SUNRISE — The mere mention of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers in the same sentence is enough to evoke thoughts of the ugly, drawn-out battles that these two teams have had over the years.
Saturday night was more the rule than the exception.
Yes, the first two times these two played during the regular season was, for all intent and purposes, a little tame.
Everyone was waiting for Mount Vesuvius to erupt and, Saturday, it did.
The most vicious rivalry in the NHL was back on.
Referees Wes McCauley and Kelly Sutherland called a total of 136 minutes of penalties in what ended up being a 4-2 win by the Lightning.
Most of the rough stuff was initiated by Tampa Bay, so, once the matching penalties offset each other the Panthers had the advantage of 10 power plays compared to Tampa Bay’s six.
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper was incredulous so many penalties were called on his team which called up AHL chattels Scott Sabourin and Curtis Douglas from Syracuse for the game.
Say what you want about the skill level of Sabourin and Douglas, but these two being in the game meant the Panthers had to keep their collective heads up.
Perhaps that was the point of it all.
Sabourin racked up 26 of Tampa Bay’s 87 penalty minutes all by himself, all of which came in the third period despite his best efforts earlier.
He jumped into every scrape he could, drawing three 2-minute roughing calls and two misconduct penalties.
Douglas earned a roughing and fighting major after Luke Kunin jumped in for a second period fight.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been part of a game in the regular season where there was double digit power plays,’’ Cooper said, without mentioning the addition of Sabourin had quite a bit to do with the crooked numbers.
“It was a one-goal game for most of the game and one team was short eleven [the NHL changed it to 10] times. I need to look into that a little bit. It’s crazy.”
At one point, there were six Lightning players in the penalty box.
Things were so chaotic that, late in the second period, eight of the ten skaters on ice were sent off for roughing.
The officials could not keep up, turning to their iPad to sort things out.
It was like watching the preseason finale all over again one that was so out of control, the Lightning got fined $100,000 for their actions and Cooper was dinged $25K.
But this is hockey.
Panthers-Lightning hockey.
It is pretty good.
On Saturday, Florida came up on the short end of the festivities mainly because it could not cash in on those power play opportunities.
Andrei Vasilevskiy was on his game, and led to Florida’s frustration.
Vasilevskiy stopped 24 of 26 Florida shots, many in spectacular fashion.
He stopped seven of eight power-play shots with only Brad Marchand cashing in on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing performance from Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett to make it 3-2 before the midway point of the second.
That ended up being as close as the Panthers got.
Florida had 65 shot attempts; Tampa Bay 44.
According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Panthers had 15 scoring attempts on the power play in the third period alone.
They managed six power play shots on goal during that time.
Altogether Florida had 14:49 of power play time as would be the case in having 10 chances with the advantage, most were abbreviated.
Marchand’s power-play goal in the second period came only six seconds in.
The Panthers did give up a shorthanded goal to Jake Guentzel on a first-period power play that Paul Maurice was understandably not too thrilled with.
Despite all the extracurriculars, it was a one-goal game until Nikita Kucherov got his second of the night into an empty net with 56 seconds left.
Florida had its chances. The Lightning withstood the challenge.
But, hey, a win is a win.
That is all that mattered for a Lightning team which has lost in the first round to the Panthers the past two seasons.
When the Panthers beat Tampa Bay in the opening round in 2024, a number of players pointed to getting over the Lightning hump as being key to the rest of their playoff run.
The Lightning, after all, had beaten the Panthers in both 2021 and 2022 — the latter costing Andrew Brunette his job as coach, and Jonathan Huberdeau a spot in the sun.
“What this is doing for us is putting us two points closer to a hopeful playoff spot,’’ Cooper said. “And, it’s against a division opponent. That’s what we care about.”
Does it make up for the past two first-round exits to the rival who has seemingly taken over the state?
“For us, this doesn’t make up for any playoff defeats that have happened in the past,’’ Cooper said.
As for the Panthers, they hate losing to the Lightning as much as the Lightning hate losing to the Panthers.
This rivalry is real and it is bitter.
On the ice, Paul Maurice admitted the power play was a bit rough early, but could not ignore the chances his team got late in the game.
Vasilevskiy, as he has been many times in the past, was the difference on Saturday.
“The power play went from struggling pretty good to having all the chances you can want,’’ Maurice said. “Their goalie made a bunch of really good saves there to keep them with the lead.”
After a game like this, Maurice said, “you’re just going to leave the rink angry and you can fix your problems tomorrow.”
The Panthers have a rare practice scheduled Sunday afternoon in preparation for Monday’s home matchup with Washington.
Florida has a compressed schedule three games in four nights workweek prior to next Friday’s Winter Classic.
There is no time to worry about spilt losses.
These two teams play each other again before the Olympic break in February.
Will they meet in the playoffs again?
One can only hope.
ON DECK: GAME No. 38
WASHINGTON CAPITALS at FLORIDA PANTHERS
