The Florida Panthers showed no signs of any fatigue from their grueling seven-game battle with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. Just 48 hours after silencing the city of Toronto in Game 7, the Panthers strolled into Carolina and crushed the Hurricanes 5-2 in Game 1 to open the Eastern Conference Finals.

Instead of the Panthers being tired, which would have been understandable, it was the Hurricanes who looked rusty after having more time off from defeating the Washington Capitals in five games.

Even after the win, there is reason for Hurricanes fans to be scared. Panthers head coach Paul Maurice wasn't a fan of how his team played despite the final score, according to Panthers reporter Jameson Olive.

“I didn't love our game tonight, but I understood it,” Maurice said. “Significant style change.”

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The Hurricanes play very differently than the Maple Leafs do, so it's understandable that there would be a bit of an adjustment period, especially considering the lack of time between series. Toronto is very talented offensively while the Hurricanes play a much more disciplined style and take up a lot of space from their opponent while getting tons of activity around the net to create chances.

Still, Florida didn't seem to have that much trouble adjusting and adapting to Carolina's style, and the Panthers now have home-ice advantage as a result. While the Hurricanes have looked like the best team in hockey for a large part of these playoffs, they now have a battle on their hands with one of the best teams of this decade.

The Panthers will certainly be leaning on their experience in this series, just like they did to get over the line in the last one. The defending champs have been in plenty of big games together, and you can see it in the way that they execute when things get tight.

The Panthers are also not going to back down when things don't go their way. Maurice's club played its best game of the season with their season on the line in Game 7 in Toronto despite failing to close out the series at home in Game 6. It will take the best punch that the Hurricanes have to throw in order to knock them off and get to the Stanley Cup Final.