Bolts-Panthers Series Preview.

 2A Tampa Bay vs Florida 3A

We are back with another Playoff preview here on the ETEH Blog, so today we are looking at the 2nd Series that was locked in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, as we're going to be looking at the battle of Florida today between  Tampa Bay and the Florida Panthers, as the Bolts who have surprised a lot of people hitting a 100 points and being a force once again are once again taking on the 3rd team in the Atlantic in Florida who is the defending Cup Champs and fell off a bit from last year due to injuries and being in a competitive division and will wind up going on the road for these playoffs.

History of Rivalry Between teams in playoffs:

Now for a majority of these teams histories they had never played each other in the playoffs but the last few years these two Florida teams haven’t been able to escape each other as this will be the 4th postseason meeting all time between the Panthers and Bolts and 4th time in the last 5 years, as the first two times these two played in the playoffs was in 21 and 22 as the Bolts wound up winning both those series en route to Cup Final appearances in both years and then they also played in last years 1RD of the playoffs in a series which Florida handled relatively easily winning in 5 games, beating Tampa for the 1st time in the playoffs en route to their 1st Cup win, so the Panthers will be looking to level the all time matchup while Tampa is looking for their 3rd win in 4 meetings.

Season Series Record: 

Tampa Bay 2-2-0 12-7+5

Florida 2-2-0 7-12-5

Kim Klement Imagn Images

Each teams X-Factors: Tkachuk vs Vasilevskiy 

Next we go over to the two teams X-Factors in my opinion for this series and the two X-Factors in my eyes are the Panthers star forward who hasn’t played since the 4 nations break in Matthew Tkachuk and Bolts elite level goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Now I feel both these teams are going to be huge X-Factors in this series given how important they are to there respective clubs, now for the Panthers they have added a lot before the trade deadline like Marchand, Sturm, Jones and Vanecek and made this team quite a powerhouse, but their star player in Matthew Tkachuk has been out the last month and a half with a injury and while he should play in RD 1 he will be rusty, so I think how big of a impact Tkachuk has on the scoresheet May determine this series, meanwhile for Tampa the biggest X-Factor is in Net with Vasilevskiy, as over the past few years in their RD 1 exits he hasn’t played to the level he did when they were going to Stanley Cups, so if he can find that form again and play lights out I really like the Bolts chances here.

Which teams are best at 3 Positions:

Sam Navarro Imagn Images

Offense: now if you look at these two offenses I think had the Panthers still been rather banged up entering the playoffs and had guys out then I may have given the offensive advantage to Tampa, but with it sounding more and more likely that Tkachuk, Barkov, Marchand and Reinhart will all be ready to go for game 1 of the playoffs, I am going to give the offensive edge to Florida as I think with a healthy lineup top to bottom Florida has the better offense so that is why the Panthers get the offensive edge.

Defence: when it comes to the defensive side of the puck I think once Ekblad returns from his suspension I feel that the Panthers will have the better blueline as they could have Forsling, Jones Ekblad and Mikkola in the top 4, but for the first two games I do feel Tampa with have the top to bottom better defence so I will give the D advantage to Florida but only after game 2.

Goaltending: now in Net we have two elite level Russian goalies in Vasilevskiy and Bobrovsky, now Bobrovsky lead the Panthers all the way to the Cup final last year and that was quite good for Bobrovsky but I still feel that Vasilevskiy is a top 3 goalie in the NHL and still ahead of Bobrovsky, so even though he is a good goalie, I am giving Vasilevskiy and Tampa the edge in Net.

Biggest on Ice Matchup: Florida new look forward group vs Tampa blueline

Now in my opinion the most interesting on ice matchup in the battle of Florida will be how does this new look offense of the Panthers stack up against the Bolts blueline, now the Panthers got a few upgrades at the trade deadline including Sturm and Marchand to bolster a already lethal forward group, but we haven’t seen the full force of that forward group yet due to injuries especially to Matthew Tkachuk, so I feel like how this forward group gels with all of their players healthy will be a big indicator as to who win this series because if the Panthers forward group starts to roll and are looking quite good then I like the Panthers chances, but if Tampa’s defence make them look rust and they can’t find their footing offensively then the Bolts may have the advantage so who wins this battle might determine the series.

Predictions:

Now when it comes to my predictions and who I feel will win this series, now if I was biased I would say that I would want Florida to win because even though they just won a cup, they haven’t had as much success as Tampa, but I think I will go with my gut which is telling me the Bolts will win this series, not only has Tampa played well this year against the Panthers, but also over the past few years we have seen the Stanley Cup Champ be eliminated early in the playoffs the following year, but the Panthers have had a lot of injuries over the past few weeks and everyone may not be 100% and Tkachuk might be rusty with all the time he has missed, so although I do want to see Florida move on, I am taking the Bolts in 6 to advance to RD2 for the first time in 3 years.