How the Panthers avoided a post-Stanley Cup hangover

Kristen Shilton, ESPN NHL reporterDec 9, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

Close

Jordan Staal sat in his locker looking shell-shocked. Again.

The Carolina Hurricanes had just been blown out for the second straight night — a rarity in itself — but by the same team, no less: the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

And it was fair to say the Canes captain was reeling from the experience.

“We got beat in every facet,” Staal said following the 6-0 drubbing last month. “Not a whole lot of positives out of any of it.”

Editor’s Picks

2 Related

Even less so when the outcome just 24 hours earlier — a 6-3 defeat for the Hurricanes — had prompted Staal to point out the Panthers “don’t give you anything — it’s always a battle against that team.”

Call it cliché. But the rest of the league would co-sign. In an era where it’s tough enough to go on one Cup Final run, the Panthers are fresh off back-to-back journeys (with one victory) and appear no worse for wear despite long springs and short offseasons.

It’s not just that, though. Florida has had to re-tool it’s roster, letting go of certain personnel (namely Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson) while prioritizing in-house extensions (looking at you, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe).

Still, the Panthers are an elite club, battling for first place in the Atlantic Division and remaining (mostly) on track through the quarter mark of this season.

How have they done it? What’s kept Florida from falling off? And can they sustain — and extend — their success into another Cup run, as just the second team in nearly four decades to make three straight Final appearances?

It could happen. Here’s why.

WHEN REINHART COLLECTED an astonishing 57 goals in a career-best showing last season, it was easy (and predictable) to suspect he’d fail to reach such heights again.

Well, consider this season Reinhart’s rebuttal.

The 29-year-old is earning every dollar of the eight-year, $69 million contract extension he inked on July 1 as not only the Panthers’ leading scorer but sitting top 10 in the league (with 18 goals and 34 points through 26 games). Reinhart sets a tone for Florida’s offense as a high-powered, unrelenting force that’s deep with talent.

Sure, the Panthers have other stars producing. Aleksander Barkov has 25 points in 18 games. Matthew Tkachuk has 23 in 21. But how about Anton Lundell (19 points), Evan Rodrigues (13 points) and of course Verhaeghe (20 points) and Sam Bennett (24 points)?

Florida is averaging the fourth-most goals this season (3.65 per game) by being the opposite of a one-line wonder. That can make things hard on an opponent.

“The Panthers can generate scoring in unique ways,” an Atlantic Division defenseman said. “There’s no real script with how they’ll attack. It’s tough to prepare for them.”

Sam Reinhart has continued scoring at an elite pace this season, much to the delight of teammates like Aaron Ekblad. Emilee Chinn/Getty Images

They’ve proven it before. Florida’s offense is trending above where it ended off in 2023-24 (11th overall, averaging 3.23 goals per game). But the trend, year-over-year, is clear: the Panthers’ depth holds up even through injuries, scoring slumps and losing streaks.

The Panthers were in a season-long skid through early November, dropping six of seven, and searching for answers. They responded with three routs — first of the Toronto Maple Leafs and then the two takedowns of Carolina — with a combined 17 goals scored. Florida has never been afraid to look inward and honestly assess its issues. That’s how the Panthers’ offense finally rebounded.

“It’s not about … fixing. It’s [saying] okay, the problem is identified,” coach Paul Maurice said. “To play that [elite] way every night is very, very difficult. And we’ve been looking for a bit of that emotional well, about where do we get the energy to play like that again.”

Maurice knows how to get the most of this group, too. Saturday’s 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks made Maurice the winningest coach in Panthers’ history, with 111 victories under his belt (he’s 111-65-16 overall) since replacing Andrew Brunette behind the bench in 2022. And Maurice isn’t going anywhere after signing a multi-year extension with the Panthers in October.

If Reinhart is steering the offense with his output, then Tkachuk is powering his team’s engine in other ways. Even when the latter doesn’t make it onto the scoresheet, he’s providing the intangibles that only he can, and that’s been a difference-making mentality for Florida since Tkachuk came on board three years ago.

“Our entire game is better at a certain emotional level, and he is the driver of that,” Maurice said. “Matthew brings an intensity to the game every night. He’s just wired into it. He’s not faking it. That’s just the way he is when the puck is dropped, and that’s infectious.”

