Cote: Florida Panthers break Carolina’s heart, spirit with 6-2 win for 3-0 lead in East finals

This for two-thirds of the game was the Carolina Hurricanes team that had been advertised all along. The smothering, shot-blocking, in-your-face defense. The team that would aim to tough the artistry and open skating out of the Florida Panthers and turn game and series into a grind.

Didn’t see that Carolina team the first two games of this NHL Eastern Conference finals.

We finally did for some of Saturday night — and the Florida Panthers won,anyway, and won big.

The first two games should have embarrassed Carolina.

This one did that and broke its heart, and maybe its will.

The game was taut and tighter early than the first two, but still the Panthers broke it open at home and won 6-2, for a commanding 3-0 series lead by a combined 16-4 score in the best-of-7.

“They aren’t getting all fired up in that room,” coach Paul Maurice. “But it’s gonna be a good Sunday.”

Said captain Aleksander Barkov afterward of his team’s confidence right now: “It’s definitely great. We go into a game and know exactly what we need to do. Confidence is high and everyone’s having fun right now.”

Teams up 3-0 in a playoff series win 98.1% of the time in NHL history. Not sure if I would give the Hurricanes even that 1.9% shot at this point.

Florida has outscored its playoff opponents by 30-8 in the last six games, an almost surreal run, a mighty display of power.

The Panthers are back home Monday night with a chance for a sweep to avoid a Game 5 in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

Carolina should be used to being swept by now, including by Florida in the 2023 East finals. Almost unbelievably, Saturday’s was the Hurricanes’ 15th consecutive loss in a conference final series.

A sign in the crowd said the Hurricanes had been “downgraded to a tropical depression.”

The emphasis for Carolina should be on depression now. The Hurricanes have been closer to a soft breeze this series.

Florida led 1-0 just past halfway through the first period on what was credited as a backhander by Niko Mikkola. (The puck went in off the stick of the Canes’ Dmitry Orlov, but hockey does not do the “own goal” thing like soccer.) Mikkola, the 6-6 defenseman, was assisted by Evan Rodrigues and Barkov — the 14th goal scored by a Cats defender this postseason.

Carolina evened at 1-1 with 5:09 left in the second on a Taylor Hall wrist shot that proved Sergei Bobrovsky human. It was a power-play goal, with Gustav Forsling in the box for delay of game.

“Game was pretty tight through two,” said Maurice. “[Carolina was] playing the game that we expected them to play.”

That’s when the game turned into a pinata — the Panthers with the stick, the Canes busted wide open.

“We got back to the way we play, led by Barky,” said Brad Marchand afterward. “We have a lot of guys who’ve been through these moments before.”

As he spoke in the winning lockerroom upbeat rock music played.

“Life is a highway, I’m gonna ride it all night long…”

“Everyone in that room thought we had better and could play better,” said Rodrigues.

And so they did.

Florida turned a 1-1 game into a 6-1 lead in a flurry with five goals in a crazy span of 9:08 in the third period.

Jesper Boqvist first, who was starting only because of Sam Reinhart’s injury.

Then Mikkola again, but with a goal off his own stick this time.

Then captain Aleksander Barkov.

Then Barkov again.

Then Marchand with the punctuation, the twisting dagger.

“Put our best foot forward for a time, but can’t take your foot off the gas for even one shift,” said Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour, who has no answers for this.

Carolina was desperate Saturday night. Just like in the previous game. All for naught.

This time the Hurricanes showed that desperation by benching starting goaltender Frederik Andersen for backup Pyotr Kochetkov. It’s what you do because it’s easier than benching all of your skaters who aren’t scoring goals.

“Just change the vibe a little bit,” Brind’Amour had explained. “We do need some saves.”

They need saving alright, but it will take more than a different vibe, or desperation.

Desperation does not beat talent, especially when the more talented team is motivated to win a second straight Stanley Cup championship.

“We want the Cup!” Cats fans were chanting in the middle of that third-period assault.

As a quick aside, there should be a national uprising, a federal investigation, if the Panthers’ Bill Zito does not win the NHL’s Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year award.

Gregory, the Hall of Fame executive, is no longer with us but has (sources say) sent word from heaven endorsing Zito. Gregory’s heirs should be campaigning. Anyone who has ever enjoyed ice in their drink should be on board.

This is the third straight time and fourth in the past five years that Zito has been one of three finalists, but he has yet to win.

What does it take? His team is the reigning champ and all but certainly is headed to a third straight Final. He’s the one who pulled off the Matthew Tkachuk trade, one of the greatest in hockey and South Florida sports history. He scored big again with the Marchand trade late this past regular season.

“How would I describe our relationship? He’s smart. Just way smarter than I am and I’m fine with that. I’m not trying to be funny,” said Maurice of Zito. “His brain works way differently than mine and he sees possibilities. I’m more risk-averse and he is, ‘I think we can make that deal.’ He is very positive, very optimistic. You feel it every day. He’s in our coach’s office every single day. He pulls up a chair and he hangs out with us, and he’s completely comfortable firing out any, as he would say, crazy idea, and some are, but a lot are just, ‘Yeah, I hadn’t thought about it like that before.’”

The voting for GM of the Year has already taken place.

Otherwise I would have said the Panthers’ utter dismantling of Carolina that continued Saturday night should have surely clinched the trophy for team-building.

“We want the Cup!” chanted the fans.

Tampa Bay, Toronto and Carolina despite all having home-ice advantage could not stop the Panthers, and so at this point it needs be asked:

Can anyone?

Cote: Florida Panthers break Carolina’s heart, spirit with 6-2 win for 3-0 lead in East finals | Opinion

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