FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- When Anton Lundell started playing organized hockey as a 6-year-old, the Florida Panthers center briefly tried following in the footsteps of his father Jan, a goalie who played professionally in his native Finland, and elsewhere in Europe, for 16 seasons.
“When they start hockey school in Finland, the first two or three years they are rotating the goalies," Jan Lundell said, "so those kids who would like to try it, they can get some practice and maybe play in some games or some tournaments in the net.
"He practiced and maybe played a few games there, but he didn’t feel like it was for him.”
Anton Lundell had a different calling.
“Stopping pucks is not as fun as scoring goals,” he said. “I wanted to be out there flying around and make plays and score goals.”
Lundell still enjoys doing that, even if the goal-scoring part of his game hasn’t come along as quickly as the 22-year-old would like. Lundell has five assists in seven games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs heading into Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Second Round against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Friday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1 after Lundell had an assist in Florida’s 6-1 win in Game 2 on Wednesday.
With Sam Bennett sidelined with an upper-body injury the past five games, Lundell has enjoyed the challenge of filling in as the Panthers' second-line center.
“I always love responsibility,” Lundell said. “I want to play as good as I can and just do as much as I can. I know I can play big minutes. I know I can be a big player on the team, and I want to be a big player for when we need a goal, or we need to defend. Be an all-around player. But I’m just trying to do everything I can to help the team to win.”
Lundell gained invaluable experience last season, when, playing mostly on the third line, he had 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 21 playoff games to help Florida reach the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights.
“It was a huge for me,” he said. “I feel like I really learned and saw what the playoffs are at the highest level.”
Lundell and the Panthers hoped the confidence he gained from that run would carry into this season, his third in the NHL, but it didn’t materialize in his offensive production, particularly in the first half. He had only 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) in 39 games before finding more of a groove in the second half with 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in his final 39 games.
Lundell’s strong finish gave him 35 points (13 goals, 22 assists) in 78 games for the season, on par with his 33 points (12 goals, 21 assists) in 73 games last season, but still short of his 44 points (18 goals, 26 assists) in 65 games as a rookie in 2021-22.
“I had big goals, and I wasn’t able to produce the way that I wanted,” he said. “I feel like early on I had a lot of chances, but it just didn’t go in. It’s hard to be able to produce. But I feel like the second half of the year, I don’t know what happened, maybe I played a little looser and not think too much, and then it just started to click.”
Lundell, selected by Florida with the No. 12 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, has high expectations for himself. Panthers coach Paul Maurice is quick to remind that, “He’s still young,” but remains confident his offensive output will increase with experience.
Lundell has already impressed Maurice with his defensive play, which allowed him to match his line against the Tampa Bay Lightning’s top line of Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov in the Panthers’ series-clinching 6-1 win in Game 5 of the first round.
“The heavy, hard things come with being a center iceman,” Maurice said. “It’s difficult to be a good, solid center iceman unless your hand skills are so good. But he’s taken huge steps. I’m a big fan. I think there’s definitely more offense. That will come when he stops trying to produce offense, I think.”
Although Lundell understands, “It’s not going to change overnight,” he’s also eager to make as big of an impact as he can, as quickly as he can.
“I want to play more and more. I want to be on the power play. I want to score a ton of goals,” he said. “When it doesn’t happen, you have to remember even if it’s hard, it’s a long process.”
Jan Lundell has talked with his son about being patient, but also views his desire to accelerate the process as a sign of his competitive drive.
“He’s determined in what he wants to do and knows what he can do,” said the elder Lundell, now a goalie coach with HIFK in Liiga, Finland's top pro league, the same Helsinki-based team for which he played. “Even if you’re young, you can see, ‘I can do this. I can be better.’ So, for sure, he needs patience, but it’s also a fuel for him to be better.”
The younger Lundell has always been in a hurry to improve. Jan recalled Anton coming to HIFK’s family skate when he was 14 or 15 and asking the team’s centers for tips on winning face-offs.
By 15, Anton was playing for HIFK’s under-18 team. At 17, he held his own in his first season with HIFK’s big club in Liiga, with 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in 38 games.
The following season, he had 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) in 44 games with HIFK.
“He adapted to the men’s level in the league really fast,” Jan Lundell said. “You saw that he was playing against players who had been playing in the NHL, he was playing against top players from Europe, and he could play really well. Then, you see that he has the chance to also play in North America and play well there.”
Anton Lundell continues to seek ways to get better and has a perfect example to emulate in Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, a fellow native of Finland. Sometimes called “Mini-Barkov,” Lundell (6-foot-1, 190 pounds) tries to model his game after the two-way play of Barkov (6-3, 215), who won the Selke Trophy, voted as the NHL’s best defensive forward in 2020-21, and is a finalist again this season.
“He’s the hardest-working guy I’ve ever seen,” Lundell said of Barkov. “I don’t think anybody works harder than him. He puts a lot of time into working out and recovery and taking care of his body. It’s just amazing to see what he does, and I try to learn from him.”
As much as Lundell admires Barkov, he said his father has always been his biggest mentor.
“Maybe the biggest thing I learned from him was just the work ethic, how to live like a pro, how to live outside the rink, eat well, sleep well,” he said. “I learned those from him, and how you work out, how you practice, small details in doing stuff.
"Everybody does the team practice, but the guys who put the extra work in, those guys make progress and are even able to get an advantage.”
Though Lundell wasn’t interested in being a goalie, his father thinks some of his son’s dedication to being reliable defensively could be out of “respect for the goalies he has seen,” such as his father. Jan Lundell also attributed it to “the Finnish mentality” of being a well-rounded player.
Having a father who was a goalie, and is now a goalie coach, also has given the younger Lundell a different perspective on how to score against them.
“If I ever have a question about goalies, he’s the guy to ask,” he said. “We used to talk a lot about how goalies play, what places you can score more goals and from different angles. It’s always interesting to put yourself in the goalie’s shoes and think, ‘Now, he’s playing this way. Shooting here might be tough for him.’
Though they haven’t specifically discussed Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman, maybe something Lundell picked up from their conversations will help him score in a big moment in this series or later in the playoffs. That and another important lesson he learned from his dad.
“If you keep doing it the right way,” Anton Lundell said, “at some point, it’s going to turn.”
