Cote: Florida Panthers, flat in 2-0 home loss, need to play like champs in Game 7 in Toronto | Opinion
Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice had reiterated after Friday’s morning skate how much he did not believe in momentum. His team’s three straight victories meant zero to him as any hint of what might happen that night in Game 6.
But he did say this of the potential closeout game with his team up, 3-2:
“We may have a desire advantage. You’re right there for the prize. And [Toronto] may have a desperation advantage.”
Desire was not enough, evidently -- not that the Panthers entirely showed that Friday.
Desperation won, 2-0.
So who has more desire now? More desperation?
Game 7. Sunday night. In Toronto.
How much do you want it now, Panthers?
More than you seemed to Friday, your fans should hope.
It got to Game 7 because Auston Matthews -- of all people -- scored the game’s first and winning goal Friday with 13:40 to play in the third period on a wrist shot, after a giveaway by Gustav Forsling. Matthews had gone 10 straight games against Florida without a goal before this momentous one.
He was getting pummeled by Toronto fans and media for that, as were the Leafs for a perceived lackadaisical play in the 6-1 Game 5 loss.
“They got killed for that last game and they didn’t deserve to,” said Maurice.
“We stuck together,” said Matthews. “There was a lot of noise on the outside that we shut out.”
The Maple Leafs added an insurance goal with 5:43 left to deflate a home crowd that hadn’t had much to cheer about most of the night. It was a Max Pacioretty backhander that made the red light flash.
The Panthers seemed flat in the first period, almost lifeless by their standard, managing a meager two shots on goal. They came alive early-to-mid second period by bunching nine shots on goal in a sustained flurry that lifted the crowd to its apex on the night.
“We made a great push in the second,” said Matthew Tkachuk.
But there wasn’t much for the Cats fans to cheer thereafter.
Florida was 0-for-4 on power play chances. Toronto had 31 blocked shots. Very little was going right for Florida with the puck.
“We were late with the puck,” said Maurice afterward. “We were late getting it off our stick. We were waving the gun a lot but didn’t wanna pull the trigger.”
Tkachuk: “Our power play has to be a lot better. Need to get back to the basics of our game. Get guys at the net. We were slow making plays.”
So now comes only the fifth Game 7 in the Panthers’ playoff history.
Florida is 3-1 in those ultimate games -- including 2-0 on the road, beating Pittsburgh in the East finals in 1996, and Boston in the first round in 2023. (The Cats’ other Game 7s at home were a 2012 loss to New Jersey in the first round and, of course, the win over Edmonton last year that won the Stanley Cup.)
“You gain experience through the runs, the years,” Tkachuk said. “Seems like we always play in a big Game 7 every year. Maybe this is that game.”
The Panthers will need to stay perfect in Game 7 road games Sunday to keep hopes alive for a repeat championship.
“They’re free,” Maurice said of Game 7s. “All the energy you’ve got with no concern about tomorrow. You don’t need a lot of extra coffee. Game 7s are about as honest a game as you’re gonna find. There’s no cheating in that game. That’s why they’re so much fun.”
Said Toronto coach Craig Berube of Game 7s: “They’re fun because everything’s on the line. We gotta come out and do the same things we did [Friday]. It’s not fancy. It’s competing. Being direct. Simple hockey.”
It’s tough to win back to back in major pro sports, as Florida is now discovering.
We saw that again up the East cost Friday night as the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics were eliminated in six games by the New York Knicks. In the NHL there have been only two repeat champs since 1998, the last by Tampa Bay in 2020-21.
The Panthers chances for back-to-back Cups looked solid after a 4-1 first-round series dispatch of Tampa, then not so much with an early 2-0 series hole to Toronto, then strong again after three straight wins heading back home.
Now?
Your guess.
“When we were down two games we would have loved a Game 7,” said Tkachuk. “Now we have an opportunity to make a name for ourselves again.”
Captain Aleksander Barkov: “Win or learn. That’s how we have been. [Friday] we learned and [we will] move on from this game, recover well and get ready.”
Desire. Desperation. Two teams should have both in equal measure now.
In NHL postseason history teams that win Game 6 on the road to tie it 3-3 win the series 58 percent of the time, putting the Panthers chances at 42 percent. But is the past foolproof in foretelling the future?
Florida is 2-for-2 in Game 7s on the road, after all. And these Panthers are the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
Does any of that matter, either? Does the home ice?
Desire. Desperation.
The team that rises up to own that magical combination Sunday night wins, and keeps its season alive.
Now we see if the Panthers can do in Game 7 what they did not Friday night:
Act like champions. Play like champions.
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 10:36 PM.
