I’m a sucker for teams from Florida, and that started long before some life-changing people entered my personal picture. It even started before the first time I ever set foot in the state, a trip that preceded the first and still only undefeated season of the Super Bowl era and followed a couple of far more monumental events, at least in my book.
When I was barely old enough to be allowed to stay awake until 8 pm, my Saturday nights were an appointment with FLIPPER, which unless you’re of a certain age and/or have roots in Florida you likely wouldn’t recognize. In a television era where two network shows featuring monster families and a talking 1928 Porter were being produced, my favorite was a show featuring a bottle-nosed dolphin saving the day for a motherless family of three guys, including two young boys with unmistakable Noo Yawk accents whom almost every girl in my grade school class had inexplicable crushes on, especially when they’d be shirtless driving around what were ostensibly the Florida keys in their powerboats. Since at the time I weighed only slightly less than I do now and nobody was clamoring to see my bare chest, I focused on the mammal who, as the syrupy theme song claimed, was “faster than lightning”.
And last night some mammals I’ve come to embrace in later years proved they were worthy of that distinction, let alone my growing fandom. FIELD LEVEL MEDIA provided a somewhat balanced telling of what transpired:
Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk returned to action with two goals and an assist, and the Stanley Cup champs swiped home-ice advantage by thumping the host Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-2, to start their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series on Tuesday night.
Sidelined in the season’s final 25 games with a lower-body injury, Tkachuk tallied on two power plays in Game 1 of the Battle of Florida. Defenseman Nate Schmidt added one on the man advantage and another at even strength as Florida went 3-for-3 on the power play.
Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist apiece for the Florida Panthers. Aleksander Barkov posted two helpers. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves.
I won’t lie: I was worried. When Tkachuk came up a no-show in the 4 Nations Cup finale back in February, it was a gut punch. The Panthers were competitive and had fortunately built up just enough of a cushion to still qualify for the playoffs, and after being able to pull off a run to the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals from the 8 seed, just getting in was enough of a lane. But opening on the road in a hostile arena against their arch-rivals–the Florida-based team that leads them in both longevity and Stanley Cups by one–was an especially daunting task. The magnitude and overall impact of Tkachuk’s return on both teams’ psyches was far larger than even I had anticipated–and I dare say plenty of Bolts Nation were of like mindset.
The hometown TAMPA BAY TIMES’ Eduardo A. Encina began his paywall-protected report with this dour admission:
A lot went wrong for the Lightning in Tuesday’s playoff opener against the Panthers, and with their 6-2 loss at Amalie Arena they relinquished the home-ice advantage they had worked to ensure.
Ultimately, it was just one game, but it was a punch to the gut for a team that entered this version of the Sunshine State series believing it had evened the playing field against a Panthers squad that ended its season last year in five games.
And on the team’s TampaBayLightning.com website, the team’s normally falsetto-screeching play-by-play man Dave Mishkin expressed even more lamenting:
This was a dominant Game One performance for the Florida Panthers, and they were rewarded with a dominant Game One win.
In every aspect of the game, the Panthers outperformed the Lightning. They played a strong, physical game. They forechecked aggressively. They won puck battles. They executed clears cleanly. And despite registering only 16 shots on net, they created a high volume of scoring chances.
It was the first time all season that the Lightning had allowed three power-play goals in a game. Losing the special-teams battle was just one of the many aspects of the game in which the Lightning fell short.
Simply put, the Lightning will need to play much better on Thursday in Game Two.
I’m not silly or evangelical enough to believe that one game doth a series make, even a series as hotly contested as the Florida Derby. But when a South Florida team starts to resemble Flipper in how they’re dominating water, even frozen water, one can’t help but get just a little swagger.
After all, long before Mickey Mouse invaded the state, Flipper was influential enough to eventually inspire the name for the first major league professional team in the state (sorry, the AAFC Seahawks don’t count), and in fact once that silly show ended took up residence in a tank in the Orange Bowl end zone.
Right now, I’m putting my money, such as it is, on the latest South Florida team to win a title advancing toward a possible repeat. And if they somehow do, you’ll probably be warbling words similar to these toward moi.
No one, you see, is smarter than he.
Courage…