By Greg Fuchs
Unfortunately, that silence you hear across South Florida is a result of the 1 st round playoff eliminations of both the Florida Panthers and the Miami Heat. No more sounds of body checks or the ball bouncing off the hardwood or fans cheering great plays or booing bad calls by the refs for several months. Both teams had memorable seasons, but for
different reasons.
Despite the early playoff elimination, the Panthers’ season has to be considered a success overall as they had the best regular season record in the history of the franchise and made the playoffs for only the 6 th time. Plus losing in the playoffs to the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning is nothing to be ashamed of.
With forwards Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos finally healthy, the Lightning are the odds-on favorite to win The Cup again. Their combination of talent and experience will be hard for the rest of the NHL to overcome.
Plus, despite losing 4 games to 2 to Tampa Bay, the Panthers actually played quite well. You can even argue they outplayed the Lightning for much of the series. In fact, they had more shots on goal than Tampa Bay in each of the 6 games and outshot them 235-178 in the series. That’s a 32% shot advantage! But superior goaltending and an elite power play unit for the Lightning prevailed and led to the series victory.
But the Panthers have much to look forward to in the 2021-22 season. They still have 2 of the elite forwards in the game in Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, one of the premier defensemen in Aaron Ekblad (who missed the entire playoff series with a leg injury), a budding star in 20-year-old goalie Spencer Knight and young players like Owen Tippett, Carter Verhaeghe, Mason Marchment, MacKenzie Weegar and Gustav Forsling who should continue to develop. And the playoff experience they gained playing against the Lightning should prove to be invaluable. Panthers’ fans have much to look forward to next season!
While the Panthers probably exceeded expectations this season, the same can not be said of the Heat. After playing in the NBA Finals last year and with all their key players returning, the Heat had reason to be optimistic this year.
But the magic the Heat had in The Bubble last year never rekindled itself. During the regular season much of that had to do with the numerous games Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Goran Dragic & Tyler Herro missed due to injury or Covid-19 protocols. The Heat, though, finished the regular season strong and were the #6 seed in the Eastern
Conference.
And with everyone healthy at seasons end, the Heat had reason to be optimistic as they approached the playoffs. But it was not to be. A last second loss in Game 1 was followed by 3 blowout losses resulting in a
series sweep by the Milwaukee Bucks.
They were a shell of themselves when compared to the team that was in The Bubble last season. Last year virtually every player excelled, but this season not one of their All-Star caliber players rose to the occasion.
Sometimes, as was the case last year, everything just jives and the players are all in sync. There was a magic in The Bubble that the Heat just couldn’t replicate this season.
While the Panthers have many reasons to be optimistic for next season, the path is not quite as clear for the Heat. Goran Dragic is an unrestricted free agent and Duncan Robinson is a restricted free agent, so it will be interesting as to how the Heat navigate the salary cap waters. But when Pat Riley is in charge, you have to have some sense of
optimism as he wants to win now!
The 2021-2022 seasons should be interesting for both the Panthers and the Heat and both teams should be expecting long playoff runs. Only time will tell and hopefully the 2021 Sound of Silence will be replaced by championship parades in 2022.
