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Panthers are looking for a core group of players to keep doing what they did in their first round series so they can steal home ice advantage tonight in game one of their second round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'll tell you who those guys are, what they're going to need to do tonight, so that way they can come back home to Amarant Bank Arena and have home ice advantage. Guys, thank you for joining me. I am Greg Andrews. This is Panthers Digest, guys. We have a lot to get to today, but before we get into that, hit that subscribe button down below because you need to stay in the know with anything and everything that's happening with your Florida Panthers, especially when it comes to taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs from pre- and post-game matchups to injuries. I'm going to give you it all, guys. Tune in, hit that subscribe button. The big storyline that we're going to start things off with, well, it has to do with Matthew Kachuk. Yes, he sat out a practice, but that was a coach's decision. He was resting, guys. Nothing big. He is back on the ice. He is fine. There's nothing going on with him. We're going to get into that right now. He just said, yeah, he got to work a little more today. That was on May 3rd, the other day, doing some strength conditioning, all of that. He's in a good spot. He's one of our key pieces, and he said that they stopped limiting his minutes and looking at the watch in game two of the last series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is good to go, guys. There's nothing to worry about with Matthew Kachuk. The biggest thing that we need to talk about, though, are the lines, because nothing has changed. It's all the same. There's nothing big happening with those lines. The biggest key component that the Panthers need to make sure they keep doing is sticking with the defensive lines on the penalty kill. They need to make sure they keep those same guys on the ice. I'll get into who those guys are in just a minute, but that is one of the key things of why they won their first round series, because they were dominant on the penalty kill. They killed 16 of 18, which is 89%, against a very, very good team, the Lightning, who were fifth in the league at about 26% for their power play. They shut down Nikita Kucherov. I said this in the last episode, they shut down their big guys. Nikita Kucherov only had four assists, and he only had seven shots in the series. So they did a phenomenal job of being physical, knocking him off of his game, and he was pretty much a non-factor in that first series. That's what they're going to look to do in the second series, is try to get in the head of Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, all of these big-time scorers, these guys that can make plays, be physical with them, knock them off their game. That's what they need to do, and it's got to be Forslund, Jones, Sturm, Marchand, all of these guys have to put in that hard, physical, working play, put their body on the line to block shots. It's the whole team, but those were the guys. That was the recipe that really helped the Panthers win in their first series, 4-1. It was pretty dominant, guys, and a lot of people were picking the Lightning over the Panthers. They flip-flopped, but the Panthers beat them pretty convincingly. A very, very, very talented Lightning team that is similar to this Maple Leafs team. Very good on the power play. The Maple Leafs just came off of a first-round series against the Ottawa Senators, and were incredibly successful, and I will tell you why in just a second. But these are the numbers in the regular season, guys. Obviously, the Maple Leafs had better goals four per game than the Panthers. The Panthers only had three per game. The Maple Leafs were at 3.26 per game, and they were kind of close when it came to the power play, but the penalty kills were really where things took a little bit of a change. The Panthers at about 81%, and Toronto just under 78%. Even there, but this is where things changed. Look at the postseason numbers right now. The Cats, 3.8 goals per game to Toronto Maple Leafs, 3.17. The penalty kill for the Panthers is at 89%, like I said. The number I told you, literally, a minute ago, that is their number for penalty killing in the postseason at 89%. Toronto Maple Leafs at 80%, very solid as well, but they have a 35% power play. They have been excellent. They have five forwards that they are putting on that first power play unit. It's Marner, Nylander, Matthews, Tavares, and Nyes, all guys who can score from anywhere. They don't have a defender on there, so they're not having to keep a guy up near the blue line and kind of dance around between the circle and the blue line and kind of to that center ice of the blue line, that area. They don't need somebody to dance. They can go anywhere with the puck, and that's very dangerous because any one of these guys can score from anywhere on the ice in their offensive third, especially when they're a man up, and that's why they were so successful against the Ottawa Senators. They were excellent. Six of 17, 35%. That's solid. Even Forstling was asked. Forstling was like, yeah, I would start five forwards if I was the Toronto Maple Leafs and I was their coach. Absolutely. Gives them the best chance to score. They have a ton of talent. That is incredibly scary, but very similar to the Lightning in the regular season with how they run things in terms of their numbers as well. I think the matchups are going to be a little bit heavier, a little more physical, because as we get into the playoffs, yeah, guys are going to become bruised and battered, but this is going to be a more physical series. I think the Panthers, I said this in the last episode, 150 hits in their four-game series in the regular season against the Leafs. The Leafs had 97, guys, and I think it's going to be more physical this time, and if the Panthers keep doing that like they did in their first-round series and they are as physical as they can, they're knocking their best players around, that's going to throw them off, and that gives the Panthers the best chance to win, especially on the penalty kill. If they're able to keep up this incredible defense, this incredible special teams numbers, they're going to pull away with a victory tonight and steal home ice advantage, but they have to put their bodies on the line, block shots. They've got to put their sticks in the passing lanes. They've got to make sure they're putting a body on the body all the time, disrupt their offense, disrupt what their best players, Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, disrupt those guys so they can't do what they normally are capable of doing, and that brings me to this, guys, right here. Here are a couple of quotes. These are the Panthers talking about this power play of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Very