CRAZY Panthers Update... This changes EVERYTHING | Florida Panthers News

The Panthers stole game one of the Easter Conference Finals behind a big performance by that man right there, as well as a performance by this guy, who not a lot of you may know who he is. I'll tell you what he did that helped the Panthers get that crucial game one victory to steal home ice advantage. And Brad Marchand, of course, there's always a little controversy surrounding him, and we'll get into that in a second. And Paul Maurice, the genius behind one of the greatest coaches in NHL history, the lines he has put together, his game plan going into game number one against a team in the Carolina Hurricanes, who were just dominant in their first two series, where they won 4-1 in round number one and 4-1 in round number two. Guys, what a great performance last night by the defending Stanley Cup champion, Florida Panthers. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Panthers Digest. I'm your host, Greg Andrews. Hit that subscribe button down below. I'm not sure if I'm pointing at it correctly, but right down there, subscribe, share, comment, like. I would really appreciate it. Thank you guys all so much for tuning in. Big performance, very physical game on both ends of the ice. The Panthers dominated all the way through. Carolina came out, I mean, dead to rights, just big hits, being physical, trying to get into the heads of the Florida Panthers players, and it didn't work, especially with Sergei Bobrovsky. We'll get into a little bit of what happened there in just a moment, but what a performance by this team. They were physical right back to the Carolina Hurricanes. It might not have looked that way in the first 10 minutes of the game because they were getting pushed around pretty hard. There were some big hits by the Carolina Hurricanes that happened right off the bat, a little bit of controversy with running into Bobrovsky. To me, I'm a little frustrated because I'm like, there were a couple of times that they could have called interference on the goaltender. Guys getting in the crease and bumping into Bobrovsky. Again, we'll get into all this stuff in just a minute. There's so much I want to talk about, and I don't want to take up 24 minutes like I did in my last episode. I really want to get right to the point, which I'm going to do right now. Big time game for this team. After a huge performance in game number seven against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a lot of people didn't think the Panthers would come out and be this dominant in game number one against the team in the Carolina Hurricanes, who had been rolling in their last two series. That performance last night is the definition of what Stanley Cup champions are. Persevering through the physicality that the other team is bringing, trying to get into their heads, and they pushed through, and man, they didn't bat an eye to this team at all last night. Great performance, and I was so impressed with Bobrovsky. He has been standing on his head again. He's like he did last year, playing great hockey when he needs to, helping his team get the big win. They now have home ice advantage. I said this in my last episode, if they get away with two wins, I think the series is over in five. I'm not sure if they're going to sweep it like they did in 2023, because this is a Carolina Hurricanes team that is very different this year. They're going to show more physicality, I think, next game. I think Anderson, he just looked really shaky between the pipes, and I'll tell you about his numbers in just a second, and it kind of compared that game last night to how he played in the last series against the Washington Capitals, who were lights out scoring during the regular season. But this to me was a performance that showed that the Panthers really are looking like they could repeat a Stanley Cup champions. That was a tremendous championship performance from a team that will not be shaken. They won't. So these are the numbers. The big arrow there was it's a very physical game. 48 hits for the Panthers, 49 for the Carolina Hurricanes. Man, there were big hits left and right happening all over the ice. It was great entertainment to watch. I could not take my eyes away from the screen, not because the Panthers were winning and playing so great offensively, it was the defense as well. That's what has helped this team out. And look at the blocked shots. I told you, if the Panthers are capable of blocking a lot of shots in these series, they're going to come away with the W. Biggest thing, though, that is a little bit scary, the Panthers are still having trouble in the face-off circle. 40% face-off win percentage is not great. I mean, we were shooting the puck really well last night. They were getting by Anderson with some ease, but they have to be better in the circle. In the games where it's going to be tighter and we know they're probably going to happen, especially tomorrow night, we need to win in the face-off circle in our defensive zone. So that way we control the puck, we keep it away from Carolina, who can be very deadly on offense. That first line, excuse me, I'm not going to even say his name, but with Ajo and Jarvis and those guys up there, they're going to put the puck and throw it at the net. And they had a lot of chances and Bob stood up big to block Ajo in that one breakaway that he had. And I do think that off the skate, he did have a kicking motion. They were saying over the broadcast, oh, the kicking motion happened after it deflected off