Five Takeaways from Panthers’ Game 1 loss to Bruins

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The 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs is officially underway and the Presidents’ Trophy winning Boston Bruins played host to the Florida Panthers at TD Garden on Monday night for Game 1 of their first round series. 

 

The Bruins defended their home ice with a 3-1 win over the Panthers; taking a 1-0 series lead. 

 

Here are the takeaways. 

Battle of the stars

The two best players in this series are David Pastrnak of the Bruins and Matthew Tkachuk of the Panthers. 

 

Tkachuk and Pastrnak were the only players from the two teams to score 100 points this season, with Pastrnak finishing with 113 and Tkachuk with 109.

The Bruins’ star winger continued in Game 1 what he did all season, score. Following his 61 goal regular season, Pastrnak got his first goal of the playoffs just 5:58 into the first period, with an open net tap in on the power play, putting the Bruins up 1-0.

 

Like his fellow Atlantic Division All-Star, Tkachuk got his first goal of the playoffs tonight in Boston. Tkachuk jumped in on the forecheck, corralled a loose puck and pulled a backhand forehand move to beat Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark, getting the Panthers on the board. 

 

Coming into the series we highlighted these two guys as players to watch, they didn’t disappoint tonight. 

 

Rough bounces for Alex Lyon gave the Bruins breathing room

Florida decided to run with their hot hand in net for Game 1, giving Alex Lyon his first NHL playoff start. 

 

In Game 1, Lyon made more than a few highlight reel saves. Glove saves, cross crease pad robberies, he made them all.

 

Unfortunately for Lyon, between all the great saves, there were a few bad bounces here and there that put the Panthers in a hole.

 

3:41 into the second, Brad Marchand sent a fairly weak wrist shot towards the Panthers’ goal. Lyon fluffed the routine glove save and the puck trickled in, giving the Bruins a 2-0 lead. 

 

Later in the period with the Bruins leading by just one, it seemed like Lyon had covered a loose puck in his crease, but that wasn’t the case. 

 

After a few whacks in front, the puck perfectly landed on top of Lyon’s pad and sat there for a few seconds before Jake DeBrusk tapped it in to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead. 

Florida’s top line was awfully quiet

The Panthers top line of Carter Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov and Anthony Duclair should have had a bigger impact than they did tonight. 

 

Verhaeghe finished the regular season top 10 in the NHL for goals with 42 while Barkov had another PPG season. 

 

The Panthers captain went the entire game without a shot on goal and frankly wasn’t very noticeable tonight besides his 52% success rate in the face off circle. 

 

The rest of the line wasn’t much better. Anthony Duclair had the most “quality” looks out of the trio, but he still wasn’t able to threaten Ullmark. 

 

Florida needed offense badly in this game and they didn’t get any help from their number one line. 

Florida’s first round power play drought continues 

The Panthers did not score a single goal in last year’s first round series against Washington – yet they were still able to get out of that series in six games. The Cats only scored one goal on 31 power play chances in last season’s playoffs. 

 

Tonight the Panthers once again struck out on their mad-advantage, going 0/2. The Bruins were able to lock the Cats up on their second PP attempt, not giving them a moment to set up. 

 

It was pretty much the same story when Florida pulled the goalie for an extra attacker with about 3 minutes left in the game. 

Linus Ullmark shut the door

Boston’s starting goalie should be the favorite to win the Vezina, he was that good in the regular season. 

 

Tonight it was no different. 

 

Florida didn’t get “goalied” tonight, as the Bruins played a fairly complete team game. However, Ullmark still had to face 32 shots from a Panthers team who was firing pucks from pretty much everywhere in the o-zone. 

 

Ullmark made the saves he needed tonight and he got the goal support from his team, which was enough for Boston to take an early series lead 

Florida Panthers clinch playoff spot for the fourth straight season

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The Florida Panthers have officially punched their ticket to the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

 

On Tuesday night, the Panthers had an opportunity to clinch a spot in the postseason if both the Buffalo Sabres lost and the Pittsburgh Penguins lost in regulation. 

