King Bob, Florida Panthers oust Toronto, end 27-year drought and return to Eastern finals | Opinion

The one and only other time it happened in Florida Panthers history, before Friday night, was May 14, 1996, or 27 years ago almost to the day.

Current Panthers coach Paul Maurice was then a rookie NHL head coach for the long-gone Hartford Whalers. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was a 7-year-old boy in southwestern Siberia in Russia. Longtime star Aleksander Barkov was a 9-month-old in diapers in central Finland. New star Matthew Tkachuk would not be born in Arizona for another year-and-a-half.

Dan Marino was still playing for the Miami Dolphins.

Been awhile, then, but Friday night in a far-away rink in Toronto, the Panthers advanced to the NHL Eastern Conference finals for the first time since that ever-distant night in 1996, the Year of the Rubber Rat.

The Stanley Cup Final is now four wins away for the No. 8 seed nobody thought would still be alive and skating.

And close enough to dream now: Florida aims to join the 2012 Los Angeles Kings as the only hockey team to lift the Stanley Cup from the No. 8 seed.

The Cats are the best story in hockey right now and one of the sweetest in all of South Florida’s sports history, and it just got sweeter.

Florida’s sixth straight road victory this postseason, 3-2 in overtime, completed a decisive 4-1 series win over a Maple Leafs team that had been a clear and heavy favorite.

Nick Cousins’ goal 15:32 into overtime won it, stick raised on the ice for the Cats, hopes erased for the Maple Leafs.

Aaron Ekblad’s slap-shot goal on a power-play just 3:31 into the game was first to mute the Leafs crowd, and king-for-a-night Bobrovsky did most of the rest -- stopping 51 of 53 shots. Cats scored their second late in the first period on Carter Verhaeghe’s quick snap of a wrist shot, his fifth score this postseason. Morgan Rielly made it close in the second for Toronto.

Florida caught a huge break late in the second when an apparent second, tying goal by Rielly was ruled no goal after a review. The judgment was that Bobrovsky had stopped Rielly’s tip-in attempt with his skate and that the puck only crossed the red line when Bobrovsky moved after the whistle had blown.

The typically polite Toronto home fans objected by throwing debris onto the ice, but they were few, and mostly towels so as not to hurt anyone.

As for Leafs fans who might be angrily blaming the officials and that call for their second-round exit: You just lost four out of five games to a No. 8 seed. Your complaining privileges have been revoked. Have a nice offseason.

Leaf William Nylander scored the second goal that actually counted.

But Cousins rose up the hero.

Maple Leafs fans had chanted “We want Florida!” before the series.

A bit too late to rethink that, alas.

The Cats will now face the Carolina Hurricanes in the ECF in the franchises’ first-ever playoff meeting. Carolina won the Stanley Cup in 2006, reached the conference finals as recently as 2019, and will be favored over the Panthers -- by now a familiar (and suspect) refrain.

Florida moves forward with a newly minted finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy (league MVP) in Matthew Tkachuk, named one of three finalists just before the puck dropped Friday.

Carolina was 2-1 vs. Florida during the regular season, by a 10-7 goals differential and handing the Panthers their only shutout loss of the season. Notably, though, Bobrovsky did not play in any of the three meetings. Spence Knight started the first two in goal and Alex Lyon the last.

The fast start Friday followed the desired script. Florida’s intention and plan for Game 5 was evident from the theme put forth after the morning skate in Ontario: Play tougher and with more desperation, and make life miserable for the Leafs rookie goaltender, Joseph Woll.

“Bring more energy,” said defenseman Brandon Montour had said. “We were a little loose last game. Obviously they’re a desperate team but we gotta be just as desperate.”

Center: Nick Cousins: “Offensively we can do a better job getting to the net, making it harder for [Woll]. Get in front of him. Not let him see the puck.”

Woll replaced injured star Ilya Samsonov earlier in the series.

“I couldn’t tell you who he is,” admitted Cousins, of Wall.

Coach Paul Maurice, asked what he knew of Woll, said, “Not as much as we would’ve liked” -- managing a small smile. “He looked calm. We felt like we helped that happen.”

The Cats spent almost five full minutes less time in their offensive zone in the last game compared to the one prior.

“We played too much with the puck when our feet were standing still,” Maurice said. “They don’t need a map. The net never moves. They know where it is.”

Hockey’s historical leaning still would have favored the Panthers had they lost Friday and seen their series lead down to 3-2.

All-time it’s a 345-93 advance rate, or 78.8 percent, for teams ahead 3-2. Florida has held that lead only twice in its history but won both times, in the second round in 1996 vs. Philadelphia (at the old Miami Arena) and in the first round in 2022 at Washington.

This time would have felt different, though. The Panthers would have been on their heels with a second straight loss while the Leafs would have been percolating with confidence.

Game 6 on Sunday on home ice in Sunrise would have had a desperate, must-win vibe to it as the Cats played to avoid a dreaded, deciding Game 7 back in Toronto on Tuesday.

Avoiding all that was what Friday night meant for Florida.

That, and extra rest before the next round -- and the Cats’ deepest postseason run in 27 years..