The Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to begin, and there are several high-profile matchups on tap for the most exciting postseason in professional sports, including a rivalry matchup between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Over the next two months, we'll narrow the playing field down from 8 qualifying teams in each conference to just one left standing to hoist the Stanley Cup.
After a drama-filled race to the finish line of the regular season, the matchups are set, and it's time to break them down and give a series prediction.
The Florida Panthers earned the top seed out of the Atlantic Division, but they finished behind the Metropolitan Division champion New York Rangers. That means they have the misfortune of drawing the top wild-card qualifier, which this year happens to be the Tampa Bay Lightning, setting up an awesome series and a renewal of the Sunshine State rivalry.
The Lightning are on the downswing from their back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021, but they proved this season that they're still a serious force to be reckoned with.
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First Round Preview: Florida Panthers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
A Panthers cool-off in March had this series looking like a potential toss-up in terms of the odds, but the Panthers closed strong down the stretch to rally past the Boston Bruins for the division title.
Tampa Bay closed strong, too, though, and this matchup is now set between two fierce rivals with truckloads of veteran playoff experience.
The Panthers loaded up at the trade deadline and looked on paper like a juggernaut after adding Vladimir Tarasenko, while the Lightning are becoming more reliant on special teams as their core ages and depth wanes.
Both squads look strong in net, as the Lightning have Andrei Vasilevskiy in their corner while the Panthers are set to turn to Sergei Bobvovsky.
Florida's Aaron Ekblad and Tampa's Victor Hedman lead a pair of strong defensive units that are stifling and deep with big two-way bruisers all over both lineup cards.
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First Round Preview: Florida Panthers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning Possible Upset Alert
Two aspects have us considering the upset here and the Lightning, and it's the goaltending and Tampa Bay's power play dominance.
Vasilevskiy is going to be Vasilevskiy, and when he's on he can win a playoff series all by himself. On the other hand, Bobrovsky is great, but you wonder about one bad night throwing off his confidence for the whole series.
Further, Florida's playing style does lend itself to potentially being hammered with penalty calls. That hasn't actually happened often in their prior playoff runs, but if the Lightning are the aggressors early and get under their skin, the series could start to slip away.
Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Steven Stamkos are absolutely lethal when they're up a man, and it doesn't take many opportunities for them to make a massive difference.
Look for Florida to try to be the initiators and bait Tampa Bay into retaliation penalties to set up their own dominant power play led by Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov.
The Lightning's depth is a far cry from what it used to be, but a Nick Paul and a Tanner Jeannot sprinkled into the bottom six feels like a couple opportunities to have guys down the lineup who can win a game.
While Florida may not be quite at the level they were at for most of this season right now, injuries to Aaron Ekblad and Carter Verhaeghe can explain a lot of that, and the Panthers have the depth, skill, play style, and goaltending to win this series.
The Pick: Florida Panthers in 6
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