The Florida Panthers find themselves in unfamiliar territory, as do the Toronto Maple Leafs. For the first time since 2022, the Panthers trail in a Stanley Cup Playoff series two games to zero.
Conversely, the Maple Leafs now have enjoyed a two-to-none series lead twice in a single postseason for the first time since 1963; they defeated the Panthers by a 4-3 final score at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, grabbing a 2-0 advantage in a complete reversal of the early goings of their previous matchup in 2023.
Panthers Fans Are Passing The Blame Around
Panthers fans are appearing more and more nervous on social media, with many of them pointing the finger at goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s sudden downturn in his normally clutch play.
One fan exclaimed, “BOB IS THE ISSUE!”
Another fan pointed the finger at multiple Panthers players, saying, “Get Tkachuk out. Kulikov is useless. Mikkola is useless. Verhaege is invisible. Lundel is invisible. The only player who’s noticeable out there is Marchand.”
This fan tried to keep things positive while noting a 2-0 series deficit isn’t an impossible challenge to overcome, saying, “Crosby has been down 2-0 in a series before and came back. Let’s see what happens. Let the leaf fans revel for now.”
Keeping in the positive theme, this fan said, “reset, refocus, start chipping away at this 2-0 deficit one game at a time. Starts Friday night in Sunrise on home ice. Unfamiliar waters for this team being down 2-0 in a series but doesn’t mean this is done in any sense. Arena will be buzzing, let’s turn this thing back around.”
This fan exclaimed, “Leafs figured out Bob Paul Maurice is lost Sam Bennett got karma Brad Marchand is a liability.”
Finally, this fan expressed belief that the team is playing through multiple injuries, saying, “I’m convinced half our team is playing with some bad injures with the effort I’m seeing. There’s been no cohesiveness to our play the past two games.”
Panthers’ Brad Marchand Believes This Leafs Team Is Different
Having already played against the Maple Leafs several times in his playoff career, Panthers forward Brad Marchand is admitting that this year’s edition of Toronto is different than what he’s seen in the past.
“Their biggest threat is that they’re very good on the rush, you need to be above them,” he said. “It seemed like every time that we get an opportunity to get above us, they created something and capitalized on it….it doesn’t take much to score.”
When asked if he feels like it’s a different challenge this time around, he answered in the affirmative.
“Absolutely, I mean, they’re continuing to get better and grow as a group and they’ve brought in a lot of good pieces at the Deadline and the offseason to address their back end, obviously their coaching has changed,” he said. “They don’t give up a whole lot around the net.”
Game 3 will be the first game of the series played in Sunrise, Florida and is scheduled for Friday evening.