What fuels the Panthers’ Stanley Cup machine? It starts in the room

RALEIGH, N.C.

Matthew Tkachuk, without a smile on his face, rubbed his beard and spent a lot of his postgame news conference Wednesday night hardly looking like a man whose team won the Eastern Conference for a third straight year.

It was Tkachuk who got the Florida Panthers comeback started by scoring a power-play goal, then taking a big hit so he could help set up Evan Rodrigues tying goal en route to a fourth win in five games over Carolina and a third straight Stanley Cup Final berth .

Yet, Tkachuk didnt look overjoyed.

He looked tired and eager for some rest, so he and his teammates could reenergize for their upcoming repeat championship bid.

The Panthers have played a lot of hockey over the past three years.

Three hundred and eight games to be exact.

The Tampa Bay Lightning also recently reached the Cup Final in three straight seasons, but the first one was in a COVID-shortened 70-game regular season with four months off before the playoffs.

The second was a COVID-shortened 56-game regular season.

Advertisement And when you play this much grueling, exhaustive hockey the way the Panthers do, the hunger and excitement that it took to reach that first Stanley Cup Final two years ago and win the franchises first Stanley Cup one year ago can dissipate.

Its just natural.

Thats why it was so astute and mature that he immediately volunteered just what the new guys meant in helping Florida reach this point.

I think I gotta give a lot of credit to the new guys, whether theyve been here for the whole year or a bit of the year, this is nothing against the guys that arent here (anymore), but we needed that fresh blood and that fresh energy, and the guys that are fresh and hungry, Tkachuk said.

Were hungry coming back, obviously, but you get those new guys that help put you over the edge to get to this point.

So Ive got to give them a lot of credit.

We wouldnt be here without them.

Weve got one more job.

Tkachuk isnt just talking about the Brad Marchands and Seth Joneses.

Hes talking about guys such as Nate Schmidt, Tomas Nosek, A.J.

Greer, Nico Sturm and probably even Jonah Gadjovich, who has his name on the Stanley Cup but didnt play any playoff games last season.

Tkachuks words epitomized why the Panthers locker room, led by Aleksander Barkov and largely assembled by Bill Zito and his front-office staff, is so welcoming.

For as many advantages as the Panthers have their location, success and, yes, tax advantages that cause so many players to accept contracts lower than they could get on the open market its not easy to build such a roster in the salary cap world.

Theres only so much money to go around, so players have to be shuffled in and out, and its up to Zito to find the players who will fit seamlessly with the Panthers unparalleled culture.

They find diamonds in the rough, and they find guys on teams that want to come win, and they manage to do it within the salary cap, which is incredible ...

or just above it sometimes, said chuckling Panthers lifer Aaron Ekblad, a pending free agent who conceivably could be a casualty of the Panthers cap situation in a month.

But the job they do is incredible.

It obviously improves our team year over year, and were very satisfied with, obviously, the job theyre doing.

Advertisement All postseason, Panthers coach Paul Maurice has thrown accolades at Zito and his staff for constantly finding fresh blood but also finding those, as Ekblad put it, diamonds in the rough from other teams.

Carter Verhaeghe, a Cup champion in Tampa who was a cap casualty there, took a long and winding path to being one of the leagues most clutch players.

The Panthers scouts were eyeballing Niko Mikkola, whose star is rising this postseason, back when he was in St.

Louis, even before he moved on to the New York Rangers for the latter part of 2022-23.

Gustav Forsling, one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL, was a waiver claim from Carolina .

Zito, who is quick to credit predecessor Dale Tallon for guys such as Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky , acquired Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Rodrigues and had the cojones to fire Andrew Brunette for Maurice despite winning the Presidents Trophy, leading the league in scoring and winning Floridas first playoff round since 1997 three years ago.

Zito, in a conversation with The Athletic last week, said it all starts with their pro meetings, which are run by assistant general managers Gregory Campbell, Sunny Mehta and Brent Peterson.

But in the same breath, he credits everybody from advisers Paul Fenton and Rick Dudley to Roberto Luongo and VP of hockey operations Paul Krepelka.

