Zito is excited for challenge Boston presents, says making playoffs was expectation all along
During his three seasons at the helm of the Florida Panthers, Bill Zito has seen success unlike any general manager that came before him.
The Panthers have been to the playoffs each year, and the team has built a strong, young core that is under contract, at varying levels, for the foreseeable future.
But this season has been a struggle.
For unlucky reasons such as injuries and a nightmarish schedule to self-inflicted wounds in the form of dead cap money, the Panthers have had to navigate more than a few obstacles over the past several months.
When discussing Florida’s ability to ultimately overcome the regular season challenges that presented themselves, Zito was quick to credit the players for making those adjustments and sticking with the program.
“For me, the word resilience, the guys’ ability to go from nine (points) out to consistently play every night,” Zito said. “I guess the other word would be consistency. To try to add consistency to the way you do things, so you don't go up and down, up and down. That's the most striking observation that I would have.”
Despite everything the Panthers have been through to this point, the true challenge is only just beginning.
Yes, it was great to see Florida pull everything together at the end of the regular season and make a great run to clinch a Wild Card spot, but don’t think that anyone is satisfied or content with simply qualifying for the postseason.
“No,” Zito quickly answered when asked if just making the playoffs deemed the season successful. “I’d love to say yes, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think that was our expectation. We have good players. We have good coaches. Yes, there's a lot of obstacles we've had to overcome, and I'm thrilled that we have, but this is an opportunity. This is a beginning. It's exciting.”
On Monday the Panthers will begin their opening round series against the Boston Bruins, this season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners.
Florida, as the eighth seed, obviously heads into the matchup as a heavy underdog.
A year ago, it was the Panthers entering the postseason as the league’s top regular season team, but now the script has been flipped.
Zito said one thing he’s doing in order to cope with the shift in playoff perspectives is embracing an ideology he learned from John Tortorella when the two were in Columbus.
“He preferred to start on the road,” Zito said of Tortorella. “Everything’s easier. Less distractions.”
At the end of the day, Zito is a realist.
He knows the massive challenge that the Panthers are about to face.
He also knows what the club he’s built is capable of.
“There's definitely a feeling of why not us,” Zito said. “We're in. That's all it takes. You watch every year and no, they just don't hand out the trophy to the to the top team.”
A big part of what makes Florida such a potentially dangerous playoff team is All-Star winger Matthew Tkachuk.
Zito acquired Tkachuk last summer in a headline grabbing swapping of superstars that sent Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar and other high-end assets to the Calgary Flames.
“You know the type of player that Matthew is, and if you watched our team, you knew we had a need for that type of player,” Zito said.
At least to this point, it has certainly appeared that Tkachuk has fit in South Florida, as Ace Ventura would say, ah-like a glove.
Between the bond he has with his teammates to his relationship with Panthers fans and his love for the Fort Lauderdale lifestyle, Tkachuk couldn’t have found a better place to sign a long-term deal, and Zito couldn’t have found a better player to be the face of his franchise.
“He's a special personality,” Zito said. “And he's sincere, there’s nothing phony about Matthew. If he says he loves it, he loves it.”
Adding Tkachuk was just the latest in a series of transactions Zito has choreographed during his tenure with the Panthers. He has completely re-shaped the roster, but perhaps more importantly, he changed the culture of a franchise that had become known for being ordinary.
In three short years, Zito has pulled the Panthers out of the mud they'd be stuck in for two decades and transformed them into a perennial playoff team.
Now, the battle-tested squad from Sunrise faces its biggest challenge yet, one Zito believes the team is mature enough to withstand.
“I think it’s much different,” Zito said. “I can tell you that the energy around the group is a little different.
“I think there’s a higher level of confidence and a higher level of understanding of exactly how hard this is, how much work it’s going to be, how mercurial the experience can be, the highs and the lows, and keeping it balanced.”