confident, tons of skill. They've got to make them uncomfortable, just like I said, but they also need to make sure they're staying out of the penalty box. That's one thing we don't want to have in this series. Give them too many chances, they're going to score. You cannot do that. If you're any team in the league, anytime you're down a man, you're just, you're shooting yourself in the foot, and when you're in the playoffs, it's even more dangerous against the team like the Toronto Maple Leafs who are on fire right now. They're feeling great after beating the Ottawa Senators, but this Cats team is more confident. They've gotten better on defense, guys, with Seth Jones coming onto the roster. Nico Sturm, who's been outstanding, but it's been Seth Jones more so than I would say, who's really, really, really stepped up, but Sturm has had great penalty killing, and he's been good in the face-off circle at 51% in the 15 games with Florida in the regular season, and that's one of the reasons why the Panthers wanted to get him from the Sharks before the trade deadline. So when we're talking about the power play, guys, just remember, the Leafs were eighth in the league at just under 25%, and the Panthers were 10th on the power play at almost 81%. But again, when we have Jones, Marchand, Sturm, those guys all on the ice together can do some damage, and I'll put it this way. When we are looking at the Panthers' shorthanded time, Jones was second at just under 18 minutes. Sturm was fifth at just under 14 minutes. Marchand was 11th at just over eight minutes. But you know who led the Panthers? It was Gustav Forsling in shorthanded time with 20, almost 21 minutes on the ice in their first round. Serious. He has been one of the biggest impact guys that the Panthers needed, so that way they can throw that puck down. He had a great diving clear in game number five that really set the tone for the rest of that game where the Panthers just took game five and brought everything back home and practiced here, and now they're back up in Toronto. And here's Paul Maurice on that, talking about five forwards on the power play. Interchangeability. You don't see a defined defenseman who's going to be rotating, not just be going side to side, down to the flank. There won't be a lot of that happening. So he goes on. When you have five forwards in a power play, you can pretty much go anywhere. There's going to be movement and a lot of it. And like I said, they could shoot from anywhere on the ice. There is danger everywhere for this Panthers team when they're facing a Toronto power play. So they've got to be smart when they're on the ice playing this team this whole series. You cannot make mistakes because they will pay for it if they do. And then here's Gustav Forslund. They're really good. Super skilled. Five forwards. Got to keep doing what they're doing. Be physical. Got to have the same mentality. It doesn't matter who they are. We just got to pressure them. That's pretty much the gist of what he's saying, guys. Very simple. Very straightforward. And I love what he's saying. Because he's right. If they just keep doing what they're doing and carry everything over from that first round series, they're going to do just fine. I think they'll steal home ice advantage tonight. I think if they can do exactly what they did against the Lightning, the outcome will be the exact same in this series. And I don't care what Biz is saying from spitting chiclets. I'm going to tell you right now, he's been talking smack. Saying that, oh, you know, Gustav Forslund better look out. They're coming for Kachuk. They took out his brother already. And, you know, Marchand. And it's our time. Every time you've done this, it hasn't gone to your favor. Unfortunately. And the Panthers are damn good. You guys picking against them. PK Subban even said he made a mistake picking against the Panthers because they look ultra dangerous. They look like they should be winning the Cup this year. But again, it is the NHL. Any game could go any way. That's the thing I love about this game. You never know on any, I know they say any given Sunday for football in the NFL. But you know what? In any given day in the NHL, even if you're up by four goals with a minute and a half left in the game, anything is possible. We already saw that at the end of this season. A team coming back and scoring four goals. And I think it was 90 seconds or whatnot. I can't remember the two teams, but it was the first time in NHL history that that has ever happened. So in any given night. So just to recap a couple of things from the last episode, guys, in terms of the matchup numbers from the regular season, again, the Panthers outshot Toronto 117 to 93 in those three games. Florida won the series three to one in the regular season. Is it going to go that way in the playoffs? I don't think so. I think it's a little closer than we're all thinking. I'm not going to say we're going to sweep. I'm not going to say it's going to be done in five. I don't even want to call what the series is going to be because I think it's going to be very unpredictable. It's going to come down to health. It's going to come down to physical play. It's going to come down to special teams. That is it. And blocking shots, obviously, who's going to put their body on the line, which team is going to sacrifice more on that side of things so that way their team can come up on top and save their goalie. That is going to be it, guys, because that penalty kill has saved the Panthers. It really did. That's why they took over that first round series. That's why they won four games to one. And it looked in dominating fashion against a very, very talented team. So in terms of block shots, again, it was 41 to 73 in favor of the Leafs in the regular season, which when you look at those numbers, usually you would say that the team that has the most block shots would usually pull away with the victory. But that wasn't the case. But again, this is the playoffs. So unpredictable. It's going to be exciting tonight. I can't wait. I'm calling the Panthers out on this one. I think they are going to pull away with a victory. I think it's going to be their special teams unit that's going to come out on offense. Their power play and their penalty kill is going to come up big tonight. And they should come away with a victory because they're pumped up and they had a little bit more rest than the Maple Leafs as well. So let's hope the cats dig in tonight. They get physical and they hold the Toronto Maple Leafs. Down and they're not going to be able to do anything. Again, it's going to be about getting the Matthews, Tavares, Nylander. Can they get to those guys and be physical and stop them from getting to the net? But game is tonight. 8 p.m. Guys, don't forget to hit subscribe down below. I'm your host, Greg Andrews. Join me next time, guys. It'll be tomorrow for a little postgame recap and looking ahead to game number two. Go cats!