Analyzing the Florida Panthers’ strengths and weaknesses
The Toronto Maple Leafs will face the defending Stanley Cup champions in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Adam Vingan breaks down the strengths, and weaknesses, of the Florida Panthers and how Toronto might fare.
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ reward for reaching the second round of the playoffs is a date with the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, who made quick work of the Tampa Bay Lightning in Round 1.
Florida’s five-game defeat of Tampa Bay was so decisive that Lightning coach Jon Cooper ceded control of the Sunshine State.
“It was our turn,” Cooper told reporters. “Now it’s theirs.”
An absolute buzzsaw awaits the Maple Leafs, who are seeking their first trip to the conference finals in 23 years. Here is what they must contend with starting Monday at Scotiabank Arena.
-
-
Watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sportsnet
The NHL’s best are ready to battle for the right to hoist the Stanley Cup. Watch every game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ beginning on April 19.
Florida’s strengths
Where do we even begin? The Panthers’ scoring depth is frightening; six players recorded at least five points against the Lightning. Meanwhile, no Maple Leafs players outside of the “Core Four” had more than three points against the Ottawa Senators.
The Panthers’ third line — Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell and old foe Brad Marchand — demonstrated how deep their lineup goes. Those three forwards outscored the Lightning 4-0 at 5-on-5, including 2-0 in the series clincher. Luostarinen had four points in Game 5, setting a franchise playoff record for most points in a road game. (Marchand has 10 goals and 29 points in 28 career playoff games against the Maple Leafs.)
With a roster chock-full of tough customers, the Panthers’ mission is to ground and pound their opponents. They dump in the puck at the highest rate in the NHL (63.4 per cent in the playoffs at 5-on-5) and wreak havoc below the goal line.
Florida, which has won a playoff-best 55.8 per cent of its puck battles, scored nine goals in five first-round games within 10 seconds of a turnover in all situations — tied for second most behind the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues (10 each). Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk shared the team lead with two turnover goals apiece.
On the defensive end, the Panthers completely bottled up the league’s highest-scoring team during the regular season. The Lightning, who averaged 3.56 goals per game entering the playoffs, scored 12 goals in the first round (2.4 per game). That included just two power-play goals on 18 tries (11.1 per cent). Tampa Bay’s shot quality plunged from a league-best 3.65 expected goals per game in the regular season to 2.58 per game against Florida (14th among first-round participants).
Not since the 2007-08 season has one team had two Selke Trophy finalists on its roster. The Panthers play theirs, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart, on the same line. They, along with Carter Verhaeghe, neutralized the Lightning’s top line of Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. Tampa Bay scored twice at 5-on-5 when its No. 1 line was on the ice.
Barkov went head-to-head with Auston Matthews for 20:30 at 5-on-5 in the regular season. Neither Florida nor Toronto scored in those minutes, and scoring chances were 9-9.
It will be interesting to see how the Craig Berube-coached Maple Leafs match up against the scrappy Panthers, but Florida has perfected its strategy over the past few years.
“It’s going to be a battle,” Berube told reporters. “It’s going to be a grind. You can talk all the X’s and O’s you want, and there’s things that we’re going to do to try to nullify their forecheck. But in the end, they’re going to forecheck, and they’re going to get there.”
/* if ( "1" == true && 'undefined' !== typeof window.getIndexAds ) { var so = {preroll:{1:{1:{siteID:191888},2:{siteID:191889}}}}; adServerUrl = window.getIndexAds( 'http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x360&cust_params=domain%3Dsportsnet.ca&iu=%2F7326%2Fen.sportsnet.web%2FVideo&ciu_szs=300x250&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vast&unviewed_position_start=1&ad_rule=1&vid=6372291068112&cmsid=384', so, permalink); } else { adServerUrl = "http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x360&cust_params=domain%3Dsportsnet.ca&iu=%2F7326%2Fen.sportsnet.web%2FVideo&ciu_szs=300x250&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vast&unviewed_position_start=1&ad_rule=1&vid=6372291068112&cmsid=384"; } */ adServerUrl = "http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x360&cust_params=domain%3Dsportsnet.ca&iu=%2F7326%2Fen.sportsnet.web%2FVideo&ciu_szs=300x250&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vast&unviewed_position_start=1&ad_rule=1&vid=6372291068112&cmsid=384"; var adServerUrl_result = adServerUrl.includes("cust_params"); var queryString=''; if(adServerUrl_result){ var gettheDUFI = false; if (localStorage.getItem("consent") !== null && localStorage.getItem("consent-targeting") !== null) gettheDUFI = localStorage.getItem("theRED_loc");
if(gettheDUFI){ queryString += "dufiid=" + gettheDUFI + '&'; queryString += "ppid=" + gettheDUFI + '&'; var ppid = "ppid=" + gettheDUFI + '&'; }
var DUFI_IP = false; if (localStorage.getItem("consent") !== null && localStorage.getItem("consent-targeting") !== null) DUFI_IP = sessionStorage.getItem("DUFI_IP");
if(DUFI_IP){ queryString += "dufiip=" + DUFI_IP + '&'; }
adServerUrl = adServerUrl.replace(/cust_params=/, ppid + 'cust_params=' + encodeURIComponent(queryString) ); }
$el.after( unescape("%3Cscript src=\"" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js\" %3E%3C/script%3E") );
$( document ).one( 'ready', function() { $( "#video_container-261166" ).SNPlayer( { bc_account_id: "1704050871", bc_player_id: "JCdte3tMv", //autoplay: true, //is_has_autoplay_switch: false, bc_videos: 6372291068112, is_has_continuous_play: "false", adserverurl: adServerUrl, section: "", thumbnail: "https://www.sportsnet.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/6372291068112-1024x576.jpg", direct_url: "https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/maple-leafs-rielly-hopes-to-improve-from-2023-series-vs-panthers/" }); });
Florida’s weaknesses
It requires quite a bit of nitpicking to uncover the Panthers’ weak spots. Although the Panthers killed off 16 of 18 Lightning power plays (88.9 per cent) in the first round, they spent nearly 40 minutes shorthanded — second only to the Winnipeg Jets (41:36), who played two more games.
