"Bob: The Void":2025 Postseason, Eastern Conference Final, Game 2 (FLA leads 1-0): Hurricanes vs. Florida Panthers

The Hurricanes were completely outworked by the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night, beginning the Eastern Conference Finals with a 5-2 loss in Game 1. With the Panthers leaving the Hurricanes licking their wounds, they turned to a few lineup changes to turn the tide in this series before traveling to Sunrise. Mark Jankowski returned to the lineup in Jesperi Kotkaniemi's place, taking his place on the fourth line. Jalen Chatfield remained out, missing his third straight game.

Scoring Summary

1st Period

FLA (1:17)- Gustav Forsling (1) (Matthew Tkachuk (8))

FLA (11:41)- Matthew Tkachuk (4) (Carter Verhaeghe (6) & Niko Mikkola (2))

FLA (15:50)- Sam Bennett (8) PP (Carter Verhaeghe (7) & Evan Rodrigues (7))

2nd Period

FLA (19:21)- Sam Bennett (9) (Carter Verhaeghe (8) & Aaron Ekblad (5))

3rd Period

FLA (13:49)- Aleksander Barkov (4) PP (Aaron Ekblad (6) & Evan Rodrigues (8))

My Thoughts

I'm not sure I've ever seen Andrei Svechnikov have a period worse than his first period tonight. The Panthers scored three times in the opening frame, and Svechnikov had something to do with all three. On the first goal, he failed to clear the puck, allowing Matthew Tkachuk to pick it off and Gustav Forsling to finish it. On the second goal, it was a little of the same. Pressure by Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe forced him to make a bad decision before Verhaeghe found Tkachuk. Svechnikov wasn't on the ice for the third goal. That's because he was sitting in the penalty box for an unnecessary extra jab to the back of Tkachuk's head after a clean hit at the bench. Bennett redirected Verhaeghe's shot, putting the Canes in an impossible position. 

Svechnikov was far from the only Hurricane to look lost on the ice tonight. There was zero cohesion from the 18 skaters in front of Frederik Andersen, who was forced to bear the brunt of Florida's relentless pressure. It felt like the Panthers couldn't do a single thing wrong in this game. Everything they did worked to perfection. They controlled all three zones all night. Their stars played like it. Their Top 6 made the Canes look like a Beer League team out for a skate. Their power play was 2-for-2. Their penalty kill was 3-for-3. Sergei Bobrovsky was 17-for-17. Most of their hits landed to a devastating degree. The only real negative was Sam Reinhart getting hurt in the first period and not returning. 

Through two games, Frederik Andersen has allowed almost as many goals as he did in the first two rounds combined. While that stat might paint his game negatively, he has received little to no help from the group in front of him. Tonight, he had a shot go off his defenseman, another redirected on the power play, and two more finished on the backdoor after a defenseman lost a battle to a Panther. There's only so much Andersen can do with what he's been given. It doesn't help that Bobrovsky has channeled his performance from 2023 and allowed just two goals in two games to highlight the discrepancies between the two sides. 

Now, the Hurricanes head to Sunrise in a 2-0 hole with a negative amount of momentum. They've lost 14 straight games in the conference finals and have to try and claw their way back into the series. The Hurricanes have only overcome a 2-0 deficit twice in the organization's history (2006 vs. Montreal, 2019 vs. Washington). Unfortunately, neither was in the conference finals. The Panthers look like a well-oiled machine that can do it all. It's starting to look like it's not a matter of if the Hurricanes are losing the series, but when they are. However, things can change on a dime in the playoffs. As long as they haven't lost four games, there's still time. They've played well on the road in the postseason. Maybe we'll witness a miracle on Saturday.