Wait is over: Playoff run vs. Lightning set to begin

One of Florida Panthers coach Joel Quenneville’s messages to his players before they face off with the Tampa Bay Lightning to begin their Stanley Cup playoff run could just as well serve the starved South Florida hockey fan base.

“Don’t wait for it to happen. It’s happening,” said Quenneville of his desire for his team to play fast against the defending Cup champions.

But for Panthers fans, they no longer have to wait, either. It’s happening.

The Panthers are back in the postseason for the first time in five years, if you don’t count last season’s extension to the traditional 16-team field with a “qualifying round.” They’ll look to win their first playoff series since their 1996 run to the Stanley Cup Final in the first-ever playoff showdown between Sunshine State rivals.

It starts with Game 1 against the Lightning at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday night at BB&T Center.

While Florida, as a franchise, hasn’t seen much of the postseason — first-round exits in 1997, 2000, 2012 and 2016 between the magical 1996 run and last year’s qualifying-round elimination to the New York Islanders — Quenneville is a proven winner. Now in his second season leading Florida, he previously led the Chicago Blackhawks to three Stanley Cup titles and was an assistant on the 1996 Colorado Avalanche that prevented the Panthers from winning it all in their third season.

“It’s a lot of fun this time of year, and I think a lot of guys haven’t been exposed to long runs or what it takes to win,” said Quenneville, who is second on the NHL’s all-time head coaching wins list. “I think the nice thing about winning a championship, the best part about winning it is how you went about it in each round and the road that you travel. It becomes very memorable, and that’s up to us to find a way to get through the challenge, the hurdle of getting a win in a round. And off of that, we can get a lot of momentum and go from there.

“But certainly, that’s been a challenge organizationally, and with time, the due factor is basically what we’re looking at all year going into these playoffs. So, let’s find a way to overcome our obstacles, and our challenge couldn’t be any tougher than what we have, but let’s go. Let’s welcome it.”

While the Panthers’ reward for finishing fourth overall and second in the Central Division in the regular season is a Tampa Bay team fresh off last year’s championship, the Panthers aren’t void of playoff experience, either, thanks to recent years’ acquisitions to pair with star forwards Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau.

Take right wing Patric Hornqvist, for instance, whom Florida acquired via trade last September. He won Cup titles with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, even scoring the series-clinching goal in Game 6 of the latter one. The 34-year-old from Sweden has produced 46 points in 90 career playoff games

“This is all I play for, the playoffs. I don’t care about the regular season. I want to win a Cup,” said Hornqvist, who returns after missing the final seven games of the regular season.