SUNRISE – After being the best team at home last season, the Florida Panthers returned to FLA Live Arena for their 2022-2023 home opener. 

The Cats didn’t disappoint the home fans as they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3, moving to 3-1-0 on the year.

Here are the takeaways:

Verhaeghe gets into the scoring flow 

Carter Verhaeghe performs well at home, look back at Game 5 of last year’s first-round against Washington. It was no different tonight,

Entering the game, number 23 was pointless through his first three games of the season, all of which were on the road. Verhaeghe didn’t let this early season slump affect him at the home opener. Six minutes into the first period, Verhaeghe sniped a shot past Flyers goalie Felix Sandstrom, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead and Swaggy his first goal of the season.

Verhaeghe wasn’t done there. Just a few minutes after his first goal, he bursted through the neutral zone, catching a stretch pass from Gustav Forsling. Verheaghe, who is extremely effective off the rush, didn’t waste the breakaway chance, tucking the puck right under Sandstrom’s glove for his second of the game. 

Captain Barkov plays his 600th game

It was 2013 when the Florida Panthers drafted a soft spoken teenager from Tampere, Finland second-overall. Tonight, that 27-year-old played his 600th career NHL game, all with the Florida Panthers. 

Aleksander Barkov, who didn’t even realize at morning skate that tonight would be his 600th game, showed one again why he is the franchise player, he played his game. 

Defensively, the former Selke winner continued the little things which have made him a household name across the National Hockey League. The little things being his positioning on the blue line when the Flyers were trying to get zone entries on the power play, his aggressiveness in corner battles and his overall presence across the ice.

Offensively he was no different. Barkov picked up two assists in the first period and could have easily had two more throughout the game. He was sprinign his teammates open with subtle but extremely effective passes. 

We’ve seen this game for nearly a decade from Barkov and once again we witnessed his worth to the team tonight after seeing it 599 times before.

The defense had a new look

With the news today that No. 1 defenseman Aaron Ekblad is on LTIR, which would see him miss at the minimum 10 games and 24 days, the Panthers blueline was looking depleted. The problems didn’t get any better with Brandon Montour missing tonight’s game. The Panthers had to call up Matt Kiersted and Lucas Carlsson for their season debuts. 

Gustav Forsling, who already jumped into a top-two role this season with the departure of MacKenzie Weegar once again saw him get a bump with Ekblad out. 

The blue-line was a unique one tonight. Forsling and Kiersted started as the top unit, both of whom are left-handed shots. Carlsson was paired with Marc Staal while Radko Gudas was alongside Josh Mahura.

The scoresheet saw some points on the scoresheet, with Mahura getting a goal, while Forsling and Gudas picked up some helpers.

The blue-line being in a blender didn’t seem to be a problem, with the Cats coming out on top tonight. 

Paul Maurice said Brandon Monotur is expected to be a full participant in the next Panthers practice, he was also on the ice for morning skate. Getting him back in the lineup is huge for the Panthers.

Welcome to Florida 

It can take time for players to get adjusted to a new team and this year’s Panthers squad has a lot of new bodies. 

With the 2022-2023 Panthers home opener, some of the new Cats showed out to the contingent at FLA Live Arena. 

With his linemates already on the goal sheet this season, Rudolfs Balcers was ready to get in on the action. After a great pass from Sam Bennett, Rudy was free on goal. The Latvian national stayed composed, sold the shot and went bardown on the back-hand to make his first goal as a Panther one for the highlight reel.

Balcers wouldn’t be the last new acquisition to get the South Florida crowd on their feet. Josh Mahura was a waiver pickup right before opening night and slotted himself directly into the lineup. Tonight he showed his offensive skill to the home crowd.

Mahura walked into the zone and fired the puck across his body, beating Sandstrom right below the glove. Both Mahura and Balcers completed the goals with picture perfect cellys.

And not to forget, Matthew Tkachuk picked up two assists tonight in his home debut.

It’s good to be home

South Florida sports fans had a few decisions to make today as both the Heat and Panthers played their first home games of the season. 

Panthers fans made it known, as they did many times last season, they love their team. FLA Live Arena was loud tonight. Whether it was the infamous “ref you suck” chant or the Ric Flair “WOO”, Sunrise was the place to be tonight. 

Every big Bobrovsky save, which he had a lot in the third, was accompanied by large rounds of applause. The final goals of the game had the building on its feet. This place was bumping.

