Has anyone considered that maybe it’s a good thing the Florida Panthers didn’t have a totally clean sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in this Eastern Conference final? Well, it could be. See, these are the facts. Florida has just lost game 4 on their own turf, but all games that follow are going to be elimination games for Carolina, so they are literally skating on thin ice. And though it seemed like Florida was going to have a totally clean sweep of the Canes, with big wins and huge margins in the first 3 games, let’s not forget the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals.

The last time Florida played the Canes in the ECF was 2023 and they thought they had a perfectly clean sweep (with not as huge margins but nonetheless) defeating Carolina 4-0 and heading into the Stanley Cup Finals totally confident. They were ultimately defeated by the Los Vegas Golden Knights in a five-game finish. So, yeah, maybe this latest game 4 loss was a good thing in the long run.

As Kevin Fielder, an avid Panthers fan, quite rightly pointed out via his Twitter account, “Last time the Panthers swept Carolina in the ECF, we lost in the SCF. This is a masterful gambit.” And the masterful gambit… carries some weight, because in order for Florida to sustain their star power, they’ll have to head into the SC finals with the same gusto that they entered the EC finals with—that is, if Carolina doesn’t manage to completely turn things around!

How do the Florida Panthers look today compared to their 2023 Stanley Cup run?

A couple of things were different when the Florida Panthers were making their 2023 Stanley Cup run. For starters, Matthew Tkachuk is no longer the team’s X factor, in terms of goals, at least. Rather, he’s serving a backbone sort of role by picking the fights and holding down the fort. Anyway, what seems to matter more is that Florida’s lineup is a lot different than it was in 2023, partly due to acquisitions and partly due to the fact that three of the team’s key players, Reinhart, Mikkola and Greer, were all out on injury for game 4, and while they all seem to be on day-to-day reserve, there is no confirmation yet on whether they’ll be back for game 5.

Other than that, here’s what’s similar: Florida played the Canes in the Eastern Conference Final in 2023. However, back then they defeated them 4-0. Just to reiterate that fact. Now here’s what’s slightly different.

It’s looking like Florida will play the Oilers in the SCF if things keep going the way they are and the Stars don’t turn everything around completely. This, while being different from the 2023 series, where Florida played the Golden Knights in the final, is not very different from the 2024 series, where Florida started strong against the Oilers, winning the first 3 games and then losing the next three, making the final a very tight game 7 with a 2-1 win.

All this is to say that Florida’s clean sweeps don’t necessarily demonstrate consistency, or at least they haven’t in the past. So, yes, maybe it is a good thing that the Panthers have lost game 4 of the ECF, or maybe the Canes can pull an Oilers move and push the series into 7 games.