FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers had to wait almost a week to learn they’ll play the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Second Round, but they already had a very good idea of the kind of team they’ll face in Game 1 of best-of-7 series at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, CBC, TVAS).
And it wasn’t just from watching the Bruins’ 2-1 overtime win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of their first-round series Saturday.
“We’ve played each other enough,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Sunday. “We understand each other.”
Florida and Boston played four times during the regular season as Atlantic Division rivals and, of course, met in an unforgettable first-round playoff series last season. After qualifying as the second wild card from the East, the Panthers pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NHL postseason history, rallying from a 3-1 series deficit and winning 4-3 in overtime in Game 7 to eliminate the Bruins, who won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top team during the regular season and set League records with 135 points and 65 wins.
“I just think that it showed we can beat anybody, and it gave us a lot of confidence no matter who we played no matter what building we were in, no matter what atmosphere we were in, we have a chance to win,” Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “And it brought us super close together that series, and the effects of that series are still being shown now.”
Florida was the second team in NHL history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit to eliminate the Presidents’ Trophy winner and rode the belief it gained from defeating Boston all the way to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Panthers are determined to get back to the Cup Final and win it this season and took the first step by defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games in the first round.
Now, they’ll have to go through the Bruins again, but might be slight favorites this time. Florida finished first in the Atlantic Division with 110 points (52-24-6); Boston was second in the Atlantic with 109 (47-20-15).
The Bruins won all four games against the Panthers during the regular season (two in overtime) and will be motivated to avenge their first-round loss last season. The Panthers plan to take the same approach they had a year ago.
“We just play our game,” Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We know how to play, we know how to play hard, and that’s what we’re going to do. We have the same mindset as last year. We want to outcompete every team we play, so it doesn’t matter we play.
“We want to be at our best in every game. So, it’s not our decision to decide who’s favored and who’s not.”
Some of the faces have changed, but each team has 13 players who dressed for at least one game in the first round this season that played in the series between them last season. The Bruins, most notably, lost centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci to retirement last offseason, but still had a strong regular season and will be riding an emotional high from withstanding the Maple Leafs’ attempted comeback from a 3-1 series deficit and prevailing in Game 7 on David Pastrnak’s goal at 1:54 of overtime.
“We know that this is a very similar team to last year,” Tkachuk said. “A couple different pieces, but I think last year there was a lot of high-scoring games. We’re probably expecting it be a little bit on the lower-scoring side just by judging how both teams like to play and like to have success. So, it’s a great challenge here.”
The Panthers haven’t played since advancing with a 6-1 victory against the Lightning in Game 5 of their first round series last Monday. They hope to benefit from the additional rest but know they will have to gear up quickly to match the Bruins intensity to begin Game 1.
“I think it’s a mindset,” Barkov said. “We’ve just got to get our minds ready. Obviously we haven’t been playing, but I think our practices have been good. We’ve been trying to push the pace in practices and not to lose that. Obviously when you play every other day, you have that pace already and, of course, for them, they’ve been playing all the time and we’ve been resting. So, it’s kind of different, but I think we’ll be fine.
“We’ve been working really hard, and our minds will be ready.”
Given how well the teams know each other, it seems likely they’ll skip past the feeling-out process that is common at the start of a playoff series and get down to business quickly.
“I’m expecting a very good series,” Tkachuk said. “They’re such an unbelievable team in every aspect of the game. They touch everything. They’re really good at special teams. Their 5-on-5 is great. Their goaltending is amazing. Their team defense is really good. They’ve got some star players. I think it’s a lot like our team, so it should be a great series.”