The players were feeding off the energy,

“They’re excited to go play in front of their fans and it’s a good live building,” Paul Maurice said post-game. “I think there’s a good synergy there because I think the fans are having fun, the players on the bench, like they’re working hard but they’re having fun.” 

Panthers hockey is back in South Florida.

The hockey world was taken aback Friday night as the Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames swapped 100-point superstars in a blockbuster trade.

Florida sent all-time franchise points leader Jonathan Huberdeau to Calgary alongside MacKenzie Weegar, prospect Cole Schwindt, and a 2025 conditional first-round pick, in exchange for 24-year-old Matthew Tkachuk, and a 2025 conditional fourth-round pick.

Earlier in the week, reports said that Tkachuk told Calgary he wasn’t going to re-sign as an RFA; Florida was one of the few desired teams on his trade list, he told ESPN’s Linda Cohn. 

Tkachuk’s contract extension in Florida is eight-years, $76-million, with a base salary of $1-million per-season, $68-million in signing bonuses.

Obviously this trade has the fan base at odds. Many are disappointed that Huberdeau, one of the most beloved players in Panthers’ history is on his way out after 10 seasons in Florida, along with MacKenzie Weegar. The other side of the fan base is excited to see what a young star in Tkachuk can bring to a team that has had limited playoff success over the last 25 years.

In this article I am going to focus on the type of player Tkachuk is and how he can help the Panthers this season and beyond. 

Who is Matthew Tkachuk?

Tkachuk plays a unique brand of hockey that isn’t seen often in today’s NHL. He’s a 6-foot-2, 200-pound, power forward that can go toe-to-toe physically with anyone in the league, while still scoring at above a point-per-game rate. If I could describe him in non-hockey terms, I’d say he’s like a Swiss Army Knife. He can score, hit, fight, pass, dangle – he can do whatever you need him to do and that’s why the Panthers gave up so much for him.

In 431 career games, he has 152 goals, and 230 assists for 382 points. He is coming off the best year of his career which saw him score 42 goals, tallying 104 points in 82 games with the Flames.

When you watch Tkachuk play, immediately you’ll notice his presence in the offensive zone. 

Without the puck, he continuously works his way into areas where his teammates can feed him.

He aggressively fights for loose pucks in the corners and will use his big frame to his advantage in 50-50 puck battles. In front of the net, he finds ways to get the puck on goal, even if it is from the most absurd angles. Tkachuk is extremely composed and may flash his silky hands with a behind the legs goal or a mid-air deflection, as he did multiple times in Calgary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTnt4Hi87HY

As you watch more of his game, you’ll see how frequently he carries the puck in transition. With his long stride, quick release and playmaking ability, he can score off the rush or find an open teammate in a prime scoring area. 

Obviously one of the biggest parts of Tkachuk’s game as a power forward is his physical play. There’s not a ton of players in the league who can lay the body as well as he does; getting under the skin of the opposition while still being top-10 in points (he ranked eighth in 2021-2022). A comparable player would be Brad Marchand. While Marchand isn’t as big as Tkachuk, listing at just 5-foot-9, both players can hit, score and irritate opponents. 

We know what Tkachuk is capable of on the ice, but how will this help a Panthers team that is one of the top contenders in the league?

First off, he is only 24. When we look at the age of the Panthers’ core, every player except for goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is 26-years-old or younger, and the Panthers’ have a stud 21-year-old backup goalie in Spencer Knight. Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar both would have been 29 by the time the playoffs started this upcoming season, and would have been 30-years-old the first-year after their current contracts expire. Florida got younger with this move and it extends their cup contention window.

Why make this trade?

Getting Tkachuk who is in the prime of his career extends the competitive window the Panthers will have with their core for multiple years. As the second highest paid skater on the roster, just behind captain Aleksander Barkov, Tkachuk will be playing at his highest level alongside most of the current Panthers’ players for multiple seasons. 

Obviously Jonathan Huberdeau is coming off the best single-season by a left-winger in NHL history with his 115 point 2021-2022 campaign, but how long can Huberdeau continuously play at this elite-level? That was definitely one of the questions the Panthers pondered as they made the decision to not offer him an extension and package the star to Calgary for a much younger player.

With one-year remaining on his current contract with an average annual value of $5.9 million, the 29-year-old is due for a massive payday, most likely getting a similar dollar amount to that of which Tkachuk signed for on his extension. Florida decided that a long-term extension with Huberdeau wasn’t part of their future plans, and it makes sense as a hypothetical eight-year extension upwards of $9-million per season would have made Huberdeau one of the three highest paid players on the team throughout his 30’s (barring any higher contracts in the future). 