the skate. I get it. Everybody's kind of like, yeah, it was more like it just bounced off. He redirected it. He didn't push it with his skate, but it was a 50-50 call. I don't think the refs got it wrong, but as a Panthers fan, I would say it's a wrong call ref. That's a bad call. But by the rule, there wasn't a distinct kicking motion. It did bounce off his skate. He redirected it and the kicking motion happened after the puck deflected off of the skate. So call it what it is. Take your side. It doesn't matter. Panthers power play was outstanding. Two of three. Dynamite. Math is easy. 66.6%. Keep it up, guys. Penalty kill was still good. They gave up one. Big deal. All right. We'll take it. One of four. Could have been a lot worse. All right. And I love the way the team played. They were cohesive. Again, it's not looking for one guy to score all the goals or two guys. They spread the puck around. There were, I think, five different scorers last night. What a great game. And nine assists. Kachuk finally got one out there. Had a beautiful pass that got the puck inside right in front of Anderson to Verhege. That just literally easy backhand. I mean, what a way to control that puck and try to be patient. So it hit his stick at the right time, flattened out, put it right into that corner above the shoulder. Unbelievable shot by Verhege. So Panthers are looking solid right now. So this is the one thing I want to talk about is the TOI for the team, especially the defenseman. In the series against Toronto, we saw some of those numbers go way up, especially in those first two games for Jones, for Ekbladon, for Forsley. I mean, Jones, I think at one point almost had like 28 minutes on ice, time on ice, excuse me. And I mean, that's going to tire the guy out. Those numbers have gone down, which is good. That means our defense is picking up steam. They're able to do what they're and on all those different lines that they have defensively, they're all able to do their job. They're matching up nicely with the boards and center lines. And it's again, the cohesion of this team is just unbelievable. The chemistry is working at the right times. They're making the right plays defensively. They're poke checking. They're getting smarter in terms of not trying to be ultra aggressive when there's nobody behind them. So that way, if the puck bounces the wrong way, the other team has an odd man rush or a breakaway. They've been a little bit more careful, still some carelessness at times, but much less than what we saw in the first two games against Toronto. So again, this is just one game that we're talking about here. So there's not a lot for me to go on. But one of the things I want you to look at is Nosek had a phenomenal game, two big assists, but look at that face-off percentage. He was the spot in the circle for the Panthers. 62 and a half percent. Awesome. Not a lot of you guys probably know who he is. I didn't really know who he is, but he's fitting in with this team and he showed up last night. Look at Carver Hagee's numbers. One and one, one goal, one assist. Like I said, Nosek had the two assists. Evan Rodriguez had a great game as well with his two assists. He was playing great hockey. He was all over the place. He had some good defensive stops as well. I mean, again, the team is coming together and playing some incredible hockey at the right time. And it just seems like they're getting better as the playoffs are moving forward. They were great in that first round series against Tampa. They looked a little shaky against Toronto in the beginning, especially in that game number six at home, where they let things slip away. But game number five and seven was dominant. And if they can keep that up, especially against this Carolina team, who they dominated pretty much in the regular season, two games to one. And in those two games that they won, it was in pretty dominating fashion. They're going to be sitting really nicely in this series and maybe get out at five games, possibly a sweep. I don't know. I'm not going to call it like that. Because again, one game is not enough to go by. Coach Paul Maurice has said, you know, take it one game at a time, guys. Hockey, it doesn't matter if you win by a hundred goals in a game. The next game could be flip-flopped and the other team could come back and be ultra-aggressive and they can come out with the W. It doesn't mean that this momentum that you're riding will stay, you know, game in and game out. That's not how the NHL postseason works. Anything can happen in any game. Momentum can sway very, very easily. The other thing here is look at Sam Reinhart in the circle. 11% face-off win percentage. Pretty bad. They have to improve there. And then Bob, outstanding. Two goals went by. Pretty much a 940 save percentage. Goal against average, obviously in the series, we just want to do the math, two. Okay. So he has been nothing short of being lights out so far. And hopefully he stays that way in the series. The numbers I'm showing here are their first line guys. Okay. We held them down for the most part. One goal, two assists, sorry, three assists for that first line. But look at the face-off win percentage for Ajo. Incredible. And Roslovich, excuse me, I'm getting his name incorrect. I apologize. But look at those face-off numbers, man. Really impressive for the team. Another team that's very dominant in the face-off circle. The Panthers need to find a way to control the puck in there. But, I mean, I don't know. Don't fix what isn't broken. The Panthers are able to put the