‘End of world’ to new life: Florida Panthers crush Boston 6-1 in statement win to even series | Opinion

The fists and the rubber rats were flying Wednesday night, and now the Florida Panthers are flying to Boston with new life in this NHL second-round playoff series.

Late in the Panthers’ emphatic 6-1 home rout of the Bruins came the main bout in a flurry of fisticuffs: the Cats’ Matthew Tkachuk landing his right fist square to the face of Boston’s David Pastrnak as Florida fans howled with delight. It was not long after that when the final horn sounded and the rats rained on the ice.

Tkachuck’s TKO mirrored the pounding the Bruins took just two nights after they’d handled the Panthers, 5-1. And that fist shouted, “Playoff hockey!”

“It won’t change anything [moving forward in the series], but, man, you’re gonna see that on the highlights over and over and over,” winning coach Paul Maurice said of that punch. “I thought it was awesome. Both guys seemed OK, so it was awesome. If you’re offended by that, I don’t care.”

The beauty (and ugliness) of a seven-game series is that every result doles out levels of joy and desperation -- both to an exaggerated level, usually -- with the whole narrative apt to be flipped entirely by the following result.

Fans reflect the roller coaster that can bring both thrills and nausea, their premature gloating or wailing and angst all over social media.

But the athletes and coaches -- they live it.

“It’s so mentally challenging, the postseason,” said the Panthers’ Sam Reinhart before Game 2 that leveled the series. “A loss feels like the world’s ending for a minute.”

Said Maurice after Wednesday’s morning skate: “The extremes of it I understand. But I don’t feel extreme right now. It’s the necessary skill for survival in the playoffs [to respond to a loss]. There are losses out there that really help you moving forward.”

He admitted later that the nature of a playoff series is, “Get down two [games] and it’s like the world’s coming to an end.”

Interesting that Reinhart and Maurice in separate interviews both volunteered the Armageddon/doomsday reference. It told you that terminology was part of the sermon within the team between Games 1-2:

That losing the opener, even 5-1, even at home, was not the end of the world. But, unspoken, that going down 2-0 in your own house -- well, it might not have been the end of the world ... but you could see it from there.

Such were the stakes entering Game 2.

The Panthers would never admit to feeling desperate to even the series.

But they were.

And played like it.

So consider the end of the world averted, at least for now, with Wednesday’s crucial triumph as the series heads up to Boston for Games 3 and 4 Friday and Sunday.

In NHL history, no small sample, teams down 0-2 win the series at only a 13.8 percent rate, or 56 times in 407 occurrences.

At 1-1, the team coming coming off a Game 2 win at home wins the series 56.7 percent of the time.

That’s the probability swing that came with Wednesday’s win -- a rally from an early 1-0 lead by the Bruins.

When it got to 4-1 just 1:28 into the third period on Eetu Luostarinen’s goal, Panthers fans were so giddy they broke into an “F you, Boston!” chant, except they didn’t abbreviate the first word. Gratefully it was short-lived, but the vulgarity reflects the animus between the fan bases.

The unfortunate chant arose again, briefly, after Aleksander Barkov’s second goal of the night made it 5-1 on a power play -- hallelujah, on a power play to end that long drought. Before that Florida had been 0-for-4 on the night with that advantage, 0-for-7 in the series -- and 0-for-18 vs. Boston this season, including four regular season matchups, all Panthers losses.

Boston’s shot-blocking has been that good, and the power play drought was significant, as Florida is now 28-6 this season when scoring a man-advantage goal.

Maybe part of the F-U chant was the Celtics just eliminating the Heat from the NBA playoffs. Or the fact there were enough Boston fans here to make heard a “Let’s go Bruins” chant during Monday’s 5-1 Boston win.

The fan animus was mirrored on ice with several time stoppages for fisticuffs. Game 1 never got ugly. Game 2 made up for it, and portends high drama the rest of the way..

The 6-1 final came on Brandon Montour’s shorthanded goal.

Florida had led 3-1 with a mere 1.3 seconds to go in the second period -- with many in the crowd already headed for the concessions but enough left to cheer the horn as Gustav Forsling’s slap shot beat the clock.

The Panthers seized a 2-1 lead in the middle of the second period on perfect interplay between stars Reinhart and Barkov. Reinhart put a slap shot right on goal and Barkov, in traffic, managed to fish the puck onto his stick and send the closer-range shot past goalie Jeremy Swayman.

Barkov had a masterpiece night with his two goals and two assists.

“He’s better this year than he’s ever been,” said Maurice.

Florida had tied the game 1-1 just 1:56 into the second period on a Steven Lorentz tip-in off a deflected shot by Brandon Montour. Lorentz, a center, scored only one goal the entire regular reason but has scored twice now this postseason, taking advantage of added ice time due to Sam Bennett’s injury.

“Like it happened in slow motion,” said Lorentz of his star turn. Of his team’s big bounce-back win: “We not one to panic,” he said.

A hand/wrist injury has shelved Bennett since Game 2 of the opening series vs. Tampa Bay, but he’ll travel to Boston, his return imminent.

Boston had led 1-0 with 7:48 left in the first period when Pavel Zacha’s charge to the net on a breakaway drew Sergei Bobrvosky to his left and left enough net open for Zacha’s pass to scorer Charlie Coyle at the edge of the crease. Zacha’s slalom past Cats defenseman Niko Mikkola set up the sequence that thrilled the sizable number of Bruins fans who’d made the trip.

After a Game 1 performance almost stunningly lackluster, one Maurice called “very frustrating,” Florida aimed to play with greater speed and intensity Wednesday and also to make things tougher for Bruins goaltender Swayman by visiting chaos upon his goalmouth and blocking sightlines.

The Cats also needed to eliminate defensive lapses, which gifted Boston a pair of goals in Game 1 -- “We fed a couple of pizzas up,” as Maurice put it.

They did all of that, playing with more urgency, attacking the opponent’s net and showing much better support of Bobrovsky.

The series heads north now with Boston home for three of a possible five more games but the last one, if needed, back in Sunrise. Florida remains the series favorite, with Wednesday night reestablishing and underlining that.

“The road’s been a great place for us,” Maurice had said, then admitted, “But we’d rather go up 1-1.”

Done. Emphatically.