The Florida Panthers had been in a position to take a commanding 2-0 sequence lead within the Jap Convention Closing on Thursday after a dominant 5-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Listed below are some key takeaways from their win as they’re now simply two wins away from a 3rd consecutive journey to the Stanley Cup Closing.
This was medical precision by the Panthers
The Florida Panthers despatched a message of their Sport 1 win.
They expanded on it in Sport 2.
Let’s preserve one factor in thoughts right here: The Carolina Hurricanes are an excellent hockey workforce, and so they have been an excellent hockey workforce for a number of years. They persistently win a playoff sequence or two yearly, they’ll compete with anyone and so they do just about all the things nicely. That is no pushover hockey workforce. And Florida is totally dominating them. Crushing them. They’re making it look straightforward.
All of that could be a testomony to only how nice this Panthers workforce is — and the way a lot better it has been than everyone else within the NHL the previous three years.
Not solely did they rating 5 targets towards one of many NHL’s greatest defensive groups, however they restricted the league’s greatest volume-shooting workforce to a season-low 17 photographs on purpose. It is just the fourth time all 12 months (82 common season video games and 12 playoff video games) that Carolina didn’t register at the very least 20 photographs on purpose in a sport.
Their stars shined offensively as Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe all recorded three factors, Matthew Tkachuk had three and beginning goalie Sergei Bobrovsky recorded his third shutout of the playoffs.
It is nonetheless exhausting to think about any individual beating this workforce 4 occasions in a seven-game stretch.
Now Carolina has to beat them 4 occasions in a five-game stretch. That simply looks like an impossibly tall activity.
Panthers proceed to be street warriors
By taking the primary two video games of the sequence on the street, the Panthers continued their street dominance and improved to 7-2 away from south Florida this season.
They’ve additionally gained their previous 4 street video games in relatively decisive style, outscoring Toronto and Carolina by a 22-4 margin.
