The Panthers are as healthy as can be. That’s key as the Cup Final continues
When the Florida Panthers made their first of what has now become three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final two years ago, they hobbled into the final series.
So many key players had major injuries. Their depth wasn’t where it needed to be to compensate for the losses.
Naturally, they lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.
Fast forward, and see how things have changed.
Florida stayed relatively healthy through its Cup Final run last year, which ended with its championship after knocking off the Edmonton Oilers in seven games.
And this year? Florida seems to only be getting stronger as the playoffs reach the end.
After getting banged up a bit during the Eastern Conference final, with three key players in forwards Sam Reinhart and A.J. Greer plus defenseman Niko Mikkola missing time in that series, the Panthers got back to full strength in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, a 6-1 win against the Oilers to go up 2-1 in the best-of-7 series.
“It’s very hard to win a Cup with unhealthy bodies,” Greer said entering Game 4 on Thursday.
Now, the Panthers certainly aren’t at 100%. No team is at this time of year. “Everybody manages small things,” as coach Paul Maurice put it.
But the fact that Florida is able to roll out its top lineup without any hiccups is only a boost to its chances to repeat.
And the Panthers are showing that form throughout the Cup Final.
Reinhart, who missed Games 3 and 4 in the Eastern Conference Final after taking a low hit from Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, scored a goal and added an assist on Aaron Ekblad’s power play goal Monday for his first points of the series.
“His game is getting stronger, quite a bit stronger,” Maurice said. “He’s back to full health now.”
Greer, a staple on Florida’s fourth line, battled through a lower-body injury throughout the final three games of the conference final. He left Game 3 late after tightening up, didn’t play in Game 4 and missed basically all of the third period of the series-clinching Game 5.
He then sat out the first two games of the Cup Final before making his series debut in Game 3 on Monday.
“Our medical guys and our training guys did an unbelievable job for me, personally, getting back to where I needed to be 100 percent,” Greer said. “It’s a 24-hour job. When you get hurt, you want to get back as quickly as you can. There were definitely doubts, where I didn’t know if I was gonna be playing in the series, and certainly got me emotional when we did win that Eastern Conference game, knowing that I might not be able to play the series. I only missed two games, I’m back at it, and we’re in a good position right now.”
And then there’s star winger Matthew Tkachuk, who missed the final 25 games of the regular season with an apparent groin injury sustained during the 4 Nations Face-Off in mid-February. Maurice eased him back into action at the start of the playoffs, particularly in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but said that Tkachuk is “back to form now.” Tkachuk has 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) in 20 games.
“I thought his last game was his best game of the playoffs,” Maurice said. “He moved right. ... He was out for such a very long time.”
But even when Florida wasn’t at full strength throughout this postseason run, it had depth it could rely on that it didn’t have two years ago. The Panthers have 15 forwards and seven defensemen who are all capable of playing in the lineup on any given night.
“With our depth this year, even when guys are injured or guys are out of the lineup, there’s just so much depth on our team that guys can fill in seamlessly and it doesn’t change our lineup that much,” center Sam Bennett said. “That’s definitely a huge factor for us.”
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