Panthers show off ‘playoff atmosphere’ in win against Red Wings

DETROIT -- Florida, man.

That’s what you’re left saying after a game like the Florida Panthers’ 4-0 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.

It’s not just that they won. It’s how they won -- and how that might help them win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

They’re on a four-game winning streak and 10-1-0 run entering their game against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday (7 p.m. ET; BSFL, MSG).

“Obviously, we want to win every game, every single game, 82 of them, but the result isn’t what we’re after,” Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “We’re after making teams think when they get on the bus, like, ‘Holy [cow], that was tough.’ That’s part of the playoff atmosphere that we want to have, and we want to bring it to every game.”

The Panthers were physical and scrappy against the Red Wings in a game that featured 10 roughing penalties, four unsportsmanlike conducts and three 10-minute misconducts between the teams.

They went 2-for-4 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.

The Red Wings entered the game fourth in the NHL in scoring (3.57 goals per game) this season and were tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for third in points percentage (.739) since Jan. 1, but the Panthers shut them out.

Detroit had 21 shots, tied for its fourth-lowest total this season. When goalie Sergei Bobrovsky had to be great, he was. He made two huge saves on forward Patrick Kane -- one on a 2-on-1, another on a breakaway.

“That team, if they win the Stanley Cup, I would not be surprised,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “In my mind, they are the hands-down favorite. They’re playing at a high level now. They’re tuning up to get their game in order, so you’re going to get their best. We did.”

No one should be surprised if the Panthers win the Cup.

They won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s best regular-season team in 2021-22, setting Florida records for wins (58) and points (122), and won a playoff series for the first time in 25 seasons, defeating the Washington Capitals in six games in the Eastern Conference First Round.

But while they led the League offensively in the regular season (4.11 goals per game), they were 21st defensively (2.95 goals against per game). They ended up getting swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round.

General manager Bill Zito made bold moves to make them more of a playoff team afterward, most notably hiring coach Paul Maurice and acquiring forward Matthew Tkachuk.

After struggling in the first half last season, the Panthers put it together in the second half and earned the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference -- one point ahead of the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins.

They defeated three of the top four teams in the regular season -- the Boston Bruins (first) in seven games, the Toronto Maple Leafs (fourth) in five and the Hurricanes (second) in four -- to make the Stanley Cup Final before falling to the Vegas Golden Knights in five.

“We learned to play much harder playoff hockey and then understand that the game changes in the playoffs,” Maurice said. “What you can rely on in the regular season you can’t necessarily rely on in the playoffs. You have to have more than one weapon. You have to be able to score a certain way, and you have to be able to defend a certain way night after night.”

Now they have a chance to win the Presidents’ Trophy the opposite way they did last time -- and the Cup because of it.

The Panthers lead the NHL in points percentage (.705). While they are tied with the Hurricanes for 11th offensively (3.28 goals per game), they’re first defensively (2.36 goals against per game).

“We have a good structure, and guys believe in the structure, and they execute that with their heart and soul,” Bobrovsky said. “That’s our backbone, and it doesn’t matter who is in the lineup. Everybody works hard, and everybody puts it on the table.”

The power play remains good, fifth in the NHL (26.2 percent), while the penalty kill has leapt from 23rd last season (76.0 percent) to sixth this season (82.8 percent). Maurice credited Zito and his staff for the additions of forward Steven Lorentz and defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Dmitry Kulikov.

“They addressed some things that we needed to get better at, and we have been,” Maurice said. “Our penalty kill maybe is the quiet driver of the year.”

The loud driver is obvious to anyone who watched the game Saturday.

“Knowing our systems and being a five-man tight team -- and five-man tough too,” Ekblad said. “We’ve got a couple guys that can obviously throw punches, but it’s not about that. It’s about sticking together as a team in all situations and just being strong and being confident in that tight game that we play.”

Tkachuk said the Panthers wanted to establish a lot of physicality early against the Red Wings for a reason.

“That’s not just for this game,” he said. “That’s, like, a playoff mindset. Teams wear down after playing against that for seven games, and that’s kind of how our team’s built to play right now, is all seven games.

“The buy-in is unbelievable right now. That’s what it takes. It feels like the same buy-in that we had in the playoffs last year already, so we’re building for something special here.”