By: Rod Pedersen
1 – PANTHERS WIN AGAIN: The reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are off to Round 2 of the NHL Playoffs after disposing of the Tampa Bay Lightning with relative ease in a five-game opening round series. The Cats won the opening two games in Tampa by scores of 6-2 and 2-0, lost Game 3 at home 5-1, then closed out the series with 4-2 and 6-3 wins. Florida outscored Tampa Bay 19-12 and there were no overtimes. But it was vicious! Read on …
2 – BATTLE OF FLORIDA: It was the fourth time in five years the Panthers & Lightning have met in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Bolts won the first two meetings in 2021 & 2022 while the Cats won the last two, in 2024 & 2025. Playoff wars are what build rivalries and this series featured suspensions to Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel and Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, five-minute major penalties galore, and snipping in the media between the coaches. It was the most entertaining five game series I’ve seen in a long time!
3 – BATTLE OF FLORIDA?: For some reason Florida’s star forward Matthew Tkachuk told a live national TV audience, “I don’t know if it’s really a rivalry” when asked after Game 5 how it felt to beat a heated rival. He must’ve been joking right? Or low-key mocking the Lightning? Ask them if it’s a rivalry or not. Last year Bolts fans at Amalie Arena were wishing Cats fans well in the next round. This year there were fights in the stands! (Trust me, I saw it with my own eyes). Unfortunately sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. Forget about changing the playoff format. I hope these teams meet in the playoffs every year. It’s GREAT for business, plus we can travel easily to all the games.
4 – WE WANT FLORIDA!: So for the second time in three years the Panthers will line up against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Round 2. In 2023, Toronto dispatched Tampa Bay four-games-to-two in Round 1 and Leaf fans were heard to chant, “We Want Florida” at the end of Game 6. Well they got the Panthers, and Florida beat the brakes off Toronto in a quick five-game series. That chant has become a rallying cry for Cats fans, even making its way onto T-shirts and banners. Now they meet again …
5 – POMO: Florida coach Paul Maurice knows the Maple Leafs and Toronto market well. He served as Leafs head coach from 2006-2008. On Friday he was asked about Florida’s Round 2 opponent. “There’s some similarities to our first round; really high-end, elite skill,” Maurice said Friday. “Good goaltending, good defensive structure to their team. So those things will be the similarities for us, we’ll start with.”
6 – WE LOVE HISTORY: The Leafs are bringing some familiar faces into Amerant Bank Arena in this series. Goaltender Anthony Stolarz, forward Steven Lorentz and defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson all won a Stanley Cup with the Panthers last year. Betcha didn’t know the last time three players faced their former Stanley Cup-winning team the next season in the playoffs was in 1989 when the L.A. Kings’ Wayne Gretzky, Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley faced the Edmonton Oilers. Wild!
7 – THE MATCH-UP: The Leafs finished the regular season fourth overall in the NHL (52-26-4) while the Panthers finished 11th (47-31-4). This series is opening at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Monday night since the Maple Leafs earned home ice advantage by claiming the Atlantic Division crown. Florida finished third in the division. The Panthers won three of four regular season meetings including a 3-1 victory in their most recent visit, April 8 at Amerant Bank Arena.
8 – BREAKDOWN: It should be a very close, long series. We’ll give Florida the edge in goal (Bobrovsky over Stolarz) but we’ll give Toronto the edge on the blueline and in the forward group. O.E.L. (Ekman-Larson) is on Toronto’s side now, plus they’ve got stud D-man Morgan Rielly while Florida’s Aaron Ekblad is suspended for Game 1 of the series. We love Florida’s forwards for sure, but Toronto’s Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Willy Nylander and John Tavares have been building for this exact moment. Their hunger is a big X-factor, since the Leafs haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967 and these guys hear it everyday. We’ll give the Panthers the nod in coaching (Paul Maurice over Craig Berube) but both have a Stanley Cup win on their resume and are two of the best in the game.
9 – PREDICTION: We had the Panthers winning Round 1 in seven games over Tampa Bay. It went only five. In this one we’ll take Florida in seven again.
10 – SUNSHINE STATE SELKE: The 2024-25 winner of the NHL’s Frank J. Selke Trophy as top defensive forward will come from the State of Florida. The finalists are Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart of the Panthers and Anthony Cirelli of the Tampa Bay Lightning. For Barkov, he’s been a finalist for the award in four of the past five years, and won it in 2024. Speaking of awards, the Bolts’ Nikita Kucherov is a finalist for the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP (along with Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl and Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck) after already winning the Art Ross Trophy as regular season scoring champion. However he did not register a goal in the Round 1 series versus Florida.
See you at the rink!
(Rod Pedersen covers the NHL for the South Florida Tribune. He also hosts the award-winning Cats N Bolts Podcast and the daily Rod Pedersen Show on Game+TV, YouTube Live & Podcast)
