Panthers’ return to Boston brings back memories of playoff run’s magical start
It was a moment that jump-started the Florida Panthers’ magical playoff run.
Overtime. Game 5 between the Panthers and Boston Bruins in Boston. Florida one loss from its season ending in the first round.
Carter Verhaeghe sprints down the ice, intercepts goaltender Linus Ullmark’s pass on the boards and flicks the puck to Matthew Tkachuk. With a nearly wide-open net, Tkachuk fires an uncontested backhanded shot.
Panthers win 4-3. They live to fight another day.
After they clear the ice and as they celebrated in the dressing room, Tkachuk gives his declaration.
“Boys, remember this room,” Tkachuk said. “We’ll be back here for [Game] 7.”
The Panthers made it back to Boston for Game 7 ... and then completed the upset of the top-seeded Bruins with another overtime road win ... and then ran all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
“When things get competitive, that’s fun. That’s what you play for,” Verhaeghe, who scored the overtime goal in Game 7, said. “When it gets really competitive in the playoffs, there’s a lot of emotion involved.”
The Panthers are expected a full range of emotions on Monday night when they enter TD Garden for their first matchup with the Bruins since that playoff series.
Tkachuk, the Panthers’ vocal leader ever since Florida acquired him in a blockbuster trade with the Calgary Flames ahead of last season, has said multiple times since the start of training camp that the past needs to stay in the past — the Panthers need to focus on improving on last year.
But on Monday night? He will definitely have some flashbacks to that playoff series.
“I just think that it was a crazy few weeks there that series with the ups and downs and coming back from 3-1,” Tkachuk said Sunday before the team flew to Boston. “Really just with the summer being so quick, you had a little bit of time to reflect but not a ton. That was last season, but definitely going back there I’m sure will bring a smile to my face when I step into that rink.”
And for good reason.
The Panthers were an afterthought in that series, the last team to sneak into the playoffs against the best regular-season team in NHL history.
Florida and Boston split the first two games at TD Garden — the Bruins winning Game 1 3-1, the Panthers taking Game 2 6-3 — before the Bruins cruised past the Panthers in Games 3 and 4 in Sunrise to put Florida on the brink of an early exit.
But that Game 5 win sparked Florida. The Panthers then won Game 6 7-5 at home to force that Tkachuk-predicted Game 7 that they took 4-3 to advance to the second round and make Boston the first team ever to win a Presidents Trophy to not advance out of the first round of the playoffs.
“Anytime you play someone in the playoffs, you develop sort of a hatred for the team and definitely a rivalry,” Verhaeghe said. “It was a bunch of good games last year in the playoffs. I’m excited to get some emotion in the game and have fun in their building.
“It’s always fun playing in that building,” Verhaeghe added. “They have some pretty crazy fans. That building gets pretty loud. Definitely good memories in that building from last year. It could have gone either way, but it’s gonna be fun.”
Both teams are in similar spots early this season as they were last season. The Bruins enter the matchup 7-0-1, their lone defeat an overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday. Florida is 4-3-0, still coming into its own as it deals with injuries and the integration of more than a half-dozen new players.
“That’s closer to the version of the team that got up 3-1 on us with the way they’re structured now,” Paul Maurice said. “The style of game that they play hasn’t changed a whole lot. The style that we’re playing hasn’t changed. The personnel has changed. That may make it look a little bit different, but both teams had great success at different points in that series. It’s all about trying to get to your own game, especially this early.”
And Florida is expecting nothing but Boston’s best after the way that playoff series unfolded.
“I don’t think they’re too thrilled with with our team,” Tkachuk said, “but it wasn’t like our team came in and it was a fluke and stole it. We went all the way to the Final after. We earned it. Just coming back from 3-1, that’s such a hard feat in itself and [winning] twice in Boston and to that team that they had last year on top of everything. Their team is off to a very similar start this year as they were last year. They’re rolling and they’re one of if not the best team in the league right now. It’s going to be a great challenge for us. A lot of really talented players who work so hard and great defense. They play really hard, so it’s gonna be it’s gonna be a full challenge for us.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2023 at 11:35 AM.
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