The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers have brought “The Battle of Florida” into the Stanley Cup playoffs before, and they’re ready to tread back into those choppy waters once again.
Squaring off for their fourth playoff series in five seasons, the foes will play Game 1 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series Tuesday with a rare 8:30 p.m. start in Tampa.
After Tampa Bay won the first two meetings in 2021 and 2022, the Panthers claimed last year’s first-round matchup in five games on the way to their first Cup championship.
Florida was the betting favorite to represent the conference in this year’s Stanley Cup Final, but the champs slumped to a 7-10-1 finish in the final 18 games, with forwards Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett plus defensemen Dmitry Kulikov and Aaron Ekblad missing significant time.
The feisty forward sparking the Panthers’ attack, Tkachuk suffered a lower-body injury in the 4 Nations Face-Off while playing for Team USA. He has not played in an NHL game since Feb. 8 and missed the final 25 games on long-term injured reserve.
However, he skated at right wing on the second line with Mackie Samoskevich and Bennett in Saturday’s full practice, which featured former Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand on the third line.
“We had four periods of Samoskevich, Bennett and Tkachuk playing together this year, and it looked really, really good,” coach Paul Maurice said. “But now we go into a playoff atmosphere, so we will learn.”
Top center Aleksander Barkov totaled 20 goals and 51 assists in 67 games. The 12th-year Finnish veteran won 56.5 percent of his faceoffs.
“Best time to be a hockey player is starting now,” the Florida captain said.
Ekblad will miss Games 1 and 2 in Tampa as he finishes a 20-game suspension issued March 10 for use of a performance-enhancing substance.
In their eighth 100-point season, the Lightning notched 102 by leaning on stellar play at home, where they sported a 29-8-4 mark. But the Panthers were victorious once there on Dec. 22, a 4-2 triumph before the Christmas break.
Brayden Point scored his team-best 42nd goal last Tuesday in a 5-1 home win over Florida. That put him one ahead of first-year linemate Jake Guentzel, who arrived from the Carolina Hurricanes after being traded there by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
While having two 40-goal scorers is obviously impressive, the Lightning — who led the league with 292 goals (3.56 per game) — also roster the NHL’s top scorer and the Eastern Conference’s winningest goaltender.
In his second consecutive Art Ross Trophy-winning season, Nikita Kucherov produced 121 points (37 goals, 84 assists) to move past Colorado Avalanche winger Nathan MacKinnon’s mark of 116. Due to an undisclosed injury, Colorado sat out MacKinnon over the final three games — the only three he missed — while Kucherov skated in 78.
“You see it from afar, but to see it up close, how skilled (Kucherov) is and the plays he makes,” said Guentzel, “you catch yourself in awe every day.”
Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy went 38-20-5 with a 2.18 goals-against average, a .921 save percentage and six shutouts.
He’s expected to go head-to-head with rival Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 1. Bobrovsky went 33-19-2 for Florida this season with a 2.44 GAA, a .905 save percentage and five shutouts.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Saturday that forward Oliver Bjorkstrand, acquired as scoring depth at the trade deadline from the Seattle Kraken, would miss the entire Panthers series due to a lower-body injury.
