The Jap Convention Remaining opened on Tuesday night time with the Florida Panthers rolling to a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Listed here are some key takeaways from their victory.
Can anyone beat Florida 4 instances?
This actually is the million-dollar query for the playoffs. Tampa Bay beat the Panthers as soon as within the first spherical. Toronto managed to get three wins within the second spherical.
However it isn’t a race to 2 or three wins. It’s a race to 4 wins. The thought of any person beating this Panthers workforce 4 instances in a seven-game stretch simply appears actually arduous to grasp given the way in which they’re taking part in — in addition to the way in which they’ve performed over the earlier two postseasons.
With back-to-back Stanley Cup Remaining appearances and now three consecutive Jap Convention Remaining appearances, there must be little doubt as to how good this workforce is, particularly in crunch time within the playoffs.
However there may be additionally generally a bodily toll that comes with that a lot hockey over a two- or three-year window. Groups can break down or decelerate. They’ll get drained.
It by no means appears to occur with this Panthers workforce as they simply maintain getting stronger and stronger.
Each potential ingredient and wish-list merchandise you may have for a workforce exists on this roster.
They’ve stars on the prime of the lineup in Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart.
They’re as deep as any workforce within the league with 17 completely different gamers scoring a minimum of one aim in these playoffs.
They’re extremely well-coached and have some of the aggressive forechecks and taking part in kinds within the league.
They’ll beat you any manner you need to try to play them. They’ll outscore you, they’ll grind their option to a low-scoring win, they’ll struggle you, they’ll skate with you they usually can shut down your stars.
They’re the favourite in each sequence they play till any person truly knocks them off.
It is simply arduous to think about any person doing that anytime quickly.
Carolina’s Jap Convention Remaining struggles proceed
Here’s a considerably baffling statistic to ponder: Tuesday’s loss was the Hurricanes’ thirteenth consecutive loss within the Jap Convention Remaining spherical — and the ninth straight beneath head coach Rod Brind’Amour.
They have been swept in every of their previous three Convention Remaining appearances, shedding 4 straight video games to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, 4 straight to the Boston Bruins in 2019 and 4 straight to the Panthers in 2022.
That shedding streak continued on Tuesday.
It’s one other harsh reminder that the Hurricanes can maintain attending to the entrance door of the Stanley Cup Remaining, they’ll maintain loudly knocking on it, however they’ve been unable to really get inside.
Sergei Bobrovsky retains constructing his legacy
Narratives can change shortly in professional sports activities, and Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is among the finest examples for that.
The largest knock on him early in his profession was that for all his regular-season success (together with two Vezina Trophies), he was by no means in a position to put it collectively the identical manner within the playoffs. He had some notorious playoff meltdowns as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets, however he has utterly flipped that storyline round since becoming a member of the Panthers.
Tuesday was one other postseason gem for him as he stopped 31 of 33 pictures, together with some nice Hurricanes probabilities early within the sport when the rating was nonetheless inside attain.
He has already put collectively a Corridor of Fame resume for himself with the 2 Vezina Trophies, 429 (and counting) regular-season wins and back-to-back Stanley Cup Remaining appearances (with a hoop). If he provides one other championship, and a back-to-back one at that, he goes from slam-dunk Corridor of Famer to potential first-ballot Corridor of Famer.
