Dave Hyde: Everything looks possible as Panthers cruise past Carolina in Game 2

Dave Hyde, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on May 23, 2025

Published in Hockey

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It was 1-0 in the opening seconds, 2-0 before everyone settled in, and when it reached 3-0 still in the first period, it wasn’t so much that anything looked possible Thursday for the Florida Panthers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final.

Everything looked possible beyond this night, too.

A sweep-peat of Carolina?

Why not?

A little rest before the Stanley Cup Final?

That, too.

And then? Do you dare look where the defending champs aren’t?

“Fun,’’ was the word Panthers Carter Verhaeghe used to describe silencing another road crowd with a 5-0 win over Carolina Thursday night.

That wasn’t a quiet in Carolina like the one Sunday in a Game 7 drubbing of Toronto that said the Maple Leafs’ season was done. But Thursday felt close to that. It felt like Carolina fans wondered if they’d get this series back.

The Panthers are capable of ending it the next two games in Sunrise. That introduces an odd question: Do they want to come home Saturday night for Game 3?

Thursday made four consecutive road wins for the Panthers — two in Toronto, two in Carolina — by a combined 22-4 goal differential. They aren’t just winning these games. They’re dominating them. They picking teams up and dragging them around the ice.

“There was nothing good from this game for us,’’ Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’re going to have learn from it, but everybody has to be better.”

Brind’Amour talked after Game 1 about the need to come out desperate, and the loud crowd backed up the idea …

Until the Panthers trademark aggressive forecheck led Matthew Tkachuk to intercept a pass and feed Gustav Forsling’s opening goal just over a minute into the game.

Until another aggressive forecheck led Verhaeghe to try to jam home a wraparound shot and the saved puck was left for Tkachuk to put in the net.

Until Sam Bennett then scored the first of his two goals that tie him for the NHL playoffs lead with nine.

“I don’t know what I was watching that first period,’’ Brind’Amour said. “That didn’t go well.”

The Panthers had three goals that period. Carolina had three shots.

“Shoot … the … puck!’’ Carolina fans were chanting by the second period.

Two years ago, when the Panthers swept Carolina in these same conference finals, each win was by a goal and Brind’Amour said people would, “look back at this and everyone’s going to say you got swept. That’s not what happened … It could’ve been four games the other way.”

No one was saying anything in these opening two games could go the other way.

“You got to give (the Panthers) credit,’’ Brind’Amour said. “I hope you’re not missing that.”

It wasn’t all good news for the Panthers. Sam Reinhart’s knee was injured after a borderline hip-check by Carolina’s Sebastian Aho. Coach Paul Maurice said afterward there was no word on the extent of Reinhart’s injury, but that is a core loss no team can afford this deep into the playoffs.

Reinhart is part of the Panthers’ talent nucleus. Toronto showed the problem with only having a Core Five of talent. The Panthers have a Dirty Dozen — yeah, embrace that style (Reinhart, Bennett, Tkachuk, Forsling, Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov, Sergei Bobrovsky, Anton Lundell, Niko Mikkola, Aaron Ekblad, Seth Jones and Brad Marchand).

Of course, that means leaving a few out and …

“The biggest cheer on the night was when Jonah Gadjovich blocked a shot,’’ Maurice said. “The bench lost its mind.”

Maybe your mind was blown, too, by these four consecutive road games. Not many teams are capable of that kind of focused domination. But these Panthers keep showing they aren’t any team. Remember what Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said after losing in the opening series — “They’re excellent. Not average. Excellent.”

Nothing has happened thus far in the playoffs to think otherwise.

“We’re prepared,’’ Tkachuk sad. “We know how we’re going to play. We know how each line is going out, and we’ll roll over lines and it doesn’t always work perfectly. Sometimes you get beat. But when you have a good plan and a great work ethic, that’s where it starts.”

They finished off Toronto and put Carolina on the ropes on this road trip. Now let’s see what they can do at home.