As Panthers renew playoff rivalry with Bruins, impact of 2023 series still fueling Florida

At this time a year ago, the Florida Panthers didn’t really have much time in the moment to fully process what they did.

That Panthers team, the one that barely squeaked into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in their first season under coach Paul Maurice, rallied from a 3-1 series deficit in the opening round against the Boston Bruins — the team that had just put together the best regular season in NHL history — and won three consecutive games to advance to the second round.

What happened after that, of course, was history. Florida marched all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in franchise history, although they ultimately lost in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights.

“It showed we could beat anybody and it gave us a lot of confidence,” star Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “No matter who we played, no matter what building we’re in, no matter what happens here, we have a chance to win. It brought us super close together, and the effects of that series are still being shown off.”

And now, the playoff rivalry will be renewed with the Panthers facing the Bruins in the playoffs for the second consecutive year — this time in Round 2 after Florida beat Tampa Bay in five games and Boston beat Toronto in seven games in their respective opening-round matchups.

Puck drop for Game 1 of the best-of-7 series is at 8 p.m. Monday at Sunrise’s Amerant Bank Arena.

The Panthers have known they will be in the second round for nearly a week now after. Boston had to stave off Toronto’s efforts to mount a comeback from down 3-1 in the first-round series.

The roles are basically reversed heading into this Florida-Boston series, but that doesn’t mean the Panthers are concerning themselves about the fact that those outside the room are viewing them as the favorites this time around.

“I think that’s more for you to decide,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We just play our game. We know how to play. We know how to play hard. That’s what we want to do. We have the same mindset as last year. We want to out-compete every team we play. It doesn’t matter who we play. We want to be at our best every game. It’s not our decision to decide who’s the favorite.”

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Last year, the Panthers didn’t have to worry about that because, at least on the outside, they were the clear-cut underdog. Florida barely made it into the playoffs while Boston went 65-12-5 in the regular season. The Bruins quickly proceeded to jump out to a 3-1 series lead against the Panthers, putting Florida on the brink of seeing its postseason journey end before it could begin.

Florida would need to put together three consecutive wins to stay alive.

And that’s when the magic began.

It started with Game 5 at Boston’s TD Garden. Florida took the lead three times in regulation on goals by Anthony Duclair, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart only for Boston to respond each time and force overtime.

Tkachuk sealed the first of three must-win game 6:05 into overtime and shortly afterward gave his team a resounding message.

“Boys, remember this room,” Tkachuk said in the dressing room. “We’ll be back here for seven.”

Tkachuk was right.

The Panthers went on to win Game 6 7-5 in Sunrise to force a winner-take-all Game 7 in Boston on April 30.

“We didn’t think we had a disadvantage at all,” Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour said, “but I think once we tied it up, it became surreal for everyone and we said ‘We can do something here.’”

In that Game 7, the Panthers jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the second period before Boston scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead 4:11 into the third period.

Undeterred, Montour tied the game with a minute left in regulation and winger Carter Verhaeghe clinched the series win 8:35 into overtime.

“That just showed us pretty much that when we do things the right way and when we play really hard, everything is possible,” Barkov said. “That’s what we learned from that series and it’s been carried over to this year.”

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This year, Florida won the Atlantic Division, edging Boston for the crown by one point.

The Panthers did not, however, beat their in any of their four regular-season matchups, although two of the games went to overtime, a third was also decided by one goal and the fourth was a two-goal game.

“They definitely got us in the regular season,” Tkachuk said. “I think if you ask them, they’re probably using that for confidence go to this series. And we’re like ‘The regular season doesn’t matter. We got them in playoffs.’ We’ll use our playoff experience and use that as confidence. They did take it to us this year, but they were all close games. So I’m expecting a very good series.”

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