So let’s say Huberdeau signed the eight-year, $76-million extension in Florida instead of Tkachuk, that’s still the same term and cap hit no matter the ages of the two players. What about the other pending unrestricted free agent that was involved in the trade, MacKenzie Weegar?

Weegar, who is just a few months younger than Huberdeau was also due for a new contract and his next deal would have demanded way more than his current $3.25 million AAV. If we look at active defenseman contracts in today’s NHL, the 25 highest-paid defenseman all have a AAV of at least $7 million. It is safe to say after Weegar’s 2020-2021 season which saw him finish top-8 in Norris Trophy voting, he could see potential offers of around $6 million plus on his next contract. With these scenarios, Florida would have tied up around (at least) $16 million on those two while still having three more years on Sergei Bobrovksy’s $10 million AAV deal. That would have seen three players in their 30’s making upwards of $26 million for multiple years, not including another $10 million for Barkov’s contract. 

With this trade, Florida will have some flexibility for next offseason’s free agency, a luxury they didn’t have this year for a variety of reasons, mostly due to the $6.575 million of dead cap from buyout penalties. In 2023-2024, Florida would only have $1.24 million of dead cap and have $7.8 million come off the books from Patric Horqnvist and Radko Gudas’ contracts. The Panther’s will have a substantial amount of money to spend next offseason compared to the budget they had this year.

So Florida gets a young player who slots in the timeline of their current core and they’ll have more space to bring in players over the next few seasons.

What about this year?

Thinking of the future is always smart, no matter how good your team is, but the Panther’s just won the President’s Trophy the previous season before getting swept in the second-round of the playoffs by the Tampa Bay Lightning. The team can contend now, the question is does Tkachuk take them to the next level?

Offense wise, Tkachuk’s even strength points per 60 last season was 3.7, while Huberdeau was at 3.9. Tkachuk had a better overall on-ice goals for and corsi for per 60 than Huberdeau last season while also having a better on-ice goals against per 60 metric. Tkachuk’s 5-on-5 and even strength advanced stats in most major categories are also statistically better than Huberdeau’s during the 2021-2022 season. These advanced stats show Florida is getting a statistically better all-around player in Tkachuk. 

If you watched Panthers games last year, most of the season saw Barkov and Huberdeau playing on separate lines to balance out the top-six, creating two top lines. With Tkachuk replacing Huberdeau on the wing, does he play with his former Flames teammate Sam Bennett? Maybe he gets paired alongside last year’s rookie phenom Anton Lundell, or you put him with the captain Aleksander Barkov. 

Florida’s newest head coach Paul Maurice will have to see which line combinations work best for the team. It would make a lot of sense to see how Tkachuk and Barkov fare together on the top line. With Tkachuk’s tenacity in front of the net and his aggressive style of play, he’s going to open up the ice for the playmaking machine that Barkov is. Tkachuk and Barkov would be a matchup nightmare as the duo are both talented goal scorers and playmakers. Pair that with Barkov’s defensive abilities and Tkachuk’s hard-hitting play, this could be a scary top line.

Last postseason for the Panthers was an extremely disappointing one to say the least. GM Bill Zito went all in at the trade deadline, depleting major assets to acquire Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot. After winning their first playoff series since 1996, Florida was dominated by Tampa in their four game series which saw the Panthers get swept. Over the 10 playoff games, Florida’s two star forwards Barkov and Huberdeau combined for 3 goals and 12 points.

On the other end of the continent, Tkachuk and the Flames also found themselves on the wrong end of a second-round matchup with their in-province rivals, losing in five games to the Edmonton Oilers. In 12 playoff games last season, Tkachuk had 4 goals and 10 points. In 27 career playoff games, he has 15 points. 

With only one playoff-series win to show for over the last 25 years in Florida, the front office wanted a new look, hoping Tkachuk will produce in the playoffs, taking Florida to the next level.

SUNRISE – The Battle of Florida got revived for its 2022 edition on Tuesday night. 

The Panthers played host to the Lightning in Game 1 of round 2. Florida had the upper edge 5-on-5 but the ever deadly Lightning power play made Florida pay, again, tonight in Sunrsie. 

The Lightning took Game 1 by a score of 4-1.

Here’s the takeaways. 

Florida gave Tampa too many chances on the power play

Looking back at Game 1 of last year’s battle of Florida, the Lightning won a close game 5-4. Three of Tampa’s goals in that game came on the power play, with a 75% success rate.

