The Florida Panthers were the last team to advance to the postseason in 2023 — and improbably, the roster came within three victories of the franchise's first-ever Stanley Cup. The Cats meshed into a wagon at the perfect time, authoring one of the most improbable comebacks against one of the best regular-season teams of all time.
Florida beat Boston in a thrilling Game 7 at TD Garden, with the pride of Waterdown Carter Verhaeghe scoring the series clincher to erase a 3-1 lead and send B's fans home absolutely stunned. The Panthers would then dispatch the Toronto Maple Leafs in five games in Round 2, and sweep the Carolina Hurricanes in the club's first Eastern Conference Final since 1996 — the only other year the team has been to the SCF.
Injuries and a superior Vegas Golden Knights team would halt the cinderella run, but it was still a seriously encouraging test for the roster, which was up to the challenge for nearly three gruelling months.
In 2023-24, the regular-season has been a completely different story. The Panthers are coming off an insane stretch that saw the team win 21 of 24 games, vaulting into first in the President's Trophy race. Although a four-game skid cooled the heater — and is mainly due to the crucial absences of captain Sasha Barkov and defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling — Florida is still a wagon heading into another playoff season.
The Panthers won the league title in 2021-22, but were not an exception to the curse, losing in the second-round to the Tampa Bay Lightning (no President's Trophy team has won the Cup since the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013). And although the team won't care too much about another regular-season ship — except to secure home-ice throughout the playoffs — the same can't be said about a potentially deep playoff run.
Here's why the Panthers have an excellent chance to get out of the Eastern Conference again this season.
When healthy, Florida boasts one of the league's most complete rosters
Despite the current cold spell, the Panthers are still tied for first in the Atlantic Division, and will play the team they are competing for the division with at home on Tuesday night. Yes, the Bruins will be at Amerant Bank Arena for a critical tilt. And the Cats will be almost fully healthy for the affair.
Both Barkov and Forsling will return to the lineup for the contest, and Aaron Ekblad is not far behind. With those three healthy, the Panthers are a completely different team, and one that has already proven it's good enough to win playoff rounds. We all know the potency of Matthew Tkachuk in the postseason, but how about 50-goal scorer Sam Reinhart? He's in the midst of the best season of his career, while Tkachuk and Barkov continue to produce at a prolific clip.
The usual suspects remain on the back end (Forsling, Montour, Ekblad), but they've been supplemented by a few key additions, including Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov. All of those three players have playoff experience, and should help to stabilize the blue line, especially if injuries hit — as they have over the last couple of weeks. There will likely be more ailments to come; that's just the bruising nature of the playoffs. Having a few extra NHL ready D-men will be crucial in a month.
And, of course, we can't forget about playoff Sergei Bobrovsky.
Playoff Sergei Bobrovsky is on the case
After signing a megadeal in Florida after seven seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner was notorious for his regular-season struggles in South Beach. But he turned it on right in time, proving to the hockey world that he can elevate his play to incredible new heights in the postseason.
Encouragingly, Bobrovsky has had a great 2023-24 regular-season, sporting a very respectable 2.38 goals-against average and .916 save percentage. Those are his best numbers in a campaign since 2017-18 when he was still with the Blue Jackets. Clearly, the Russian is enjoying a late-career resurgence — he is 35-years-old, after all — and he should be spectacular again for Florida in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He was incredible last time around, and the team in front of him will need similar levels of netminding if they hope to reach back-to-back SCFs.
Matthew Tkachuk, Panthers have unfinished business
Like Bobrovsky, superstar Matthew Tkachuk knows how to up his game in the playoffs. And he, along with his team, have unfinished business. The Panthers entered the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights figuratively on one leg, and Tkachuk suffered a broken sternum that kept him out of the final game of the season. He joined Ekblad and Montour on the shelf — the toll of the postseason cost each blue liner multiple months of the 2023-24 campaign.
In 2024, the Panthers are not just sneaking into the playoffs. They have a legitimate chance to win the league, and will be one of the Stanley Cup favorites when the dance begins in just under a month. They aren't underdogs, there will be no cinderella story, and the expectations will be sky-high. That could certainly be an Achilles heel, but the Cats know what it takes, and that could be a huge help for them.
The playoffs are a grind, and no team learned that lesson more acutely than the Florida Panthers in 2023. But with a crucial year of experience under their belt, the team has enjoyed a confidence-building regular-season that has proven that the cinderella run was no fluke. This time around, the hockey world is expecting a lot more. It'll be intriguing to see if the Cats can be the last team standing in a gauntlet of an Eastern Conference. And if that happens, can they finally break through and win an inaugural Stanley Cup? We're going to have a lot of fun finding out.
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