Florida Panthers lose, join Miami Heat in deep 3-1 finals hole as championship hopes fade | Opinion
They have won on the road this postseason. A lot. They have made a habit of come-from-behind victories. They are a crazy 7-0 in overtime, only the second hockey team ever to do that in the playoffs.
The Florida Panthers are a team that, on a magical two-month run, has made it easier to believe in than to doubt. They have earned that.
But now all of that is put to the test like never before. The faith in defying odds, yet again. The faith in one more miracle. It hasn’t been like this before because this is the Stanley Cup Final and the first NHL championship in franchise history is at stake.
Logic tells us not to believe. History does, too.
Panthers, meet the Miami Heat. They say misery loves company, right?
These two teams have enthralled South Florida and made history as the first two No. 8 seeds to simultaneously reach the Stanley Cup Final and NBA Finals, let alone two from one market. It has been a mesmerizing, near-two-month run on hardwood and ice.
It is not ending well, alas. Nothing much short of a twin-miracle can change that now.
The Panthers meant to tie their series vs. the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night but instead fell at home, 3-2, to go down 3-1 in the best-of-7. On Tuesday in Las Vegas they will face elimination. They must somehow win three in a row now to turn these dire straits into a championship boat parade in Fort Lauderdale.
They did that already, yes — won three straight elimination games — to stun Boston in the first round.
“Seems like a lifetime ago,” coach Paul Maurice said afterward. “But there’s a feeling that we’ve earned the right to expect to play our best hockey.”
Maurice said the team would relive that Game 5 in Boston for “a reminder of the energy level we brought into that. It’s not about getting even. Just get this thing back here to give our fans another look at us.”
You can count on a reference to the Boston feat and a “We’ve done it before theme” from the Panthers like you can count on sunrise over the next couple of days.
Having done it vs. Boston, though, makes duplicating that no less daunting.
Does anybody who hits the lottery expect to then hit it again?
The Panthers, like the Heat, face a beyond-enormous challenge based on NHL history since 1984 when the current playoff format began. Teams down 3-1 in a hockey series have a 32-305 record on winning the series, or 9.5 percent. Those are the odds of winning three in a row now, with two of them including the last scheduled for Las Vegas.
A successful rally from 3-1 down has only happened one time in a Stanley Cup Final in 37 occurrences, by the Toronto Maple Leafs ... in 1942.
(The good news? The Cats’ historical odds are about double those of the Heat winning three in a row now over the Denver Nuggets.)
Florida’s huge challenge is bigger still because leading scorer Matthew Tkachuk’s health moving forward including his availability in must-win Game 5 is in some doubt.
“We have two days off to assess that,” Maurice said. “With good rest.”
What ails Tkachuk was not disclosed (hockey is annoying like that), but he was limited to 16 minutes of ice time Saturday. He had missed a chunk of one period in the previous game under NHL concussion protocol before being cleared to return.
“”He gave us what he could,” Maurice said of Tkachuk in Game 4. “Matthew’s been a grinder his whole life and he certainly was tonight.”
The Panthers were in trouble from the start Saturday.
You missed Vegas’ 1-0 lead if you were in line for popcorn. It came 1:39 into the game when Chandler Stephenson’s snap shot beat Sergei Bobrovsky, the silence in the rink letting you know how few Vegas fans were here.
A rough line change hurt Florida. Two players were late off and on, opening the ice for that second or two Stephenson needed to have a 1-on-1 on the goalie. Usually a bad line change won’t cost you a goal. When it happens to in a crucial game in the Stanley Cup Final, it’s a gut-punch.
It was 3-0 after two Golden Knights goals bunched around the middle of the second period, a second by Stephenson and then one by William Karlsson.
The life had drained from the arena.
The Cats got some of it back.
A Brandon Montour shot made the horn sound 3:51 before the second period ended as the puck caromed off the inside right skate of Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore to catch goalie Adin Hill by surprise. Such a play, in soccer, would be an own-goal. On ice, the score is credited to the guy whose shot victimized the opponent.
The Cats got a lot more of that belief back 3:50 into the third period when captain Aleksander Barkov’s goal drew Florida within 3-2.
Since when is this team ever afraid of a deficit? Or an overtime? Or anything?
At that point you almost expected the horn to sound again. Almost expected another overtime.
“We have guys who are comfortable when they’re asked to bury one,” Eric Staal said. “There are guys in our room built for moments like that.“
Florida pulled its goalie late and even had a power play for the last 17.4 seconds.
Saturday, though, the comeback fell short. No more horn and no OT. The Cats attacked hard to tie it, and Bobrovsky kept them in it, giving them a chance, but Vegas held strong.
It may never be said these Panthers did not richly deserve to end the franchise’s 27-year drought and reach the Stanley Cup Final. Beating first Boston, then Toronto, then Carolina — with all those overtime wins along the way — minted a magical postseason run.
It seems to be ending.
If it somehow ends instead with the Stanley Cup raised -- after all of this, as an eighth seed, after all they have done and what still lay head — it will be the single most astounding thing we have ever seen in South Florida sports.
