Panthers Coach Responds to Rumour About Tanking to Set Up Round 1 Matchup With Maple Leafs
Photo credit: Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice has responded to the rumours suggesting the Panthers are tanking to set up a first-round playoff series with the Maple Leafs.
On Sunday, the Florida Panthers fell to the Detroit Red Wings without 8 regulars in their lineup and $49M in the press box. The lineup prompted avid Leafs fan, TNT analyst, and co-host of the 'Spittin Chiclets' podcast, Paul Bissonnette, to put his tinfoil hat on and call out the Panthers for trying to change the first-round matchups.
In light of Bissonnette's theory, Maurice was forced to clarify his lineup decisions in Sunday's game, which saw him rest Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart while the likes of Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Gustav Forsling dealt with injuries and Aaron Ekblad continued to serve his 20-game suspension.
"You always want every advantage that you can possibly get, home ice and all that. But we gotta heal some of these guys, and we've got to give ourselves a chance to be physically right when it starts. And our schedule won't allow it: five sets of back-to-back in the last month of the season. So, we're gonna get stacked up on. We knew it. We're not really resting guys; we're just healing them."
During Tuesday's morning skate, Maurice further put the tanking rumours to rest confirming three key players in Barkov, Forsling and Reinhart would all be in the lineup Tuesday night.
Despite denying the reports that the Panthers are tanking on purpose, there's little doubt that the Panthers would like to give themselves the best possible chance to win in Round 1, and given their record against the Maple Leafs in recent years, I'm sure they'd welcome a matchup against the Buds to open the playoffs.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 8 | 2189 ANSWERS Panthers Coach Responds to Rumour About Tanking to Set Up Round 1 Matchup With Maple Leafs Do you think the Panthers are purposely tanking? | ||
| Definitely | 600 | 27.4 % |
| No | 1076 | 49.2 % |
| Maybe a little bit | 513 | 23.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
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