What the Leafs can learn from the Florida Panthers: A study of the NHL’s best forecheck

And to be clear, it’s not impossible to beat the Panthers’ forecheck. During the first two games of their second-round series, the Maple Leafs killed the Panthers in transition , taking advantage of their opponent pushing too far up the ice without the requisite puck support. And while we tend to write about hockey as if results are net-perfect, you will get rare instances where Anton Lundell flubs a routine pass from Brad Marchand, which leads to a 2-on-1 chance where Morgan Rielly beats Sergei Bobrovsky clean, as evidenced in Game 1. In this instance, there’s still a foreboding message: you have to strike immediately when the Panthers make a mistake, or win one battle after another in order to escape their commanding grip.

“Our forecheck is good because we make the right decisions at the line,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said via The Athletic, prior to the 2025 Final. “We don’t dump every puck. I don’t want them to dump every puck. But we’re also not going to try to make a play at the line every time, and over time, players have got a pretty good idea of what’s coming next. He’s going to put that puck in deep, or there’s a play to be made. If you can figure that part out of what you’re doing, you get to a fairly high percentage of being right and you play faster. That way, you forecheck a little faster. We were late on our forecheck in the first two games in Toronto. Our decisions had to change. We kind of figured it out.”

Here’s an example of the Panthers’ forecheck working to perfection, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes. Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe establishes the zone and tosses the puck into the low cycle. Matthew Tkachuk takes on the F1 role in a puck battle against Hurricanes defenceman Dmitry Orlov, while Sam Bennett comes in for support as F2, hounding Hurricanes defender Sean Walker. Although it’s out of the frame, Verhaeghe heads over from the wall to cover the opposite side of the zone as the F3, Forsling crashes down as D1 and Verhaeghe slides into Forsling’s place at the point.

Walker forces a quick pass to Hurricanes star forward Andrei Svechnikov, who begins to panic as Forsling takes away his time and space. Svechnikov turns backwards with Bennett and Forsling on him and forces a rushed pass off the wall, where Tkachuk cuts the lane off rather easily. Verhaeghe is still well-positioned at the point, covering for Forsling. Tkachuk one-touches the interception over to Forsling, who takes his time, surveys the net and wires a shot past Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen. This is a prime example of the Panthers’ 1-2-2 system suffocating the Hurricanes, forcing a key mistake, with each player operating responsibly within the scheme.

Here’s an easy example from the Final. In the final minute of the first period during Game 4, Verhaeghe steals the puck from Trent Frederic and gets it over to Sam Reinhart, with both teams seeking a line change. Verhaeghe simply outworks Oilers defenceman Troy Stecher, wins the puck and finds a wide-open Anton Lundell for a 3-0 lead. This may not be proprietary, but it’s a simple example of how the Panthers are always looking for offence while playing a structured, defence-oriented game.

Florida led the NHL in goals scored after a turnover during the playoffs via Jack Han. The ability to turn defensive wins and puck battle victories into instant offence is simply unmatched by any other NHL team. And under Maurice’s supervision, the Panthers’ forecheck is imperative to their identity. They hound down pucks, they roll four lines in perfect position and they effectively dare you to beat them by playing sound, competent hockey. It’s often forgotten that the Panthers are among the fastest-paced teams in the NHL, if you use shot volume as a stand-in for overall team speed, and in any event, they’ve managed to master the art of shrinking the ice.

Forecheck, backcheck, paycheck. Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube installed his north-south system and for large stretches of the year, it worked. It cannot be solely incumbent upon Auston Matthews to lead the forecheck, with Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe’s superior position, shot-blocking and point-of-attack defending leading the charge on the back end, it has to be a concerted effort from all four lines. Toronto was out-chanced 26-0 by Florida to start Game 7 in large part due to the fact that Brad Marchand, Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen flummoxed Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo’s attempts to break out of the defensive zone. Implementing the team-first approach to winning the puck back and being relentlessly disciplined in all areas of the ice may be the greatest takeaway for the Leafs entering the fall.

For further reading, I highly recommend this piece from Bruce Curlock of OilersNation to get a deeper sense of what has made the Panthers a nightmare on the forecheck.