Panthers weigh patience against urgency as NHL begins first five-game series since ’86
Joel Quenneville hadn’t had to think about a five-game series in more than 30 years. He was playing in the league — one reporter reminded him Monday in Toronto — the last time the NHL held a best-of-5 postseason series.
“It’s going back just a couple of years,” Quenneville joked, “going way back.”
On Saturday, the NHL’s first five-game series since the 1980s will begin. Five of the five-game qualifying series begin Saturday in Canada as the league begins its expanded 24-team postseason, modified because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Florida Panthers will begin theirs at 4 p.m. against the New York Islanders in Toronto and Quenneville has some life experience to draw from.
When the NHL last held five-game opening-round series in 1986, teams played the series across five days with two back-to-backs split up by a single off day.
“That was a heck of a grind,” Quenneville said.
The Panthers’ qualifying series won’t be nearly as grueling. After playing Saturday, Florida has two days off before playing a back-to-back Tuesday and Wednesday. If the series goes the distance, five games will take place across nine days.
The back-to-back is the toughest single challenge, but the structure naturally poses one big-picture dilemma: How do you balance patience with urgency?
“You don’t have a lot of time in a short series to wait, wait, wait,” Quenneville said, “and I think we want to go with what we think is going to give us the best chance at that moment.”
There’s also the most obvious change: Every game is simply worth more.
The postseason always brings about a certain type of urgency. It’s more important than ever to be ready to play right out of the gate.
“Being a best-of-5, I think Game 1 is much more important than a best-of-seven. I think tomorrow’s game is huge,” winger Brett Connolly said. “There’s no time to take shifts off. If you take a few shifts off, you could be down a couple goals and in a best-of-five you’re behind the eight ball right away, so there’s got to be urgency right away. I think guys know that and hopefully, like I said, we can play well right away.”
Panthers return to full strength
The Panthers will have their top defensive pairing on the ice Saturday when they open the qualifying round against the New York Islanders, Quenneville said. Aaron Ekblad and MacKenzie Weegar both practiced for the second straight day Friday in Canada, and are “good to go” this weekend.
“We look like we’re all good to go,” Quenneville said. “Everybody’s cleared and ready to go.”
The two defensemen both sat out Florida’s 5-0 exhibition loss the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday as they battled undisclosed injuries. Ekblad suffered his sometime last week and missed the Panthers’ final three practices of their postseason training camp in Coral Springs before returning to practice Monday. Quenneville held the 24-year-old Canadian out of the exhibition as a precaution.
Weegar’s injury happened sometime earlier this week and he was a surprise scratch for the scrimmage before he got back on the ice Thursday.
With those two missing, Florida’s defense was porous Wednesday. giving up four goals in the first 30 minutes of the blowout loss. Defenseman Mike Matheson, moved into the lineup partially because of their absence, was on the ice for all five Lightning goals.
“It certainly was a little void in our lineup,” Quenneville said. “Having them back together is going to be important.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 4:13 PM.
