Cats lead best-of-7 Eastern Conference Final 3-0 over Carolina
The Florida Panthers are on the cusp of doing something shocking.
Something amazing.
Something fans of the team who have followed along for years and suffered through countless losing seasons have been waiting for since the 90s.
Wednesday night the Panthers will host Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final.
Florida has won each of the series' first three games against the Metropolitan Division Champion Carolina Hurricanes, all by one goal.
They have also allowed Carolina to score a total of just three goals in the series.
One more win and the Panthers will be playing for the Stanley Cup.
Florida has picked a wonderful time to play its best hockey of the season, but the level that goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has reached during the postseason is something truly incredible to behold.
Overall he's gone 10-2 with a 2.15 goals against average and .935 save percentage. Those are excellent numbers.
During the conference final, however, Bob has entered another atmosphere, stopping 132 of the 135 shots Carolina has directed his way.
Both Bobrovsky and his head coach have made sure to point out that the success they've seen in their own end has been a collective effort.
“Not to diminish what he's doing," Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said of Bobrovsky, "but almost every year there’s that story, that is a storyline, where a goaltender gets into a rhythm, and usually it’s in conjunction with the players in front of him competing at a level defensively that they get into an understand of what’s going to happen in their own end, where the bodies are going to be, where the shots will come from. Their area of responsibility."
Added Bobrovsky: "My teammates allow me to play good, in their structure and how hard they work in the defensive zone to get that result and to win. It's not easy for some players to get that role and to protect the net and block shots and sacrifice their stats for that."
LINEUP NOTES
The big question surrounding the Panthers is regarding the health status of their captain, Aleksander Barkov.
He suffered a lower-body injury during the first period of Game 3 and did not return despite being initially listed as questionable to return.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said Tuesday that the injury wasn't believed to be serious and that he was "optimistic" Barkov may be able to play on Wednesday.
“Good news," Maurice said. "It was as much precautionary as anything. We had to rule out anything sinister, so we’re very optimistic that he’ll return soon, and when he does he’ll be ready to go.”
Any changes on the Carolina side will not be known until at least after their morning skate.
Considering how well goaltender Frederik Andersen has played, it wouldn't be surprising to see him back in the crease for Game 4.
Through eight postseason starts, Andersen is 5-2 with a 1.58 goals against average and .937 save percentage.
LINEUP UPDATES
Barkov was on the ice for Florida's morning skate and was a full participant.
Afterwards, Maurice confirmed that Barkov would be playing in Game 4.
"Ready to roll," Maurice said. "Freshest guy on the ice."
Carolina appears to be rolling with the same 20 players, starting Frederik Andersen in goal.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
Anthony Duclair on completing the sweep: "We've been in this situation last series, and we know how that ended."
Brandon Montour on Paul Maurice: "Anytime he's up and talking, everyone is involved. He knows what it takes, what it's all about. It's good to have a guy like that behind the bench."
Paul Maurice on the approach to Game 4: "Because we started on the road in each series, I felt Game 4 was Boston's best game of the series and it was also Toronto's best game of the series. Now, different context...Boston's going to go to 3-1 at that point and Toronto is down 3-0, and that was their best game. And I think we learned some things in those Game 4s because it got us in the right direction in Boston and we learned some things that will be important for tonight in that Game 4 against Toronto. We would expected (Carolina) to be as strong as they can be for the entire game."
Colin White on trying to close out Carolina: "There's not a lot of room out there, either way. It's a pretty simple game out there. Chances come at weird times in the game, and when you get those chances you have to capitalize."