The loudest cheers among Florida Panthers fans at Amerant Bank Arena are always for Sergei Bobrovsky. Florida fans know how important the veteran goaltender is to their team. It's why Florida never appeared rattled during its third straight Stanley Cup Final run.

Matthew Tkachuk said it was not a foregone conclusion that he would be healthy enough to start the Stanley Cup playoffs when the Florida Panthers opened with the Tampa Bay Lightning on April 22. When Paul Maurice said it would depend on the day Game 1 started as to whether Tkachuk would

Samoskevich, who was on Florida’s top power-play unit, even fed Bennett for the Panthers’ first goal of the playoffs in a 6-2 win against the host Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round. Pretty good way to make your postseason debut. “I can’t wait to get started,” Samoskevich said before the playoffs began.

The Panthers are heading to the Stanley Cup Final for the third year in a row, a feat that was recently accomplished by their Sunshine State rival, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Florida is looking to become just the third team in the salary cap era to win back-to-back Cups, hoping to join the Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins in that select class.