Tonight, the Panthers once again gave the Lightning too many chances on the man advantage, with six opportunities. With so many chances, it was only a matter of time for Tampa to find the back of the net. 

On Tampa’s third power play of the night, Nikita Kucherov walked through the Panthers zone, made Aaron Ekblad bite on a fake to the outside, and froze Sergei Bobrovsky before feeding the puck to a wide open Corey Perry. Perry couldn’t have had an easier chance to score with the empty goal staring him in the face.

Tampa tied the game off the Perry goal.​​ The Lightning would finish the game with three power play goals while only scoring once 5-on-5.

In two straight Game 1’s against Florida, Tampa scored three times on the power play. They are too good up a man to have six chances in a game, they’ll make you pay.

Anthony Duclair gets his first career playoff goal

The Stanley Cup Playoffs have not been an easy place for Panthers forward Anthony Duclair. Entering tonight, he was goalless in 11 career playoff games. 

In Game 6 of the first round against the Capitals, Duclair was a healthy scratch. The Panthers went on to win that game and the series in overtime.

Duclair was back in the lineup for Game 1 against the Lightning, but the night didn’t get off to a good start for Duke. He took a high sticking penalty early in the first period with the game scoreless. Luckily for Duclair, Florida was able to kill off the penalty.

Duclair didn’t let the penalty affect him too much. With 5:59 left in the first, Jonathan Huberdeau sauced a pass from the boards to a streaking Duclair in front of the Lightning goal. Duclair fired the puck past Tampa goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead.

This was Duclair’s first career Stanley Cup Playoff goal and it was a great time for him to get that burden off his back.   

Vasilevskiy slams the door, this could be a goaltending series

Before the series started, some would have said that this matchup called for plenty of goals. 

While the two sides have enough offensive firepower to scare pretty much every opponent in the NHL, the two Russian netminders had something to say about that.

Bobrovsky and Vasilveskiy kept this game close through two periods of play, with the score being 1-1 after 40.

 As the game reached the third period, both goalies had to stand on top of their crease as the shots continued to pile on. 

For Bobrovsky, he was getting peppered with shots when Florida was shorthanded. Eventually enough was enough and the pucks started going in.

On the other side of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy continuously prevented Florida’s onslaught of high quality chances go to waste as he turned into a brick wall, stopping everything in his way.

Tonight both goaltenders finished with over 30 saves in the game, and with out them, the score line could have been very different.  Vasilevskiy only gave up one goal on 34 shots, while Bobrovsky saved 32, only conceding one 5-on-5 goal.

Tampa’s goalie showed why he has two Stanley Cups tonight. He’s one of the best in the world and the Panthers are going to have to keep testing him if they want to try and crack the code.

No power play, no fun

It’s like reading the same book twenty times, the power play is not getting any better.

Florida was 0/18 in round one on the power play, tonight Florida was 0/3 on the man advantage, making their postseason record 0/21. 

When the game was tied at 1-1 and when the Panthers were down 2-1, the chances they had on the power play could have changed the game. However, once again, the Panthers could not find twine on the man advantage.

Tampa scored three times tonight on their six chances; Florida will lose the series if they don’t figure out their power play. 

Florida loses another Game 1 

Even with home ice, Florida can’t win their opening playoff games.

Last year they lost Game 1 to Tampa. This year they dropped Game 1 to Washington, also on home ice. 

Tonight was  no different, as the Panthers once again went down 0-1 in a series, at home. The last time Florida won a Game 1 was in 1997, when they beat the New York Rangers. Florida didn’t win a game after that in the series.  

Florida will have to advance to the next round if they want to test their luck again in a Game 1, but until then, they need to be ready for Game 2 on Thursday night. 

The Florida Panthers are in a dogfight of a first round. Currently up 3-2 in the series, the games have been far more competitive than many expected. The strange thing, however, is that the Panthers are dominating Washington at even strength. So far in the series, the Panthers are outscoring the capitals 15-8 at even strength. The only thing keeping the series close thus far has been the struggles of the Panthers’ special teams.

Through the first five games of the series, the Panthers are 0-16 (not a typo) on the power play. Yes, the leagues number five power play on the year has yet to score a goal on SIXTEEN tries. Doing some quick math, that equates to a conversion rate of roughly 0 percent.

By Contrast, the Washington Capitals have scored on six of their 20 chances for a success rate of 30 percent. That number is significantly higher than their regular season average of 18.8 percent.

