SUNRISE, Fla. — The past two seasons, the Lightning spent the second half of the regular season jostling with the Panthers for playoff positioning near the top of the Atlantic Division.
Last season, Florida ran away with the Presidents’ Trophy. Two seasons ago, the Lightning dispatched the Panthers in the first round of the playoffs. Despite roster turnover, each regular-season meeting between the teams seems to mean a bit more to the players involved.
Look only to the weekend’s All-Star Game events in South Florida to see that the Sunshine State rivalry is alive and well. Lightning All-Stars Andrei Vasilevskiy and Nikita Kucherov were booed at FLA Live Arena at every opportunity despite playing with the Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov on the Atlantic team.
