Panthers reflect after season ends
There will be a Presidents’ Trophy banner hanging over the Panthers’ home ice next season. The team’s media relations department will spend its summer rewriting the record book because tons of pages need updating. And the earliest that the Panthers will again have to hear about a 26-year drought between playoff series wins is in 2048.
On those levels, it was a tremendous season for the Panthers.
Of course, none of that mattered after getting swept 4-0 by the Lightning in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The best team in hockey’s regular season fell well short of its goal in the postseason. A team that scored more goals than any other club had in a quarter-century — the Panthers averaged 4.1 per game this season — managed only three in an entire series against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning, who wound up knocking the Panthers out of the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
“They’re Stanley Cup champions for a reason,” Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “Their evolution of how they were once a high-flying offensive team and they found their recipe how to win and they stick with it ... we aspire to be them. This was another learning experience for us.”
The Panthers smashed team single-season records for wins (58), points (an NHL-best 122 this season) and goals, plus — finally — got its first playoff series win since 1996. Jonathan Huberdeau became the first Panthers player with a 100-point season, the team went 34-7-0 at home, started the year with eight consecutive wins and added a 13-game winning streak later in the season.
When the goals came, they were close to unbeatable: 60-9-2 with three goals or more, 2-15-4 with two goals or less. They were shut out only once — in the 92nd and final game of the year, when the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy slammed the door on their season.
“I think we’re closer than ever, but we got swept, and there’s another level we’ve got to climb still,” Brunette said. “We’re still climbing . ... I believe we were ready for that next step, and unfortunately we fell short.”
The U.S. secured its spot in the quarterinfals of the ice hockey world championship in Finland on the last day of group play with a 4-2 win over Norway. The U.S. next will face undefeated Switzerland, which beat Germany 4-3 in a shootout to make it seven wins from seven games. Canada will take on Sweden in the quarterfinals. Finland beat the Czech Republic 3-0 and Slovakia routed Denmark 7-1 to reach the quarterfinals.
NFL: Commissioner Roger Goodell and owners are discussing the future of the Pro Bowl at league meetings in Atlanta. Goodell said the league will consider turning the Pro Bowl into a celebration of players rather than playing an actual game.
Soccer: The Premier League approved the proposed sale of Chelsea to a consortium fronted by Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly, although the British government still needs to sign off on the deal before it can be completed. Boehly has already agreed to buy the club for $3.1 billion — the highest price ever for a sports team — with Roman Abramovich’s ownership tenure poised to end after 19 years. The deal has dragged out as the British government makes sure that Abramovich, who was sanctioned over his links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, doesn’t profit from the enforced sale of the club. Chelsea has been operating under a government license since Abramovich’s assets were frozen in March and it expires May 31.