Why the Florida Panthers will beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Playoffs

After breaking their 26-year playoff series-winning drought, the Florida Panthers face another one of their demons in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs – the Tampa Bay Lightning.

In a hard-fought six-game, first-round series, the Panthers were ousted by their cross-state rival last season and had to watch from home as the Lightning won their second-straight Stanley Cup.

Jonathan Huberdeau remembers the feeling of anger and disappointment in the handshake line following their Game 6 loss to Tampa, but now, Florida has a series win.

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“It feels really good. I think we’re all happy and it is a big relief,” Huberdeau said. “The last time I felt this way was in juniors, so it’s just good to have that feeling. Now we have to go to work in the second round.”

The Panthers now know what it takes to win in the playoffs.

“These things, you’ve got to go through them a few times to really get the feel of it,” Florida interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “You have to have heartbreaks and things that don’t go your way. You can find how hard it is and understand it and be resilient. When you see the reward like they saw (against the Capitals), it’s all worth it."

This is a much different team than the one the Lightning faced last year too.

The Panthers added Sam Reinhart, Claude Giroux, Anton Lundell, and Ben Chiarot to bolster an already deep core.

Oh, and Aaron Ekblad is healthy for this series too.

Here are three reasons why the Panthers will defeat the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Playoffs:

Claude Giroux, Ben Chiarot put Panthers over the edge

When this Florida team took Tampa Bay to six games last year, it was a mostly young and inexperienced team going up against a team that won it all the year before. Now, it is a different story.

The Panthers set themselves up at the trade deadline by acquiring two players who have gone the distance and know how to play on the NHL’s biggest stage.

It showed itself during Florida’s Round 1 win, with Giroux and Chiarot playing a key role in helping the team secure its first playoff series win since 1996.

Giroux finished second on the team in points in the series with seven points and Chiarot contributed with his puck-moving, physicality and stable defensive play.

It all came to a head when “Playoff G,” as Ryan Lomberg called Giroux after the game, picked up points on Florida’s last three goals in its Game 6 win over the Capitals. Chiarot, meanwhile, came up with multiple big plays in the defensive end throughout the series that swayed it in Florida’s direction.

Thanks to both of them, Florida is much deeper and much more experienced than it was last year.

Injury bug looms for Lightning, Panthers healthy this time

Last year, the Panthers headed into this series without Ekblad after he suffered a fractured leg late in the season. While it almost looked to be the same story going into the playoff this year after he suffered a lower body injury in March, he made his return in the first round.

He made a big impact leading all Panthers defensemen in points (five) while logging the most minutes out of the team's skaters with 23:05 per game.

The Lightning, meanwhile, are coming into this game shorthanded.

Brayden Point, who put up four goals and six points during Tampa Bay’s six-game win over Florida last season, is doubtful for Game 1 and day-to-day for the rest of the series after suffering a lower-body injury in the Lightning’s Game 7 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Point played a crucial role in Tampa Bay’s back-to-back Stanley Cup victories, putting up 56 points (28 goals) in 46 games throughout the last two postseasons.

With the Lightning’s depth already dwindling with the losses of Tyler Johnson, Yanni Gourde, and Blake Coleman, among others, from their Stanley Cup-winning teams, the loss of Point could prove to be too much for Tampa Bay to handle.

Sergei Bobrovsky in a much better spot than last season

Last year, Sergei Bobrovsky struggled immensely during the playoffs, going 1-2-0 with a .841 save percentage and 5.33 GAA. His minus-4.88 goals-saved above expected were also the second-worst in the postseason last year.

This year, Bobrovsky has looked a lot closer to the goaltender the Panthers signed for $70 million.

Bobrovsky finished Florida’s first round series with a 4-2-0 record with a .906 save percentage and a 2.79 goals-against-average, which is not nearly the best in the league, but it is a massive improvement from last season.

In Florida’s three-straight victories to end the series, he held a .907 save percentage and a 2.57 goals-against-average while making big saves in the clutch.

“Every night that we have played so far in the playoffs, he is giving us a chance to win and that is what you want from your goaltender,” Giroux said. “He has made some big saves for us on breakaways and 2-on-1s and saves like that get the guys going.”

If Bobrovsky can keep up his production and Florida’s depth can keep stepping up, the Panthers could easily win this series.

Tuesday's game

Lightning at Panthers

7 p.m., TNT

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: NHL playoffs 2022: Why Florida Panthers will beat Tampa Bay Lightning