Charlotte Jekill
May 27, 2023
The Florida Panthers are on a History-Making Playoff Run and Here's what's Happening! Will They Win Their First Cup?
Image credits: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
The Florida Panthers were the bottom team to qualify for this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs Finishing off the regular season with 92 points, just behind the Calgary Flames who didn’t get to make an appearance in the postseason.
Round One
The Florida Panthers had to bring their A-game in round one as they would go head to head with president's trophy winners, the Boston Bruins who finished top of the league with 135 points. Hope for the Panthers to make it past round one was sparse going into game 5 as they were in a 3-1 deficit in the series. Game 5 was a tight game the panthers managed to score the first goal and keep up with the Bruins taking them to overtime. The Panthers kept their series alive with an overtime goal by their newly acquired forward Matthew Tkachuk. After this win the Panthers would still be on a very short leash as they would have to win 3 consecutive games in order to make it to round 2. The Boston Bruins had a remarkable regular season record and had yet to lose more than 2 games in a row, however, they would experience this for the first time knocking them out of playoffs.
Round Two
After defeating the top-ranked team in the league and winning 3 straight games the Panthers had a huge high to ride on entering the second round. After the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated Tampa Bay in Round One a video went Viral of their fans chanting “We want Florida!”. This chant was reasonable because, in theory, you would prefer playing the lowest-ranked team in playoffs versus the highest-ranked team in the league, but this chant did not age well. The Panthers would continue their win streak taking them game 4 of their series against the Toronto Maple Leafs where their streak would break. The Panthers only let the Leafs get a small taste of victory as they would soon finish the series 4-1 in Game 5.
Round Three
After defeating the top-ranked team in the league and the Fourth-ranked team, the Panthers would now come to face the Second ranked team, the Carolina Hurricanes. Game one of this series was one to watch, if you bought tickets to this game you essentially got a buy one get one free because the game went into 4 overtimes! This game became the longest game in both franchise's history as well as the sixth-longest game in NHL history. Once again Matthew Tkachuck would score the overtime winner with only 12.7 seconds left in the 4th overtime period. The next game was also decided in overtime with Matthew Tkachuk scoring again but this time almost 2 minutes into overtime. Going into Game Four the Panthers lead the series 3-0 so this was their opportunity to secure their spot in the Stanley Cup finals and they did just that. Tied 3-3 in the third period with less than 5 seconds to go in regulation, Matthew Tkachuk scores again securing their spot in the finals for the first time since 1996.