MIAMI — So many things have to go right for a team to win the Stanley Cup, and for three rounds, that's how it was for the Florida Panthers.
They overcame a 3-1 series deficit in round one to knock off the record-setting, Presidents' Trophy winning Boston Bruins before taking care of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes with relative ease is successive rounds before meeting a brick wall in the form of the Vegas Golden Knights in the Cup Final.
Being without star winger Matthew Tkachuk for a series-deciding 9-3 loss to Vegas on Tuesday was emblematic of the state of the team as a whole - they just simply ran out of gas, and it took quite a toll just getting to that point.
Tkachuk was unable to play due a painful fracture near his sternum, while the likes of defensemen Aaron Ekblad (broken foot, shoulder, oblique), Radko Gudas (high ankle sprain), Brandon Montour (undisclosed), and forward Sam Reinhart (undisclosed) were all severely limited.
Tkachuk's pain was so bad he couldn't even dress himself for Game 4.
It's not an excuse, per head coach Paul Maurice, but definitely a lesson to carry forward.
"You never, ever have to explain the hard again," Maurice said, per NHL.com. "You never have to convince them of something, of how hard this is, how hard you have to play or that you're not out of it down 3-1 to Boston. You're never out of a game. You're never out of it. But it's incredibly hard.
"So, we'll get a short summer, but when they train, they'll understand. When they get pushed in training camp next year, they'll understand."
That sentiment was echoed by Ekblad himself.
"There's no stopping now. There's no stopping here," defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. "So, a bump in the road and it's going to sting. It stings now, but we'll find a way to come back next year and be stronger because of it. How could you not going through what we went through this year?"
The Panthers have all their core players coming back next season, so don't count out the Cats until it's all said and done once again in 2024.