SUNRISE, Fla. — Paul Maurice started to look back fondly on last year’s playoffs when preparation began for this year’s training camp.
After the Panthers lost in the Stanley Cup Final, Maurice described his summer as “somewhat peaceful” as he dealt with the loss.
Then the head coach started watching tape back and his reflections acquired a positive tint.
“You start to remember the plays, the effort, all that, but the people [too], right?” Maurice, Florida’s head coach, told reporters Friday. “And so I appreciated the year, all my sense of loss was gone probably about the middle to late August last year when I started going through the video of this season.”
The Panthers, then, are not approaching Saturday’s Game 6 — their chance to close out the Rangers and make a second straight trip to the Cup Final — with a sense of unfinished business so much as one of appreciation.
They understand how tight the margins have been in this series, with three overtime games and another one-goal contest on Thursday evening, which Florida won 3-2.
They know the Rangers will throw everything at the wall and then some when the series resumes at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday night.
They’ve been here before.
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“I think we’ve seen it a couple times already that you can’t just let your foot off the gas,” center Steven Lorentz told reporters. “Obviously these are the hardest games to win. Especially at this point in the playoffs, nobody’s expecting an early summer. Everybody’s going as hard as they can right to the final whistle, right to the final buzzer. There’s going to be no easy games from here on out and we knew that from the start of the playoffs.
“This is obviously a team that had a lot of success throughout the regular season, a team that knows how to win. We’re not expecting them to come in here and give a flat performance.”
All series long, both teams have played physical and desperate hockey.
But the Panthers have found that small edge across nearly every category, tilting the ice when it’s mattered most, along with a relentless fervor.
That is what the Rangers need to find a way to counteract if they are to come back and win the series.
“I think it’s just a continuation of what we’ve seen,” Maurice said. “I think the speed amps up and the team that is closest to their identity wins. Whether it’s an elimination game or not, how fast and quick you can get to your identity wins the game.”
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