Panthers GM believes players now have clear understanding of what it takes to win a Stanley Cup
You have to crawl before you can walk.
There is a process to many things in life, where shortcuts aren’t going to work and the only price to pay this toll comes in the form of blood, sweat and tears.
In sports, experience can be a precious commodity.
For a player to know and understand what it takes to climb the highest mountain, to say they’ve been there and can show you the way, that kind of knowledge is priceless.
The Florida Panthers came this close to reaching the summit of Mount Stanley Cup earlier this month.
After a grueling training camp, 82-game regular season that including a ridiculous travel schedule and then battling through three rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as an underdog eight-seed, the Panthers came within three wins of hoisting the legendary trophy.
The core of Florida’s roster is young, with most players in their mid-to-late 20s and signed up for at least the next year or two, if not longer.
Panthers General Manager Bill Zito has proven that he can not only build up a winning roster, but maintain it and even improve it when given the opportunity.
Considering it’s Zito who ultimately decides who and what the team needs in order to compete for the Cup, he’s quite pleased knowing, even in losing, his players gained something that can’t be bought, signed or traded for.
“There's tremendous value in the lessons learned,” said Zito. “In our player exit meetings, almost to a man, certainly the younger guys who have never been there, finally answered the question, or said, 'Now we know what you're talking about, how hard it is, what we had to go through, what we had to learn, the triumphs, the failures and everything.' I think it's invaluable, and I think you're going to see that in the future. It'll manifest itself in more consistent play through guys, and whatever lessons they learned, they'll be able now to put them to use.”
That will be the next test for the Panthers.
How will they use this newfound knowledge to become a better team moving forward?
“I think that learning curve is still in process,” said Zito. “The experience that the players went through, it's nothing like having your first child, but no one can describe to you what love is until you have your first child, right? It's just it's a different thing. So this type of focus, this type of hockey endurance, where you have to be sharp in your focus, in your mental game, you have to be sharp physically, you have to be sharp as an athlete, and by the way, the other teams are pretty good too. That level of battle, that level of hardness, is something that is, again, I guess it would be great if you could win it without ever having to go through that, (that) you're just that good. We weren't…and I don't know too many teams who are.”
At the end of the day, the only measure of success is winning the Stanley Cup.
Did the Panthers obtain a huge piece of the puzzle in the form of what they learned over the past two months? Absolutely.
But it’s unknown how long it will take to turn that knowledge into a 16-win postseason. As Florida learned, in addition to being good, some breaks have to go your way.
It took Vegas five years to get back to the Stanley Cup Final after they lost in their inaugural season. They sure knew what to do when they got there, though.
It’s probably safe to have similar expectations for the Panthers, if and when they get back to the final round.
“I think it's really going to be a while before the total impact of the experience plays out,” said Zito. “And what we should have learned, what we did learn, and what we can improve on.”