Toronto’s five-forward power-play unit was productive against Ottawa, so it would be unwise for Florida to spend a lot of time in the penalty box.
“They’re all going to generate offence,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice told reporters, referring to the Maple Leafs’ top scorers. “The question of whether you’re successful or not is how much you give them on top of that. How many power plays (do) you give? How’s your discipline? How much chance-trading do you do in a game? They’re getting theirs. They always have, always will. But how much you feed them on top of that is probably the deciding factor.”
/* if ( "1" == true && 'undefined' !== typeof window.getIndexAds ) { var so = {preroll:{1:{1:{siteID:191888},2:{siteID:191889}}}}; adServerUrl = window.getIndexAds( 'http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x360&cust_params=domain%3Dsportsnet.ca&iu=%2F7326%2Fen.sportsnet.web%2FVideo&ciu_szs=300x250&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vast&unviewed_position_start=1&ad_rule=1&vid=6372229478112&cmsid=384', so, permalink); } else { adServerUrl = "http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x360&cust_params=domain%3Dsportsnet.ca&iu=%2F7326%2Fen.sportsnet.web%2FVideo&ciu_szs=300x250&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vast&unviewed_position_start=1&ad_rule=1&vid=6372229478112&cmsid=384"; } */ adServerUrl = "http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x360&cust_params=domain%3Dsportsnet.ca&iu=%2F7326%2Fen.sportsnet.web%2FVideo&ciu_szs=300x250&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vast&unviewed_position_start=1&ad_rule=1&vid=6372229478112&cmsid=384"; var adServerUrl_result = adServerUrl.includes("cust_params"); var queryString=''; if(adServerUrl_result){ var gettheDUFI = false; if (localStorage.getItem("consent") !== null && localStorage.getItem("consent-targeting") !== null) gettheDUFI = localStorage.getItem("theRED_loc");
if(gettheDUFI){ queryString += "dufiid=" + gettheDUFI + '&'; queryString += "ppid=" + gettheDUFI + '&'; var ppid = "ppid=" + gettheDUFI + '&'; }
var DUFI_IP = false; if (localStorage.getItem("consent") !== null && localStorage.getItem("consent-targeting") !== null) DUFI_IP = sessionStorage.getItem("DUFI_IP");
if(DUFI_IP){ queryString += "dufiip=" + DUFI_IP + '&'; }
adServerUrl = adServerUrl.replace(/cust_params=/, ppid + 'cust_params=' + encodeURIComponent(queryString) ); }
$el.after( unescape("%3Cscript src=\"" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js\" %3E%3C/script%3E") );
$( document ).one( 'ready', function() { $( "#video_container-377356" ).SNPlayer( { bc_account_id: "1704050871", bc_player_id: "JCdte3tMv", //autoplay: true, //is_has_autoplay_switch: false, bc_videos: 6372229478112, is_has_continuous_play: "false", adserverurl: adServerUrl, section: "", thumbnail: "https://www.sportsnet.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/6372229478112-1024x576.jpg", direct_url: "https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/maurice-happy-to-see-lorentz-and-stolarz-carve-out-big-roles-with-leafs/" }); });
One Panthers player to monitor is Aaron Ekblad, who has played six of a possible 27 games since the start of March because of separate suspensions. After missing 20 games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, Ekblad received a two-game ban last round for elbowing Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel. He will miss Game 1 on Monday.
When Ekblad was available in Round 1, he did not have his best stuff defensively. The Lightning outscored the Panthers 4-1 in the 24:29 that Ekblad and Gustav Forsling shared at 5-on-5. If Maurice reunites Ekblad and Forsling in Game 2, perhaps they could be exploited by Toronto’s offensive stars.
All stats via Sportlogiq
