By Larry Millson
The Florida Panthers and the Toronto Maple Leafs will have a chance to show if familiarity breeds contempt in their best-of-seven second round playoff series.
The series opens Monday night at Toronto. The Maple Leafs earned home-ice advantage by finishing first in the Atlantic Division while the Stanley Cup defending champion Panthers were third in the division.
There is familiarity on a few fronts.
Both are coming off first-round wins against regional rivals. The Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in a five-game series between Florida teams and the Maple Leafs defeated the Ottawa Senators in a six-game series dubbed the Battle of Ontario.
The Panthers had a 3-1-0 advantage in the season series with the Maple Leafs.
The Panthers defeated the Maple Leafs in five games in the second round of the playoffs in 2023 on their way to the Stanley Cup final.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice once coached the Maple Leafs.
Toronto defenseman Brandon Carlo and Florida forward Brad Marchand were long-time Boston Bruins’ teammates before being dealt at the trade deadline this season.
And, significantly, the Maple Leafs have three players who were with the Panthers championship team last season – goaltender Anthony Stolarz, forward Steven Lorentz, and defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said he has talked to them about their former team. “There are things you might not know,” he said.
“We know how the team plays,” Lorentz said.
He remains friends with Panthers forward Sam Bennett. “But once the puck is dropped, he’ll try to knock my head off,” he said.
Stolarz, who has emerged as Toronto’s No. 1 goaltender, was the backup last season to Florida’s top goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. “We had a good relationship,” Bobrovsky said. “It was a good partnership last year. …It’s going to be fun. He’s a good goalie.”
Ekman-Larsson said that there will be no problem setting aside the good memories of the championship season. “When you’re on the ice, you don’t look at it that way,” he said.
Lorentz admires the consistency of his former team and, despite having depth in highly skilled players, they do not play as individuals. “They buy into the system, and it works.”
All three former Panthers have larger roles with the Maple Leafs than they had last season.
“Good for all of them,” Maurice said. “Their input to the success of the Maple Leafs is really important.”
Marchand always has been a pest against the Maple Leafs. He was a big part of the Bruins’ teams that gave the Maple Leafs so much trouble in the playoffs, including a seven-game first-round win last season.
“I hope I know a lot of his tricks, but we’ll see,” Carlo said. “He always has something up his sleeve.
Toronto had the more difficult first round series despite winning the first three games. Three games in the series went to overtime with Toronto winning two.
Florida outscored Toronto 13-7 in the four meetings between the teams in the regular season.
Bennett (three goals, two assists) and Sam Reinhart (two goals, three assists) had five points each for Florida.
John Tavares had three goals against the Panthers to lead the Maple Leafs. Marner had two goals and one assist.
Opening on the road does not appear to be a problem for the Panthers. They were 3-0 on the road against Tampa Bay. Since the start of the 2023 playoffs, the Panthers are 18-8 in 26 road games during the postseason.
The view from left field 