Unsurprisingly, the Panthers performance on special teams has made winning these games significantly harder. The Panthers need to flip their special teams play around if they want to make a deep run in the playoffs.

Power Play Woes

As a hockey fan, I think a disproportionate amount of hockey discourse centers around teams or players being cursed. It acts as a scapegoat for inexplicable playoff performances or uncanny strings of bad luck. Most of the time, its just popular pundits ignoring the obvious or fans living in denial as to why their team lost.

With that being said, I don’t think I’ve seen evidence of a curse as compelling as this one.

I’m only half joking, of course, but this is getting absurd. The Panthers power play struggled early on in the year, but finished as the fifth best in the league. The team was so red hot towards the end of the year they sustained a league best power play percentage of 30.9 percent since February.

And all of a sudden, it vanished.

There are a few moving parts that could explain this. The biggest adjustment for the team has been trying to reincorporate Aaron Ekblad back on the first power play unit. The team found a groove with the five forward power play, and it looks to be a struggle trying to reinstall Ekblad as the quarterback.

Whether it has more to do with Ekblad shaking off some rust coming off the injury or the lack of chemistry with a group that has never played together before, there is simply not enough time to figure it out now. When deployed the five forward power play has generated the most pressure for the Panthers this postseason. The plan should be to stick with that for now and figure out the Ekblad piece over the summer.

Besides that, better results will just come down to getting some more puck luck and playing with less fear. The Panthers are clearly the more talented team. Because of that, high event hockey plays to their advantage. Even if they give up more shorthanded chances, the talent on the roster affords them that luxury. If they play more aggressively and with more movement, more goals will follow.

Penalty kill struggles

To their credit, the Panthers have done an excellent job limiting Alexander Ovechkin’s impact on the power play. They have overcommitted to his one timer and forced him to pass out of his usual spots. He has only scored one power play goal all series, and it came on a broken play.

Obviously, overcommitting to one player opens up plenty of other options for the opponent, and the capitals are taking advantage of that. The main benefactor of this strategy has been T.J. Oshie. Oshie has scored four power play goals this series. The connection between Oshie and quarterback John Carlson has been superb. Oshie tipping and redirecting Carlson’s soft shots has made the Panthers penalty kill look silly all series.

As seen below, the Panthers pressure Ovechkin out of the zone, but some quick puck movement leads to a Capitals goal.

nhl video highlight – r1, gm4: t.j. oshie jumps to deflect john carlson's one-timer off his shin pad and in for the power-play goal, putting the capitals up 1-0. pic.twitter.com/ATYmmVss1A

— Florida Panthers Game Bot (@FLPanthersBot) May 9, 2022

Fixing this one will be tricky. Washington is fortunate enough to have the greatest shooter of our lifetimes on their team and three guys (Carlson, Backstrom, Kuznetsov) who excel at getting him the puck. Overcommitting to him is the right call, but the defense relaxes too much when the puck isn’t in the vicinity of the great 8.

Washington does have a fatal flaw, however, and that is predictability. Their M.O. has John Carlson setting the table for everything and everybody else at the top of the zone. Florida can counter this by putting pressure on the slow footed Carlson and make him move the puck before he is ready.

Look how much space the Panthers give Carlson to take the shot in the clip below. The Capitals want to feed him at the point, and the Panthers let it happen, which leads to a goal.

nhl video highlight – r1, gm5: t.j. oshie scores a power-play goal against the florida panthers to make it 1-0. pic.twitter.com/4CY2Os3UD9

— Florida Panthers Game Bot (@FLPanthersBot) May 12, 2022

It may seem counter intuitive to play aggressively that high in the zone when shorthanded, but Carlson has destroyed the conservative approach. Carlson may still be an excellent power play QB, is not the player he used to be physically. The Panthers have excellent speed and need to use that to their advantage here. The key is to be proactive rather than reactive. The Capitals are too experienced for the Panthers to be playing catch up with.

Overall, the Panthers have shown some good and some bad in this first round matchup. They’ve been the better team 5v5, but they’ve also made this series much harder than it needed to be. Hopefully it will serve as a learning experience for them and they can make the adjustments to win this round and more rounds going forward. Only time will tell.

***This article was originally published on the ATB Network by Samuel Schettrit***

Hussam Patel is a Miami Dolphins contributor and Lead NFL Draft analyst at Five Reasons Sports Network, Director of Scouting at PhinManiacs and Editor at Dolphins ATB. Follow him on Twitter at @HussamPatel