Why Every Night Is a Test: Life as the Team Everyone Wants to Beat

A look at life for the Florida Panthers, and how the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers are having to live in that world this season, too.

Everyone wants to be the Florida Panthers.

The defending back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, who have also gone to three straight Stanley Cup Finals, are seeking dynasty status. And even with the massive injuries to start this season, it’s hard to bet against the Panthers as a contender until someone else dethrones them in the postseason.

The Panthers have left their mark on and off the ice, they play a style that relentlessly punishes teams and after games, when diagnosing why teams won or lost, many teams simply ask, “how can we be more like the Panthers?”

Multiple teams have even asked some version of this question publicly, including the Dallas Stars when they hired Glen Gulutzan, who didn’t use the Panthers by name, but had some very Florida-esque commentary on how he wanted the Stars to evolve.

This brings up a fascinating question for me, and one that I talked to multiple Florida players about last week when they came through Detroit to play the Red Wings — at what point are the Panthers elevating themselves and at what point is their reputation forcing other teams to do it for them?

Think about it this way, and I think something similar has been happening with the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars to start this season, hockey — heck all sports — are narrative driven. The story behind a game, like it or not, can be a motivating factor, and for many teams that want to measure up to the Panthers, or other recent contenders, early-season games are tests they thrive to win.

Multiple players on the Detroit Red Wings, for example, have told me in the past couple weeks that early games against playoff opponents, including ones against Florid and Edmonton, were opportunities to send a message to themselves that they could play with these teams.

And when you are constantly the test everyone measures themselves against, you have to take the test every single night.

“We feel that we get a different level of competition than possibly any other team. It started actually after our first year, we lost in the final. We played a really physical kind of edgy game. So we were getting that from other teams, right?,” Panther coach Paul Maurice said. “It’s the narrative may not actually be accurate, that we come in and play this hard game. Everybody gets ready, everybody plays it against us, right? They come out and they’re going to push back, and it’s going to be a fight. So we don’t really have much of a choice anymore.”

Maurice added that the Panthers don’t peak for the playoffs, in fact he pointed to some slow March performances in each of the past two seasons, but said the battle that was instilled all year by others helped set the tone for how Florida won 16 playoff games in back-to-back seasons.

With teams like Florida, and to a lesser extend Dallas and Edmonton, the prophecy has to become self fulfilling. You have to play more playoff-style hockey all season because others use you to pull themselves up, your the driving motivating factor, and if you don’t embrace what’s coming, you won’t even make the playoffs in the first place.

It’s something we know the Panthers are built for. Florida is content to cede any regular season accolades, they embrace the battles and realize getting into the postseason, no matter your seeding, is a 1-in-16 chance at winning the whole thing.

I don’t know how well the Stars and Oilers are built for this. I watched Edmonton in person on Sunday get bodied by the upstart Red Wings, I watched Dallas get smashed by the plucky Columbus Blue Jackets on TV last night. The Stars and Oilers, the Western Conference kings that have met in the Western Conference Final in back-to-back years, are now living in a world where everyone ramps up to play them.

For Dallas, it seems to be something that has shocked them against so-called lesser opponents. The Stars got themselves up for games against Central Division foes, the 3-0 start against Winnipeg, Colorado and Minnesota was a slate that, narratively, was easy to get up for. It’s not as easy to drive motivation for games against Vancouver, St. Louis, and Columbus.

Edmonton has had had a horrendous schedule to start the season, they had a day-time back-to-back this past weekend, and those are already tough enough when the other team, like Detroit, hasn’t circled you on their calendar as part of their October Super Bowl.

It’s another reason I’m fascinated to watch the Stars and Oilers this season, because while I expect the Panthers to go through some slogs, they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt. The Stars and Oilers, though, they are getting some of the added motivational attention this season from opponents, in part, because with a back-to-back champion, you have to get more creative in finding your benchmarks.

Just some food for thought after watching back a couple games this morning, be curious to hear what readers think. As always, thanks for reading.