Youd love to be in our pro meetings, Zito said with a wide smile.

We do them often and they are long, great conversations.

And we have a rule on the scouting side, Have you seen him live? If you havent, pass.

Youve got to see the games, and those guys pound it pretty hard.

And, of course, theres, No, I didnt see them live, but I grew up with them.

But theyre pretty thorough in how they do it.

And then, the other thing is, coaches are invited to every one of our meetings.

Schedules dictate that maybe they cant, but those guys are always welcome.

Advertisement And we have great dialogue, like, Youre such a coach.

Oh my God.

But the back and forths are incredible.

Thats actually the fun part of the game, where you have all these great hockey minds and I just get to sit there and listen and learn, like, This is so cool, you know? Even those most seasoned people like (Dudley), who has been in the game forever, get geeked out by our meetings.

But Zito says none of this could work without Barkov and the welcoming core of players inside that room.

He says Barkovs almost like a planet.

If you came into the meal room, you wouldnt know whos who, you didnt know who scored the winning goal, you didnt know who didnt play, Zito said.

The core of this group is a function of our best players, our stars, and it starts with Sasha (Barkov).

Pauls talked about this, Ive talked about it, the players have talked about it.

The only person who doesnt talk about it is Sasha.

But how caring he is as a human and a teammate and how it forces you to be better.

Matthews the same in his way.

Reinos the same in his way.

Aaron Ekblad is the same.

And Bob.

Pick a guy, and they all mirror that team-first, you-first character that Sasha (has).

It starts with him.

I think he makes you want to be a better teammate and person.

The moment Marchand arrived, he realized just how incredible every player is treated by the organization and how every player is treated by their teammates.

There is no hierarchy.

Barkov and Bobrovsky are just as important as oft-playoff scratches Sturm and Jesper Boqvist and Uvis Balinskis.

Their culture is incredible, Marchand said.

When you walk into a room where everyone is confident and comfortable, it allows you to just focus on yourself and your game and putting your best effort out there every night.

And thats kind of what goes on in the room.

Theyve built great chemistry in the room together.

And that usually happens when you win.

Its a bond that youre not really able to vocalize how close guys get when you go through a winning experience like that.

And they have that.

Advertisement It was a very, very easy group to come in and get comfortable with.

You get very excited when you walk into a locker room like that and you want to buy in, you want to be part of it.

This is why Schmidt, who went to a Stanley Cup Final with Vegas but hasnt yet won, signed in Florida.

This is exactly what I envisioned, Schmidt said.

Its a special room, a special place.

It sure goes hand and hand.

Zito finds the players.

But the players must make it work.

(Zito) found Forzy from here (in Carolina), Tkachuk said, kiddingly, about Forsling, who was sitting to his left.

That was a big one.

Some big trades.

Some big free agent signings.

But I think its all built on great guys and hard workers and guys that fit really in the style of game that we want to play here.

So, each addition has been great, but you cant build a great team with bad guys.

And we dont have any in there.

Were so lucky to have some of the best guys in the league.

I always say, nobody works harder, nobody has more fun.

Hes built a great culture in there.

That was reaffirmed for Zito back at the team hotel after Wednesdays game.

The team had a gathering, and Maurice told Zito to look at the players.

Our team, when you see them, its a team, Zito said.

There was no way to define the tables.

Theres no cliques.

Its everybody enjoying everybody else.

(Assistant equipment manager) Train Anderson is sitting with Sasha and Chuckie.

It looked like a community.

But as Panthers players pointed out over and over after Wednesdays game, winning the East again was not the objective going into this season.

Winning another Cup was.

Zito echoed that sentiment.

He says theres a level of respect and appreciation for the Panthers getting back to this juncture for a third year in a row, but its in tandem with hunger.

You want to do it again, Zito said.

The journey isnt over.

Added Rodrigues: Its an accomplishment winning the conference.

But I think we all knew from day one what the goal was, and thats to win the Stanley Cup.

We got four more to go.

(Photo: Jared C.

Tilton / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.