Dave Hyde: How the Panthers pulled off the unimaginable
Never, ever, was this supposed to happen. Never was Florida Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour supposed to tie up Game 7 in Boston with a scant minute left.
Never was Carter Verhaeghe expected to take a pass with Boston’s top line on the ice and zip an overtime shot into the pinpointed corner of the net.
Never, ever were the Florida Panthers supposed to threaten a historically great Boston team, much less rally from down 3 games to 1, much less be dancing off the bench Sunday night and sprinting across the ice like schoolkids let out for recess to celebrate as big an upset as the NHL playoffs have had.
Verhaeghe skated across the ice in open-mouthed celebration, turning as his teammates came to him, the victory scrum forming on one side of the boards while Boston fans sat watching with faces of stone on the other side.
“Game 7, anything can happen,’’ Montour said on Bally Sports TV after the Panthers’ stunning 4-3 win.
Anything happened in this series. Everything did. And now look what’s happening as a surprising April shifts to a stunning May across South Florida. On Tuesday, as the Miami Heat play Game 2 in New York up 1-0, the Panthers open their second-round series in Toronto.
This is never-never land for the South Florida fan. Never were the Heat supposed to make the second round, much less having a chance to go up 2-0 against the rival Knicks. Never were the Panthers expected to beat a Boston team that set records for the most regular-season wins and points.
Throw in Florida Atlantic and the University of Miami starting April in the Final Four, and this was an epic month in South Florida sports.
Can we run it back again?
The way the Panthers joined Upsetville was staggering in itself. Down 3-2, coach Paul Maurice pulled goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for a last-gasp attacker with two minutes left.
How confident was he in it working?
Maurice paused before answering.
“I’m trying to decide how much truth to tell,’’ he said. “We’re down a goal with under two minutes to go against Boston. I wouldn’t bet everything, because the math didn’t add up. But when the puck goes in, you say, ‘Oh, we’re going to win this game.’ ”
The winning goal summed up the series. Matthew Tkachuk and linemate Sam Bennett scrapped for the puck behind the Boston net. Tkachuk had it. Then Boston captain Patrice Bergeron had it. It rattled around a while before Bennett came out with it and passed out front to Verhaeghe.
In the split-second Verhaeghe moved to shoot, Tkachuk moved in front of Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman to screen him from the coming puck. Swayman didn’t see it until it was in the net.
You’d expect Tkachuk to be in the middle of the series-winning play, because he was in the middle of everything else. Six goals. Five assists. A hundred dust-ups with the Bruins.
“I don’t think they fully appreciate maybe we don’t, the challenge of beating a team like that in Game 7,’’ Maurice said. “It’ll sink in over time. Truly, you won’t think much about it. Toronto series starts on Tuesday. But we’ll look back on it years from now and think it was special.”
The reward wasn’t just winning or advancing.
“It’ll make us better for five years,’’ Maurice said. “That’s how hard it was.”
Here’s how shocking it was: “One of the most stunning collapses in Boston sports history concluded …” the Boston Globe game story began.
Boston was the NHL’s top team. The Panthers ranked 17th. Their regular-season differential of 43 points was the widest margin involving an upset since 1982.
The Panthers never seemed to waver even when they were down 3-1 in the series. After Tkachuk scored the winning overtime goal in Game 5, a team-produced video shows him in the postgame locker room saying, “Boys, remember this room. We’ll be back for Game 7.”
They were back Sunday. Now they’re off to Toronto for something else no one saw coming:
Another Game 1.