice and let the
Panthers come back each time, but when they took their third lead, they held on
and shut down the Cats in the third period. Captain Nick Suzuki led the charge
with a pair of assists and the game-winning goal.
The fourth and final meeting was the closest one, the Habs
skated away with a 3-2 overtime win on April 11th when the Canadiens
needed the win to qualify for the postseason, and the Panthers were without a
few regulars. Despite only shooting 21 times on Vitek Vanecek, Suzuki (twice)
and Josh Anderson found the back of the net. The captain scored the
game-winning goal less than 30 seconds into the extra frame.
Throughout the four duels, the Canadiens outscored the
Panthers 14-5, and despite not bombarding the Panthers’ net, they found a way
to be opportunistic and get the eight points that were up for grabs. A big part
of the Habs’ success was being able to contain Florida’s best players; Barkov
only got two points in the series, while Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett only had
one. Of course, the fact that Bobrovsky had an .838 save percentage, Spencer
Knight .840 SV, and Vanecek .833 SV didn’t hurt either.
On the Canadiens’ side, rookie blueliner Lane Hutson was the
ringleader with seven points in the series, closely followed by Suzuki and
Juraj Slafkovsky, who both had five points. Of course, Montembeault’s .935 SV
and Dobes’ shutout were also essential keys to the Canadiens’ success.
Will Montreal be able to replicate the same success against the
Florida outfit this season? It’s hard to predict, but one thing’s for sure:
Bill Zito did everything he could to keep his championship roster together, and
he succeeded. He kept all of his pending free agents, somehow managing to
retain Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett, and Brad Marchand. Florida even managed to
add some depth on defense, signing former Hab Jeff Petry at a team-friendly
price for one year. The 37-year-old veteran wants one last opportunity to win
the Stanley Cup, and he believes that Florida might just be able to go for a
three-peat, something that hasn’t happened since the New York Islanders won
four Championships in a row at the start of the 1980s.
In net, it looks like Bobrovsky will be backed up by free
agent signing Daniil Tarasov after the Panthers traded away Spencer Knight last
season to add Seth Jones to their already impressive blueline. Tarasov has only
65 games of experience in the NHL, with a 3.44 goals-against average and a .898
save percentage.
If the young Canadiens can replicate their performance
against the Champions this upcoming season, it will be another confidence
builder for the Habs. They’ll have their work cut out for them, though.
Montreal’s penalty kill was exceptionally efficient against the Cats last
season, only allowing one goal on eight opportunities, and now that Joel Armia
and Christian Dvorak have left, the Canadiens will have to replace them on the
special team units.
Photo credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
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