The Florida Panthers are heading back on the road again.

Florida had an opportunity to knock out the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final on Monday night, but the Cats couldn’t get the job done.

Credit to the Hurricanes, who played their best game of the series while holding the potent Panthers scoreless, winning 3-0 after a couple empty-net goals.

It’s a step in the right direction for Carolina, who still have quite a bit of work to do if they’re going to climb back into this series.

The last time Florida held a 3-0 series lead, they were playing in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final a couple weeks later. We’ll see how much they learned from that experience in the coming days.

Let’s get to the Game 4 takeaways:

PANTHERS TRIED TO BE PERFECT

During many of Florida’s offensive zone opportunities, the Panthers were unable to complete some pretty tough cross-zone passes and came up with nothing to show for them.

That was a recurring theme throughout the game, with Carolina doing an excellent job of clogging up the passing lanes while also blocking 15 shots.

When the Panthers try to do too much and come out of their usual fluid game, things can look a little deliberate and disjointed, and that’s what happened at times on Monday.

“We were looking for something, or looking for something better, and you will always play a slow game when you do that,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice.

MUCH TO TAKE FROM LOSS

One thing Maurice has said often during his tenure behind Florida’s bench is that you learn far more from a loss than you do from a win.

Well, based off the Panthers performance in Game 4, the team’s collective IQ should be going up by a couple of points.

The night absolutely belonged to Carolina.

They imposed their will, their pace and their style of play on the Panthers during much of the night, and it showed in how ineffective Florida was compared to the rest of the series.

“I am exceptionally happy with the learning opportunity,” said Maurice. “I'm not screwing around with you. I believe there's consistent things in games that we don't love, and you cannot eradicate those. Give Carolina credit, they were quick, they closed the gap, blocked some shots, hustled real hard. They played a great game for them in terms of style, and when I say for them, I mean in terms of the style that they play, I thought they were very consistent with their game plan.”

POWER PLAY STRUGGLES

During the first two games of the series, Florida was lights out when on the man advantage.

The Panthers went 4-for-5 on the power play to start the series, and that’s saying something.

Carolina had the league’s best penalty kill during the regular season, and they kept for the first two rounds of the playoffs, killing off 28 of the 30 power plays they faced.

Well, it appears that the Canes have snapped back into form.

During the two games in Florida, the Panthers were a paltry 0-for-8 on the power play, generating a total of seven shots on goal during those opportunities.

“Our power play right now is slightly disjointed,” said Maurice. “When you lose Sam Reinhart, he’s a really big piece to that, but it has still found a way to get some action and score some goals. We still put good players out there. I also don't think against their kill, that formula of a power play is as important, because their kill is like ours. There's so much pressure there, it's broken play, you might as well just play like it's five on five and see what you come up with.”

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Photo caption: May 26, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19) reaches for the puck during the third period against the Carolina Hurricanes in game four of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images