puck in the back of the net even with a low face-off win percentage, so be it. They usually have an easier time winning when they do better in the face-off circle. But, hey, I'm not going to get into it too much. And then Anderson, man, look at the numbers. A 75% save percentage. He let in five goals. His numbers in the last round against Washington, a 1.4 goals against average and a 937 save percentage. He was fantastic. And even in the series, his numbers were very similar. He was incredible. Maybe the Panthers, again, just know this team so well. When they look at the film, when they're going over their game plan in the morning or the night before, whatever it is, getting ready for that next game, they just know what to do to work against this team and put the puck in the back of the net, to get in their heads, to get around their physical play, to make sure in between the blue lines have better control of the puck, which is, I think they did a great job in that neutral ice area. They really did a phenomenal job of trying to control the puck and push it to the other end. I mean, again, there were moments where Carolina got a little momentum, but it was mostly in favor of the Panthers the whole night. They got hit in the mouth and they double punched back at Carolina. And I don't care how many hits or how hard hits the Carolina, excuse me, the Carolina Hurricanes have, again, I'm saying Carolina Panthers, you'll have to excuse me because Hurricanes, Panthers, it's going to get in my head sometimes. So you'll have to excuse me. But these numbers guys, if we're looking at these two teams going head to head in the regular season, the physicality that the Hurricanes do bring, it's not going to get in the head of the Panthers team. They're champions. And they tried to do it against Bobrovsky. There was some rubbing there. And we're about to get into that right now. This is one thing I wanted to show on first, because this to me, I was like, I couldn't believe this 10 minute misconduct by, uh, on Marchand because he got a puck shot pretty much at his face. It was deliberate. It wasn't trying to clear. So Marchand took offense to it. I'm gonna get into a couple of little, uh, and then there was this, this hit Bobrovsky, Svetchenikov coming in deliberately trying to elbow. I mean, you want to talk about elbows? Here you go. That's a deliberate shot. I literally screenshot of that right there. You could see him coming right at it. How was that not a penalty, but beggars can't be choosers. Bennett did that stole ours. Nothing was called. So I guess they're just going to kind of let things go. All right. So be it. I'll let that one slide. Big Bob with the big save without a stick. He got the glove on it. Thank goodness, man. He was just incredible last night on fire. And, um, his numbers in the Eastern conference finals in 11 games, he's nine and two with a goal against average of 1.58 and a 944 save percentage and two, two shutouts guys, just incredible numbers for an incredible goaltender. So here Panthers have scored 38 role goals in 2025. That's a big number tie with the avalanche in 2022 with 38, obviously most by a team through eight rule games in post-game NHL history. They're averaging 4.25 goals per game, right? Pretty big time numbers again. So this is something I want to show just a couple of quotes here. Kulakov on Bob all day for him is a really solid day for another goal in the NHL. I couldn't agree more. And I glad when he was asked about, uh, I can't remember, I can't pronounce the guy's name. Uh, Gus to beer, I think is his name firing the pocket Marchand. I love what he said. We'd like shots all the time. What's the difference? The reporter said the intent he goes intend or not. It still hurts the same. I agree with Brad Marchand. I don't think the 10 minutes conduct was warranted. I think that was overdrawn by the refs. I think they got that wrong because if there is intent like that and there was clear intent, they showed that replay probably four times. You could see he was lining them up and that thing was, I wouldn't say it was like right next to his face. Like it was further, but still the rest need to call it what it is and say, you know, dude, if I hit him in the face, what were they going to say? Oh, accidental hit to the face. No, it was clear as day. He was firing it at his head. So I disagree, but here we are today. I can't say that. Hey, I'll change anything. We still won the game. All right. Paul Maurice opinion of game one. I love this quote too. It was better on video than it was behind the bench. I agree. There were moments where, you know, the Panthers looked a little bit lackadaisical. They had some mistakes and stuff, but you know, they, they weren't, they were physical. Yes. By the hit standard from what we looked at the numbers, the 48 to 49, but the bigger hits came from the side of, of, of the hurricanes. And at the behest of the Panthers, unfortunate, they got, they got the snot knocked out of them yesterday. A little bit. There'll be a little sore today, but let's hope it'll be all the guys will be all right tomorrow. And then Maurice on me club being called the Condor, the bird of prey. And well, obviously his man, he feasts on offensive guys. He was doing a great job throwing his body around. I think he was the one that actually stopped that two on one with the pass coming through and he stopped it with his hand and, and, and got rid of the puck. So he, he was dynamite last night to his defensive prowess is just incredible. And once again, this team has just