After blowout win in Game 3, Panthers focus is on ‘mental reset' as Cup Final continues

Miami Herald

a day ago

Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice has never been a believer in momentum. How one game plays out doesn't — or at least shouldn't — have a direct impact on what happens next.
'Every game starts at zero,' Maurice said. 'It's a reset, a mental reset.'
So even after a blowout win Monday — a 6-1 rout of the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series — Maurice has a pretty solid understanding of what might come next.
Maurice can speak from experience, from how his team had to respond during the Stanley Cup Final last year.
Florida took a 3-0 series lead against Edmonton before getting steamrolled 8-1 in Game 4. While the Panthers lost Game 5 5-3 — with two goals given up being on the power play and the dagger an empty-netter — Maurice continuously says that was the best game his team played in the entire playoff run despite the final result of that game.
'The experience of taking a beating and then being able to come back let's you know it's there,' Maurice said.
Which is why Maurice and the Panthers are expecting a similar response from the Oilers in Game 4, which is set for an 8 p.m. start Thursday (TNT, truTV, Max) at Amerant Bank Arena.
'Emotions in all of these games are extremely high,' veteran forward Brad Marchand said. 'And obviously this is the time you're playing and you're enjoying every minute. So it doesn't really matter what happened tonight, we both have to reset, and we're [ready] for the next one now.'
That said, the Panthers played their style to a tee on Monday night. They scored early — Marchand opened scoring 56 seconds into regulation and they kept adding from there — and their defense was stifling. By the opening minutes of the third period, the Panthers were up 5-1 and their onslaught was so strong that Edmonton pulled goaltender Stuart Skinner, who gave up five goals on just 23 shots.
And by the midway mark of the third period, the Oilers, in the words of their head coach, 'an unraveling.'
A full-out brawl ensued after Edmonton's Trent Frederic tried to punch Sam Bennett in the back of the head, missed and then cross-checked him. That set of a slew of skirmishes, with the headliner being Florida's Jonah Gadjovich dropping the gloves with Edmonton's Darnell Nurse.
The Oilers kept coming with cheap shots — Evander Kane slashing Carter Verhaeghe while he was defenseless on the ice, Kasperi Kapanen with a cross-check on Eetu Luostarinen — that ultimately led to eight players — five Oilers, three Panthers — being ejected.
'I think the game was out of hand,' Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. 'I don't think we would've acted or played like that had the game been a one-goal or a two-goal game. I think our guys were just trying to, I don't know, boys being boys — just trying to make investments for the next game.'
Through it all, the Panthers stayed composed. They weren't going to stoop to that level, not with the lead they had and with so little time left to play. They have a bigger goal in mind.
'We talked about it in the third,' star Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said. 'If you have to take a punch, take a punch. If you have to take a cross-check, take a cross-check. Spear, slash in the face, whatever the case is, you've got to take it. We just played a really smart game.'
Maurice summed up the finish a little simpler.
'The game got to a point where it probably wasn't getting better,' Maurice said. 'Let's move on to the next one.'
Whether the next one looks like the first two games of the series — a pair of overtime thrillers that the Panthers and Oilers ultimately split in Edmonton — or a repeat of Game 3 will say a lot about the trajectory of the series.
'We're not going to look at that game and say 'That's the way it should look if we play our game,'' Maurice said. 'I think the first two games, I liked our Game 1 in some ways better than Game 2. There was a piece of [Game] 2 that we had to clean up. I thin we did a little bit, but I think if we get back to Games 1 and 2, you're talking about short shifts, using your whole bench.'