Panthers-turned-Leafs draw playoff battle lines against old friends

National Post

03-05-2025

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Before the Round Two shooting starts, one final military salute between the Florida Panthers and the three Stanley Cup brethren now wearing blue.
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'Good for all of them,' coach Paul Maurice told media in Sunrise this week of Anthony Stolarz, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Steve Lorentz. '(OEL) had established his career long before he came to us, but the other two men are at a new level, a new opportunity with Toronto and they've made the most of it.
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'That story (the 2024 Cup chase, which included a seven-game final) endures in our locker room. They were a big part of it. (Now) their input to the success of the Leafs is pretty important.'
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Panthers' goalie Sergei Bobrovsky faces his former understudy Stolarz, who finished with one of the NHL's best regular-season save percentages as part of a new duo with Joseph Woll and was tied with 'Bob' at .901 in the top 10 of post-season goalies on Saturday.
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'We had the good relationship, the good partnership, it's true,' Bobrovsky said. 'In our business it happens a lot (changing colours), you play with guys, then against them. Look at Brad Marchand (a bitter Boston rival until the trade deadline). You never thought you'd play against him. And now we compete together for our Cup dreams.'
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This is stage two of cord-cutting for Lorentz, starting with four regular season meetings after he earned a one-year deal with the Leafs under a professional tryout contract. On a deep Florida team, he saw just 16 of their 24 post-season games, watching the clincher over Edmonton in street clothes. But Lorentz would not hear a discouraging word about life under Maurice.
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'Very intelligent man, I learned to be a full-time NHLer,' he said Saturday. 'It took time, I was scratched early in the season. But he didn't tell me what I wanted to hear, he told me what I needed to hear, that 'you won't be the guy who tries to score a hat trick after being out of the lineup a few games. just be consistent, finish your hits, try and turn pucks over.'
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'That's why I've been successful this season.'
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With the Leafs, the fourth-line winger is all in, 86 games so far, counting six in playoffs in defeating Ottawa. He's rarely spoken to ex-mates this season.
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'Incredible what we accomplished there last year, but it's the past and we're all chasing the same goal again. There won't be any friendships going forward. We know what that team brings and what we have to do to stump that.
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'It's going to be a war. When you're chasing the Cup, when this thing is on the line, everything goes out the window. Do whatever you can to help your team hoist it.
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'I don't expect them to take it easy on me. There will be a lot of physical play and running around. But I'm at the best of my game when it's more physical. Depth players come through in playoffs and get more recognized, such as Scott Laughton when he lays his body on the line with that huge shot block (to help clinch the Ottawa series).'
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Toronto coach Craig Berube naturally quizzed Lorentz, Ekman-Larsson and Stolarz for intel on the Panthers during the regular season match-ups and dug a little deeper the past few days.
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'I've had discussions with them,' Berube confirmed. 'There are things you might not know. It's more mindset stuff for me, being in the locker room with them, being around their organization and their team.'
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