The Tampa Bay Lightning will face a familiar foe when the NHL playoffs begin this weekend.
The Lightning and Florida Panthers will meet in the latest Sunshine State showdown, with Game 1 in Sunrise at 12:30 p.m. Sunday. The rest of the schedule for the best-of-seven series has not yet been announced.
The matchup was finalized Tuesday night when the Panthers clinched the Atlantic Division title and nailed down the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Lightning previously earned the top wild-card position and No. 7 seed in the East.
“The best part of the season for sure,” Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy said of the postseason. “We all have to play our A-game and we’ll see what happens. There’s no bad teams in the playoffs.”
The state rivals have met twice in the postseason. The Lightning won in six games in the first round in 2021 and swept the Panthers in the second round in 2022.
“It's funny how things sometimes work out like that,” said Sam Bennett, who led the Panthers in scoring this season. “It's a great rivalry, I'm sure the fans will love it, and I'm definitely excited for it.”
Florida won the season series, 2-1, with the Panthers winning 3-2 on Dec. 27 and 9-2 on Feb. 17. The Lightning won 5-3 on March 16.
"It’s always fireworks when we play these guys, always a good game," said Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe, who was with the Lightning when they won the Stanley Cup in 2022. "They’re an awesome team and really skilled. They have all the elements of a really good team."
Games 1 and 2 will be at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, then move to Amalie Arena in Tampa for Games 3 and 4. Games 5 and 7, if necessary, are in Sunrise, and Game 6 in Tampa.
The Lightning (45-29-8) closed the regular season Wednesday night at Amalie Arena with a 6-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, ending a three-game slide.
During the game, Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov became the fifth player in NHL history to reach 100 assists in a season. He joins Wayne Gretzky (11 times), Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux and Connor McDavid, who passed the mark Tuesday night.
The assist came when he set up Brayden Point’s power-play goal at 17:05 of the second period.
“It’s incredible ... the fifth time and two are this year. It’s remarkable,” Point said. “Just watching Kuch every day and seeing how he works, it’s an amazing number, but it’s not surprising with how hard and how smart he works.”
Kucherov, who leads the NHL with 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists), is considered one of the front-runners for the Hart Trophy, which goes to the season's most valuable player.
"He's the reason we are in the playoffs.," Vasilevskiy said. "Thank God he is playing on our team."
The Panthers (52-24-6) finished their season with a four-game win streak after beating Toronto 5-2 on Tuesday to clinch the division.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
