SUNRISE, Fla. — Paul Maurice sat in the aftermath of Game 6 and already was on to Game 7. He already was saying before this Game 7 what he said before the Florida Panthers’ last Game 7.
He already was using the idea any team needs in a Game 7 where one good play or unlucky bounce can begin or end a season’s big hopes.
“They’re free,” the Panthers coach said of Game 7s. “They are all the energy you’ve got with no concern about tomorrow. You want to have talked about your game enough all year, so everyone understands the game you’re going to try to play.
“You don’t need a lot of extra coffee. You’ll be ready to go.”
The last Game 7 the Panthers played was at home in Amerant Bank Arena against the Edmonton Oilers and came with the pressure of having lost the three previous games, any one of which could’ve won the title.
They’ve lost just one such game this series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-0 on Friday night. It was a game most everyone thought they’d win, and not just because these Panthers have won about every big game they could for the past three playoffs.
It was because Toronto was on the ropes after being dominated the two previous games. But Maurice doesn’t believe in momentum and Friday night showed why. Something was missing from the Panthers, some energy, some urgency — some electrical charge they give off on their best nights.
“Slow making plays, not making them when they’re there,” Matthew Tkachuk said of their power play, an idea that carried across their game.
Still, it was scoreless midway through the third period when defenseman Gustav Forsling made the bad clearing pass he never makes. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky let in the kind of shot he rarely does. But in Toronto they only know that Auston Matthews scored the only goal the Maple Leafs needed Friday, and his first playoff goal in 11 games against the Panthers.
So, now it’s Toronto that can have a comeback to celebrate.
And now it’s the Panthers who have to remind everyone why they’re a special team. Just as any such team does. Just like this one did in starting this run with a Game 7 win at the Boston Bruins in the opening series of the 2023 playoffs.
“It’s an opportunity to make a name for ourselves again,” Tkachuk said. “We enjoy these games, we enjoy these moments. Hopefully we’re to be ready to go.”
Tkachuk is playing like he’s not fully recovered from his injury in the 4 Nations Face-off tournament that put him down for two months. But that doesn’t matter now. Matthews seems to be battling something. Toronto forward Matthew Knies left Friday with an injury.
“I don’t know the answer,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said about Knies.
Toronto played the game it needed Friday night, tight and simple. The Panthers only had two shots in the first period. Their top line with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart had three shots all game.
Toronto once again had a big number of 31 blocked shots and goalie Joseph Woll did what he was asked to do for the shutout. Which wasn’t too much.
“A gutsy win,” Matthews called it, before calling Sunday night, “A special opportunity for our team.”
Toronto hasn’t made it out of the second round in two decades, so it doesn’t have anything to draw on for this Game 7. Maybe the Panthers’ Game 7 wins the past couple of years don’t mean anything for this one, either.
“We’re not going to show any video of those Game 7s,” Maurice said. “We’ll be looking at the video tonight and see where we can get better.”
He knows what’s coming, though.
“It’s an interesting thing, I think when you get to five or six teams left, they’re all capable,” Maurice said. “They can get into a Game 7 and then harness it. Sometimes it’s just who the puck bounced for.
“That’s part of the tension. But it’s about as honest a game as you can find. There’s no cheating in that game. That’s why they’re so much fun.”
Sunday night, 7:30 p.m. The fun begins. And the end for one team.