IT’S EASY TO BE a Florida Panther.

That was the refrain from players like Vladimir Tarasenko and Kyle Okposo when they were acquired by the team at last year’s trade deadline.

Fantasy hockey essentials

• Free agent pickups: Who to add
• Weekly trends: Power play, goalie picks
• Projections | Goalie depth chart
• Rankings | Player rater
• High production with few minutes
• It’s not too late, sign up today!

“They’ve been so good,” Okposo told ESPN last month of the Panthers helping him transition. “The organization has extremely high standards and there’s no secret what the expectations are. That’s an exciting thing.”

GM Bill Zito projects to be busy again working the phones to strengthen an area the Panthers haven’t been dominant in — goal prevention. Florida is seventh-worst in goals against per game (3.33), a long way from where they left off last season (second, 2.41).

It was inevitable that losing Montour and Ekman-Larsson in free agency would leave a significant void on the Panthers’ blue line that Adam Boqvist and Nate Schmidt — two low-cost, free-agent signees — have not entirely filled. Zito is in the market for a right-shot defender who can elevate that group.

That will be tricky considering the Panthers will have only about $2.9 million in available cap space ahead of the March 7 deadline. That’s where Zito’s forte at finding the right pieces for the right price pays off. He’ll need that again, because his team faces every opponent’s best every night out.

EVERYONE WANTS TO BEAT the best — and take the proverbial throne. It’s part of what makes any sport great.

For a team on top like the Panthers, that means bearing the heavy target on your back without cracking under the pressure.

That’s another area in which Florida is able to excel.

“Yes, other teams are playing us possibly even harder than they did last year,” Maurice said. “You’re getting everybody’s A-game. In the games that we think we were emotionally in tune, we’ve been pretty darn good. We’re dealing with, and have dealt with, what we thought would be the challenge: It would be the emotional energy to play our game.”

As defending champs, the Panthers routinely face an elevated effort from opponents. Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Doing that night after night can take a toll, but the Panthers are nothing if not resilient. Consider their recent bout against the Philadelphia Flyers, where Florida blew an early 3-0 lead to hang on for a 7-5 victory. Emotions? They were high. And the Panthers used them to fuel their overall performance instead of making excuses for mistakes.

It’s true that every team will have their hills to climb — because of anything from injuries to unexpected sub-par play — but not all clubs can stand tall in the face of those trials. Florida does. The Panthers’ goaltending this season is an example of it. Florida’s gone primarily with a tandem of Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight, and neither netminder has stunning stats; Bobrovsky owns an .890 save percentage and 3.04 goals-against average, while Knight is at .890 and 2.84.

Florida’s dynamic offense has picked up slack for the team’s more porous defense and goaltending. Sometimes, that’s what it takes. Of course, the Panthers want to be well-rounded and effective in every area, and it goes back on Zito to make the proper adjustments. But the Panthers are special in that they can lean on one aspect of their game to keep them on an elite track while still improving those other areas.

Even through all their achievements the Panthers aren’t resting on any laurels.

WHEN THE PANTHERS aren’t at their best, it’s obvious what’s missing: the (sometimes) dirty details.

Great zone entries and exits don’t make the highlight reel. All but a few of the hockey-obsessed are scanning for who won the most board battles or broke the puck out effectively through the neutral zone. But those things come with the territory of being champions. And Florida is excellent in every of those categories.

The Panthers innately know themselves. They’re a physical team, and that has to be on display. It’s no wonder that Florida is averaging the third-most hits per 60 minutes this season (27.68) and they’re top five in takeaways (5.76 per game).

Flash and finesse are easily relished. But balancing that with grittiness, physicality and a workmanlike effort can set a club apart — and tee them up for rounds of victory when it matters the most.

“I think we’re structurally ahead of where we were in each of the last two years,” Maurice said. “So when you cut video, you’re not cutting video on where we’re out of position on our neutral-zone defense, so there’s not a lot of technical stuff that we’re doing right now.”

CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY. Florida has been dominant on the power play this season (third overall, at 28.4%) and have an above-average penalty kill (12th, 80.8%), both of which can be difference-making momentum-drivers.

How do we know? Roll the tape.