3 Takeaways From The Florida Panthers & Carolina Hurricanes Game 1 | 05/20/2025

The Panthers didn’t look any worse for wear coming out of a Game 7 and jumping right into another series two days later. In fact, they did to Carolina what they’d just finished doing to Toronto, taking a win in dominant fashion while on the opponent’s home ice. With a final 5-2 score, Florida comfortably took the opening game behind their depth scoring. Another stellar outing from the defense, anchored by Bobrovsky and some chippiness to boot, it was a typical Panthers game. Although, according to HC Paul Maurice, he wasn’t happy with their game but understood it as he spoke about in his post-game interview. The Cats are rolling right now, and it’s going to be tough to beat them in a long seven-game series.

Roster Depth:

Another game, another win, another score by committee effort. No Panther has had a multi-goal game since the opening match of the playoffs, but the roster depth doesn’t necessitate that they do that. The Cats got goals from three of their four forward lines and another defenseman goal. Carter Verhaeghe opened the scoring on a simply lovely backhander shot that he placed perfectly into the corner of the net over Anderson; Barkov and Tkachuk got the assists. It was a great power-play goal against the best PK remaining in the playoffs. Evan Rodrigues outworked Jordan Staal in the offensive zone and got the puck to Ekblad. Ekblad then took a shot to score and doubled the lead to 2-0. They left the first period with a 2-1 lead after Aho scored late on a goal that’s been debated on if it was kicked in or not online. The one-goal lead didn’t last long as one of the best plays of the night happened early in the second. Mikkola jumped up in the rush and made an incredible pass across to Greer, who then scored his second career playoff goal and made it a 3-1 game after 40 minutes of play. The second power-play unit got in on the action off a shot from Bennett at the blue line through traffic. Anderson had no chance of seeing the puck with how much traffic was in front of him, and the Cats took a 4-1 lead. Eetu Luostarinen capped off the scoring after getting the feed from Nosek from behind the net and the Panthers’ fifth goal of the night en route to a 5-2 win; Blake scored on a late power play for Carolina to get one back.

Bobrovsky & His Defense:

It wasn’t the best defense that Florida’s played during the playoffs, but it was good enough to frustrate Carolina to the point that Gostisbehere shot a puck directly at Marchand out of frustration. Although the Canes outshot the Panthers 20-33, Florida blocked 21 shots, which is pretty good for them, as it’s not always the strongest part of their defensive game. The physicality was pretty even, with the Hurricanes taking a slight 48-49 edge in hits. The biggest difference was the goaltending. Anderson had been outstanding for Carolina coming into Game 1, but Bobrovsky was better. His biggest save of the night was the one he made sans goalie stick on a point-blank shot. The Canes had some good looks as well, but couldn’t make up the difference. Bob stood tall when the challenge was presented and looked as locked in as he’s been since Game 4 against Toronto. Bobrovsky ended the night stopping 31/33 shots and had a .939 SV%. Over his last five games, Sergei has made 119 saves on 125 shots with a .952 SV%. Even Carolina getting in his face all night with hard play around the crease didn’t rattle him.

Extra Curriculars:

It’s Game 1, and there’s already been a man-on-man fight, a game misconduct, and five roughing minors. A couple of bad penalties called both ways gave each team an early power-play but it was the heavy physicality of both sides that got the crowd fired up and pissed off depending on who laid the hit. It was actually a relatively quiet game on that front for the Panthers until the third period, when Gostisbehere shot a puck directly at Marchand. Naturally, that set Brad off, and he immediately went after him, dropping the gloves and all. Since Gostisbehere refused to drop his own gloves, Marchand was assessed a four-minute double minor for roughing and given a game misconduct with just over half the period to play; Gostisbehere was given a roughing minor. After that, the Panthers were targeting him every shift for hard hits, and it was Gadjovich who went after him the hardest. Eventually, he was given two separate roughing minors (15:45, 20:00). You can count on Florida always going to bat for their guys, sometimes to their own detriment. Still, it’s a sign that this team cares about their brothers in the room and is willing to protect one of their own. I doubt the Panthers are likely to forget this incident, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more boil over next game.