Dave Hyde: Florida Panthers show might and muscle to New York in Game 1 win

Well, let’s see, is there anything more the Florida Panthers could do to introduce their tough and timely brand to New York?

Silence Times Square?

Hip-check the Statue of Liberty?

The Panthers didn’t just dominate Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night with a 3-0 win against the New York Rangers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. They served notice on what they look like on their best nights.

“The ideal road win for us and how we want to play,’’ Matthew Tkachuk said.

They checked all their blueprint’s boxes, starting with stars like Tkachuk shining from the start. His shot over Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin’s shoulder late in the first period gave the only necessary goal. His open-ice hit to flatten Rangers center Vincent Trocheck, a former Panther, was the trademark tattoo this team brings to games.

“Anytime I can get a hit, especially early in the series you can’t pass it up,’’ Tkachuk said on ESPN after the first period. “It’s part of our DNA, part of my DNA.”

“How’d it feel?” ESPN’s Emily Kaplan asked.

“It felt like I’m back in a playoff series,’’ Tkachuk said.

New York must’ve felt like it was in handcuffs. That’s because of the other part of the game the Panthers brought from Wednesday’s start, the defensive system coach Paul Maurice walked in the door with last season.

The Rangers only goal was on themselves. Carter Verhaeghe’s pass deflected off the stick of New York’s Alexis Lafreniere into the Rangers’ net to make it 2-0 late in the third period.

In the game of great defense vs. great offense, the Panthers defense prevailed. It allowed a stingy five, first-period shots. It then held New York to three shots over the final 18 minutes of the second period. There were long stretches Panthers star goalie Sergei Bobrovsky withstood boredom, and other flurries of action where he withstood two Rangers breakaways and then a barrage in the latter part of the game.

“The last 10 minutes of the game, that’s where he had to be Sergei,’’ Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.

Bottom-line: Bobrovsky only had to stop 23 shots as the Rangers were shut out for only the second time in 93 games this season and the first in Madison Square Garden since December of 2022.

Yes, this was a blueprint of success the Panthers want to bring Friday in Game 2, right down to making their superior depth count. This was a final, subtle part Wednesday. The Panthers’ fourth line, the one that keeps changing because they can’t fit everyone on the roster, carried play at times and bought the marquee players a measure of rest in a way hockey aficionados applaud.

Rangers star Artemi Panarin, for instance, played 24 minutes and 31 seconds to lead all forwards (the Panthers most-used forward, Aleksander Barkov, played nearly four minutes less). Can Panarin do that with impact over a seven-game series?

“They were on the puck and fast and detailed,’’ Maurice said of the fourth line of Kevin Stenlund, Nick Cousins and Ryan Lomberg. “That might’ve been the best game I’ve seen Ryan Lomberg play.”

If all this holds as the series develops is anyone’s guess. Earlier Wednesday, Maurice talked of how any Game 1 is a “great place to learn,” and that, “If one of our strengths isn’t there, we’ll ask why. Is it us? Is it them?”

Those questions are left for the Rangers now. And they’ll be hearing a lot until Game 2.

“What is their game plan to try to win this series?” former Rangers captain Mark Messier said on ESPN after the second period. “I haven’t seen it.”

That’s how well the Panthers’ script worked in Game 1. No one is overdoing one game’s impact, even a dominant win like this. All you have to do is look at the only playoff series between these teams in the long-ago of 1997. The Panthers shut down Messier and Wayne Gretzky in the opener.

The score was the same 3-0.

The Rangers won the next four games.

That sent the Panthers on a quarter-century tailspin without a postseason series win. Now they’re three wins from back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. Now they showed up to the conference finals with their speedy and suffocating style they play.

One down. Three to go.