Dave Hyde: Florida Panthers’ big year ends with big questions as Tampa Bay completes sweep

This was a few minutes after the Florida Panthers season ended in the most depressing of fashions Monday night, and veteran Aaron Ekblad was asked one of the required questions for such a bleak finish: What does this team learn from being swept by Tampa Bay, four games to none, in their playoff series?

Ekblad is a thoughtful player, and rather than spit out some cliché answer he sighed deeply in stumped contemplation.

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Um … ‘’ he said.

He thought some more. A year ago, the Panthers lost in a tough series to Tampa Bay and the lessons of intensity and hard work was obvious for players not accustomed to the playoffs.

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“What did we learn from this series?” Ekblad repeated.

To give him some more time let’s answer a simpler question: Was this Panthers season a success? The knock some give it is they had the NHL’s best record this regular season and were ignominiously swept by Tampa Bay in the second round of the playoffs.

Let’s deconstruct that. When’s the last time the Panthers were the best team in the regular season? Never.

When were they last in the second round of playoffs? It was 1996.

What kind of small-minded, self-serving thinking labels this season a fail because the Panthers admittedly looked lost too much against two-time defending champion Tampa Bay?

The Panthers haven’t won enough to be in the area code of this kind of disappointment in more than a quarter-century. They did this year. They played a brand of open-ice, offense-crazy hockey that had fans chanting many nights, “We want 10.”

That could be lowered to, “We want two,’’ in the playoffs. In all four of their losses to Tampa Bay and two more against Washington, the Panthers scored one goal or less.

This gets us back to Ekblad’s answer. He talked with disappointment of their one power play goal in the playoffs. He mentioned trying to break down teams more – ” a little more pressure, maybe.”

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He also said something earlier about Tampa Bay that was the lesson for the Panthers, if there is one.

“They know when they have the they have a lead, they’re going to hold it,’’ he said after Tampa Bay won Game 4, 2-0. “They’re a strong, strong team.”

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper repeats a line: “It’s not how many you score, it’s how many you give up.” That’s something the Panthers need to ponder this off-season. It makes for tight and tense hockey, the kind that a great goalie like Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy wins – the kind great goalies often win all the way to the Stanley Cup.

Vasilevskiy stopped the Panthers’ final 88 shots this series. Here’s the thing, though: Sergei Bobrovsky was the best Panther most playoff nights. Vasilevskiy was helped by his best players like captain Steven Stamkos blocking so many shots he had to go to the locker room three times in Game 2 this series.

Vasilevskiy also was helped by the goalposts Monday. Ekblad hit the goalpost with a shot. Carter Verhaeghe’s shot ricocheted off one post to hit a second post but didn’t go in. That’s the difference between winning and losing this one.

It was the best game we played as a 60-minute game,’’ he said. “It looked like us … that wasn’t always the case in the other nine games (in the playoffs). We showed flashes of it. But the 60-minute game at that pace looked like us.”

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Brunette then alluded to something interesting that again gets to the work ahead for this franchise. He talked about Tampa Bay’s, “evolution from how they were once a high-flying kind of offensive team and they found their recipe in how to win. They stick with it. Obviously to be there.”

Brunette took blame of the Panthers’ power play scoring, saying he might have “trusted,” the group that crushed it in the regular season too hard. in that regard. Most coaches ride what brought them here.

“It’s already caused me some sleepless nights,’’ he said. “It might cause me a sleepless summer.”

What’s next? Well, the search will be on to add a level of grit to a roster needing some. This season of new frontiers ended with a whimper and a harsh lesson from the two-time defending champs: It’s not how many you score in the regular season, it’s how many you keep out in the playoffs.