been coming out a blazing and let's keep, let's hope they keep this up a couple more quotes. Then I'm going to get into something totally different right now. All right. So Barkov, obviously they want to be ready for this game. They knew what they had, you know, the, the game plan was there. I think they what they had to take care of to get this game one win. They did everything right. Their blueprint, what I think changed had nothing to do with the one loss they incurred in the regular season or what they were seeing on their film from the playoffs. The biggest change was the fact of the trades that they made in the new personnel that came in. It made them more dangerous. It was making them have to make some adjustments, but I'm not going to say it was like, Oh man, Paul Maurice had to readjust all this stuff and do all these major overalls. No, I think it made his job easier. Seth Jones is just dynamite on defense, man. He's so smart. Brad Marshan, we all know, I don't need to talk about him. I know Nico Sturm isn't there, but he has helped out. I know he's not on the, on that, uh, that last line right now, but Hey, whatever it is, it is what it is. Don't fix what isn't broken. If the lineups are working right now, keep it what it is. And that's what Paul is doing. He's doing great. Great. And, um, I just, I'm just so impressed with this team right now because they are playing such incredible hockey for the last two games. And let's, again, let's hope they just keep this rolling guys. So the next thing I want to get into is the genius of Bill Zito, just to end out this episode, everything for this Panthers team really culminated with the 2022 trade for Matthew can Chuck. People were saying that Bill Zito was crazy for getting rid of a hundred point, um, a hundred point player in Jonathan Huberto. They gave up a Uyghur Cole Schwent and a first round pick that is due this year to the Calgary flames. Well, guess what? It's paid off in spades. Bill Zito also added in this year, Brad Marshan, Seth Jones, Nico stir, Vanna check. He and several other players in the last few years. And look, three Eastern conference finals, two Stanley cup finals, one you want possibly looking into the third Stanley cup final. This team, the front office has been magical with they're wheeling and dealing. They are making such great moves to get such quality players. And it doesn't matter. They're not looking at age. They're looking at just pure raw talent. Even if you have them for a couple of years or a year, or you're renting them out, possibly like it looks like with Marshan, but I don't know if this team does make it to a Stanley cup win or lose. He might stay here for another year or two and maybe retire back at a, as a Bruins player in his very last year, possibly. But I could see him staying here. He fits, he fits with the team really well. He said, everybody's been taken in with open arms. He's gelling with everybody. He's been playing phenomenal hockey on that third line with Lundell and loose ran and they have been lights out in the playoffs. Why would he want to leave? So again, and then they've locked up Seth Jones for, well, I think he's got still four or five years left on his deal. And the black Hawks are picking up a good portion of it. Bill Zito in the front office has been nothing short of just incredible with the decision-making. And that's why we are in the position that we are in as Panthers fans. And this organization has had so much success is because the front office, but we've, we've, we've got this, we've got the numbers done. Everything is fitting together. Bill Zito has done a great job. And along with getting Paul Maurice in there as the head coach, I'm sure he's talking to Bill Zito and saying, Hey, look, I like this guy. I like this guy. Let's try to pull the trigger. Let's see what we can do. And it's worked. They have a blueprint that is dynamite. I think they're going to be set up for a while. I'm not going to say anything about dynasty, anything of the sort yet. It's way too early to call it that, but a solid, incredible championship team. Absolutely. For years to come. I think they are going to be the epitome of what the NHL teams want to be with success. Going from zero to hero is what I think this club has done in the last six, seven years after deck, a couple of decades of pretty much misery with a couple of little bright spots here and there. But now everything is working. The blueprint is working. The mindset of what the players need to do, who they want to bring in the cohesion as a team. It's working. It's not just about two or three players. It's a team mentality and man, are they doing a great job? I'm excited. Tomorrow night, game number two. Get ready. Let's hope the Panthers can keep rolling, throwing the puck in the back of the net, pass Anderson. I know that's going to be even more physical again. Let's cross our fingers. They come out and do exactly what they did in game one, guys. There are no changes to the lines. Let's hope everybody's healthy. There was nothing on the injury report today. I'm going to check it tomorrow and I'll have another video for you guys later. But again, thank Bill Zito. All you Panthers fans, thank Bill Zito and thank Paul Maurice. Their genius has put together an incredible roster and it's going to stay incredible for a while. So go Panthers tomorrow night. Don't forget to subscribe down below, comment, share, like. Again, I appreciate all of you for tuning in. I'm Greg Andrews. I will talk to you guys tomorrow. See you then, and go Cats!