Panthers forged path of destruction en route to Stanley Cup final

They knocked out Boston. They knocked out Toronto. They knocked out Carolina.

Jamie Kompon was not knocked out, despite Paul Maurice's best efforts.

Let's explain: Kompon is an assistant coach for Florida under Maurice, who is in his first year as the Panthers' head coach. Kompon made a key adjustment to Florida's power play earlier in these playoffs, and it paid off when Matthew Tkachuk scored a power-play goal with 4.9 seconds left Wednesday night to give Florida a 4-3 win and cap a four-game sweep of the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals.

Everyone celebrates going to the Stanley Cup Final in different ways. Tkachuk dropped to his knees and slid across the ice, his arms outstretched. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky threw his arms skyward. Maurice walked to the other end of the Florida bench and punched Kompon in the ribs; it was a celebration, a unique one, but a celebration nonetheless.

"I wanted to make sure he felt that one as much as I did," Maurice said.

WHO ELSE BUT MATTHEW TKACHUK <a href="https://t.co/UgD1K9I7mf">pic.twitter.com/UgD1K9I7mf</a>

Let that be proof: These days, the Panthers are up for any fight.

Vegas or Dallas — probably Vegas, since it leads the Western Conference finals 3-0 — awaits the Panthers to decide the Stanley Cup in a series starting next week. It'll be Florida's second time in the title round, its first time on hockey's biggest stage since 1996 when it was swept by Colorado.

Florida has been trying to prove people wrong for a quarter-century or so. Thing is, it has rarely succeeded. It took forever to become Eastern Conference champs again, as proven by the numbers.

Wednesday's game was the 2,017th for the Panthers since that Stanley Cup Final in 1996. Aleksander Barkov played in