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The Florida Panthers are one loss away from being eliminated, down 3-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final — but they've been here before.
Before sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes and dispatching the Toronto Maple Leafs in five games, the Panthers were down 3-1 to the Boston Bruins, potentially the greatest regular season team ever, at least statistically, in the first round. Not a single person outside of Florida gave them a chance.
But they authored one of the most miraculous comebacks in the sport's history, winning the last three games — including two at TD Garden in Boston in overtime — to advance.
“The confidence is there,” defenseman Brandon Montour said ahead of the team's fourth potential elimination game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, per NHL.com's Amalie Benjamin.
“It's nice that obviously we did it before, so the belief's got to be there. That's the only way out of this. Obviously, we're in a hole, but I like our chances to get back. We've got a fight in this group.”
Certainly, the odds are against them, and Vegas has simply been better through four games. But if there's one squad that can truly put it all in the past and focus on winning one game at a time, it's the 2022-23 Panthers.
“You've got to win four,” captain Aleksander Barkov said, per Benjamin. “It's 3-1. I know, they're one win away, we're three wins away, but all we can do is think about one game, bringing it back to Florida, and that's our goal.”
The Golden Knights are one win away from lifting the Stanley Cup, which could happen as soon as Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. But it won't be easy.
For superstar Matthew Tkachuk, it's keeping the game close as long as possible, like they did against the Bruins.
“It was just a really short-term mindset,” Tkachuk said. “Go in there, get the first goal in Boston. Get it to overtime. The longer games go against all these teams, all the pressure starts to shift to them…the longer the series goes, all the pressure goes to them.”
There will certainly be pressure on Vegas to close it out in front of the home crowd in Game 5, and it's probably safe to say that the Panthers will play their best game of the series on the road — a place they have been excellent all postseason — on Tuesday night.