Panthers rely on strong foundations to win Game 7 against Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- It was like he was laying out a blueprint, a guide to what was going to happen. Eight hours before puck drop in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Second Round, where the Florida Panthers were taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs, Matthew Tkachuk gave his version of what he anticipated, of what he knew his Panthers could -- and would -- do.

He said their game was constructed to wear teams down over the course of a seven-game series, grinding them into dust, night after night after night. As he put it, “Our game is built for a Game 7. We’ve done six games of hopefully hard work and physicality that’ll pay off tonight.”

It was exactly what happened.

This is what the Panthers had been building toward, all season, since training camp. They had been preparing for a Game 7, in the first round or the second round or the Eastern Conference Final or the Stanley Cup Final. They had been preparing to be exactly what they were, as they took the game, 6-1, and the series, moving on to their third consecutive conference final.

“If the core foundation of your game is the simplest things, it doesn’t matter how your hands feel, it doesn’t matter how your body feels, it doesn’t matter how well you execute, if it’s how comfortable you are in hard situations, then you have a chance,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “… We talk about Game 7 in training camp. We want to play a style of game that gives us a chance to win tonight. It gave us a chance to win tonight.”

The Panthers came out aflame, like they were fresh and free and unconcerned with the stakes of this game. They dominated the first 12 minutes of the first period, not allowing a single shot on goal to the Maple Leafs -- who barely seemed to even touch the puck -- until William Nylander finally got a chance from the left side of the crease.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped it. He stopped almost everything.

Bobrovsky finished the series having allowed four goals in the final four games of the series, with a shutout in Game 4 and only a single goal allowed in Games 5 and 7.

So it was him. It was all of them. They were physically ready for this game; they were mentally ready as well.

The Panthers just kept coming, as they always do, wave after wave. They kept pushing, from the first line to the fourth, with goals from Sam Reinhart and Eetu Luostarinen, from Seth Jones and Jonah Gadjovich.

It is not an easy way to play.

“We try to play a heavy, in-your-face style, try and wear them down,” Reinhart said. “You’re going to give up some looks at certain parts and you try defend those. Certainly 'Bob' made some big saves, especially early, but when the games get tighter, it’s that simple game we try and play.

“When the nerves are there, when the stakes are at the highest, it’s easier playing that way than trying to play the skill game or trying to play any different way. That’s the way we try and play night in and night out.”

It took until the second period for the Panthers to break through, but when they did, it came in a hurry, with goals from Jones (3:15), Anton Lundell (7:18), and Gadjovich (9:39). By the third one, it felt like all of the air in Scotiabank Arena had been sucked out, that the Panthers had taken hold and they would not let go.

Though the Maple Leafs showed a brief sign of life, with a Max Domi goal to cut the lead to two at 2:07 of the third, it took just 47 seconds for the Panthers to answer with a Luostarinen goal, one of his three points in the game.

“They were the better team tonight,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “They were the more desperate team tonight. They were the more aggressive team tonight. That’s what I take out of the game tonight. You win a Game 6, that’s great. You come home, you’ve got to have a level of desperation, determination, and I didn’t feel we had it.”

The Panthers did. They always do.

They have been here before. They have faced pressure before. And, as Brad Marchand pointed out, a Game 7 in the second round is nothing like the pressure they felt last season in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, after they’d allowed the Edmonton Oilers back into a series they had once led 3-0.

“We have a ton of belief in the system that we play and the depth of our group and the experience in these moments,” Marchand said. “Going through it before, it’s invaluable experience when you go through moments like this and you’ve been through these moments before. A lot of guys on the team have won Cups. When you win a Cup and you play in some of the games that this team played in last year? These are not high-pressure games. When you’re playing for an actual Cup and you give up a three-game lead and then you’re in Game 7? That’s a high-pressure game.

“So, now, Game 7, second round, yeah, it’s a high-pressure game, but it’s not compared to some other games that guys have played.”

It was very possible the Panthers wouldn’t have gotten to this Game 7. They were, after all, down 2-0 in the series, heading to overtime in Game 3. But Marchand -- who had three points (one goal, two assists) against the Maple Leafs on Sunday -- scored the overtime winner, to get the Panthers back in the series.

To get them where they could push toward this point.

“It turned around because we started playing the way we could,” Marchand said. “Then when we actually started getting back to the system and the way this team has played for a long time, we started to feel more confident in what we were doing and how we had to play to have success and we just started playing that brand of hockey.

“When we do that, we give ourselves an opportunity to be in the game most nights. We just got back to playing the aggressive, hard style that this team plays. It’s just a tough game to play against.”

Especially in a Game 7.

There’s no telling yet if the Eastern Conference Final will reach seven games. The best-of-7 series starts less than 48 hours after the Panthers finished off the Maple Leafs, at Lenovo Center on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC) against the Carolina Hurricanes.

But it is clear, if it does, the Panthers will be ready.

After all, they’ve been preparing for these moments all year.