RALEIGH, N.C. — The Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes entered the Stanley Cup playoffs facing challenges that made it unclear how long either might stick around.
The former Southeast Division peers are still here, halfway to winning the Cup as they enter the Eastern Conference Final in what could be a bruising series. Game 1 of the best-of-seven series starts Thursday at Carolina, which is in its second conference final in five seasons. It is Florida’s first trip this far since 1996.
The Panthers pushed their way into the postseason only to earn a date with Boston, which had just posted the greatest regular season in NHL history. The Hurricanes were facing injuries to key forwards that made a weakness exposed from past playoff stumbles even more acute.
“It’s amazing, but it’s pretty hard right now to think about accomplishments to this point,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “We want to keep going. We want to keep playing and that’s what we’re thinking about.”
Florida’s run was unexpected, with the Panthers using a six-game win streak to ultimately claim the last wild-card playoff spot. Yet since falling behind 3-1 to a Boston team with league records of 65 wins and 135 points, Florida has won seven of eight games, including the Game 7 overtime clincher against the Bruins and jumping to a 3-0 series lead in beating Toronto in a five-game, second-round series.
As for Carolina, the Hurricanes – who had the league’s second-best record – pushed past the New York Islanders in six games and then beat New Jersey in five. That came after the last two postseasons ended in second-round exits on home ice.
“Obviously we’ve had really good teams the past five years and to be honest, I think (for) everyone — it’s been a little disappointing getting bumped in the second round for a few years in a row there,” Carolina defenseman Brett Pesce said.
“I remember some of the veteran guys on the 2019 team and (Coach Rod Brind’Amour) saying you don’t know when or if you’ll ever even get back to the conference finals. So I kind of learned that hard way.”
The Hurricanes are favored to win this series, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, and currently hold a slight edge over Vegas, Dallas and obviously Florida to win the Stanley Cup as well. Carolina has gone 5-1 as a favorite so far in these playoffs, while the Panthers have been the betting underdog in every game so far – including Game 1 of this series.
The Panthers had eight first-period goals in the first two rounds, and the Hurricanes had only six. After that, it gets wild: Florida had 13 second-period goals and a league-best 15 goals in the third period. Carolina has 20 goals in second periods of these playoffs, then 11 in third periods.
The Hurricanes could get a boost with top-line forward Teuvo Teravainen nearing a return from a thumb injury that required surgery and has sidelined him since Game 2 of the first-round series against the New York Islanders. He has returned to practice. Florida’s Ryan Lomberg (upper body) is a possibility for this series.
COYOTES: The future of professional hockey in the Phoenix area is in doubt after voters Tuesday rejected three ballot measures that would have allowed the construction of a new stadium in Tempe, Arizona.
The ballot questions all revolved around the construction of a $2.1 billion entertainment district on a city-owned, 46-acre tract of land in Tempe, about two miles east of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The project would have included a 16,000-seat arena for the Coyotes, two hotels, a theater and nearly 2,000 residential units, and at least $1.9 billion of the costs would have been privately funded.
The vote on the proposal, by Tempe residents, was done almost entirely by mail and reportedly featured high turnout. As of Wednesday morning, two of the ballot measures were losing by a margin of 56 percent to 46 percent, and the third trailed 57 percent to 43 percent. Maricopa County election officials said there weren’t enough same-day ballots left to count that would overcome those margins.
“The NHL is terribly disappointed by the results of the public referenda regarding the Coyotes’ arena project in Tempe,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “We are going to review with the Coyotes what the options might be going forward.”
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