Can Florida Panthers look like the Panthers quickly?

The Florida Panthers are in trouble and it is crazy to believe that they are not after Wednesday evening. It is the kind of difficulties that they have come out in a way that makes their last few playoff springs so unforgettable.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to be 2-0 after the loss of game 2 in Toronto 4: 3. These are two games against Toronto, as the Panthers like to play. And they have lost both games in a way that is either a lesson for you or a credit for Toronto (or both).

Here is the bigger problem in these two games: the Panthers did not look like the Panthers. Not really. The always disciplined Panthers had three penalties of the first period in game 2, the last one, had the Toronto bind 1-1.

The defender-First-Panthers gave up more strange rushes again in game 2. Nine goals in Toronto in two games are not the path of the Panthers. Credit Torontos William Nylander, who has three of these goals.

“You have to know your game,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “We talk a lot about it. There are a lot of things with our game that we believe that we can improve and do more. We will look at it and get better.”

Perhaps the most worrying of all for the Panthers is that Matthew Tkachuk does not look like Matthew Tkachuk. You can fix the discipline and defense. But is Tkachuk healthy?

He was the spirit of the cleverly evil style of the panthers in the two previous springs. He looks like a guy who was traveling with an obvious groin injury for two months and after a few nice moments against Tampa Bay was not his effective self.

“I thought he was good tonight,” said Maurice. “He created. I like to see that.”

Does Toronto play well? Sure, it overcame the loss of the StartTories Anthony Stolance in game 2 and opened this defense in Florida with all the strange levels.

Does Toronto’s home ice mean that much? No chance. The Panthers have just won all three games in Tampa.

Have three long seasons caught up with the Panthers? That could also be at work here. They played more hockey than any other between two earlier trips to the Stanley Cup final and eight players in February with the 4 nations playing tournament.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Maurice. “Seventh game in about three weeks. It is half the schedule in which we got into the playoffs. This is not a problem for us.”

Nevertheless, there is a tax on every three years of the emotions and the physical thrust used, and maybe the microd differences in this series will occur. The Puck battles. The winning plates. And of course luck with a jump or bounce off.

When Aaron Ekblad fed Anton Lundell at the beginning of the third period to bind the game at the age of 3, it was a moment for the Panthers to take the night and even the series. You have seen that you do enough in recent years, it seemed to be a natural turning point.

Seventeen seconds later, Mitch Marner von Toronto threw a shot from the point that Sergei Bobrovsky could not see and somehow hit the net. Toronto achieved his foundation and leadership again.

Sometimes a playoff series is about who comes the most in your game. Toronto did that in the first two games.

Game 2 was a night you expected from the Panthers. They had steamed about game 1 to feed their urgency. They had spoken for a few days about how they played dirty after the stun injury.

You confronted backup goalkeeper Joseph Woll. Hockey is full of stories about backup goalkeepers that become playoff folk heroes. Nevertheless, the stolance led the league in percentage. Woll was made a backup for one reason this season.

Nevertheless, Woll made the rescue of Torontos Nacht. Some Tic-Tac-Tee, who went from Tkachuk to Bennett to Mackie Samoskevich, had the panthers had forward at the side of an open network. But it took a second fraction to correction on the puck on his stick, and that was enough to get his leg out of the rescue. Nights are won on such games. And lost.

Bobrovsky had his moments. He stopped Bobby Mcmann and Nylander’s break. He stuck on the right leg to stop an incorrectly controlled shot when he was 4: 3 below to keep the night alive. But that only underlines all the chances that Toronto had, many of them from the kind of strange man who normally prevent the Panthers.

None of this means that you cannot come back in this series. After they had returned 3-1 against a Boston power pack two years ago, nothing is too much. It can’t hurt to get home. Down 2-0 will concentrate.

They are in trouble. It is the kind of difficulties you can get out of. But to do this, the Panthers must look more like the Panthers from Friday evening in sunrise

Originally published: May 7, 2025 at 10:59 p.m. Edt