 

The Sabres last minute run to the playoffs was ended by a dominating 6-2 win by the New Jersey Devils. 

 

With the Sabres eliminated from playoff contention, Florida turned to Pittsburgh, where the last placed Chicago Blackhawks needed to beat the Penguins in regulation for Florida to get their playoff spot. 

 

The Blackhawks did the Panthers a favor, defeating the Penguins 5-2, officially putting the Panthers in the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

 

Florida still does not know if they’ll finish in Wild Card 1 or Wild Card 2 – but the fight to get into the playoffs is now completed. 

 

The Panthers turned around an 0-4 record from two weeks ago into a 6-0-1 streak to climb back into the playoff race.

 

Florida will finish the regular season on Thursday night in Sunrise against the Carolina Hurricanes, who may also end up being their first-round playoff opponent. 

*****

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5 Takeaways from Panthers comeback OT win against the Maple Leafs

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TORONTO – The Panthers entered tonight’s game against the Maple Leafs losers of four-straight. The team was desperate for a win as the season is quickly coming to an end. 

 

After a heroic performance by backup goaltender Alex Lyon, the Panthers came back to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime, picking up two huge points and snapping their worst losing streak of the season.

 

Here’s tonight’s takeaways.

Anton Lundell snaps his cold streak

The 21-year-old Finn hasn’t had the best sophomore season with just 28 points in 65 games entering Wednesday’s game. He finished his rookie season with 44 points in the same number of games.

 

With Sam Bennett missing the last five games to injury, Lundell has had to play a bigger role in the Panthers top-six as the second line center, however he has struggled to find his game. Lundell had 0 points in March entering tonight’s game against Toronto.

 

One minute into the game the Leafs turned the puck over in their own zone, which led to  Lundell scoring his first goal and point in over a month. The last time he found the score sheet was on Feb. 28 against Tampa.

 

Lundell getting on the board should be a huge relief for the youngest player on the team. Maybe this will spark something for the last seven games of the season.

Alex Lyon takes the crease in absence of Sergei Bobrovsky – He delivers

All season long, Panthers’ head coach Paul Maurice announced who he’d plan to start in goal to the media prior to the game.

 

It came as a bit of a surprise to hear him say after the morning skate that he wouldn’t announce the starting goalie until gametime.

 

Just a few hours before puck drop it was announced that the Panthers had recalled goalie Mack Guzda from AHL Charlotte, which led to the assumption that Bobrovsky would not dress tonight against the Maple Leafs.  That would be the case as Alex Lyon got the start with Mack Guzda as his backup. 

 

The Panthers are usually outshooting their opponents with their league best 36.9 shots per-game, but tonight Alex Lyon had to fend against a Toronto team that put 40 on his net.

 

Through the first two periods Lyon saved 28 of the 29 shots he faced, keeping an outplayed Florida team in the game heading into the third.

 

After the Panthers forced OT, Lyon had to stand on his head one more time. He had Toronto’s best scorer Auston Matthews in on him alone and he flashed the leather to keep the Panthers game and possibly playoff hopes alive. 

 

“He scored on Bob like that in Florida last week,so we talked about that a lot, how he’s so good at moving to the net front quickly and coming high and going low glove,” Lyon said Wednesday night. 

 

The Panthers goalie ended the night with 38 saves, easily being the best player on the ice.

 

Lyon, like the rest of the team after tonight’s win, still believes they can make the push for the post season. 

 

“Obviously we all know what the standings look like, what do we have to lose? Why play scared, why play nervous? This is what you play the game for.”

 

Penalty trouble, penalty killing success

Florida’s 11.6 penalty minutes per-game is just under the most in the league, and tonight it was no different with 10 penalty minutes on the boxscore.

 

The Panthers had their hands full, having to kill four penalties with the likes of Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares on the Leafs’ power play. 

 

Fortunately for Florida they were perfect 4/4 on the pk tonight, mostly because of the spectacular play of Alex Lyon in net. 

 

Paul Maurice lets his team have it on the bench

The Panthers’ head coach hasn’t had too many instances this season where we saw him “lose his cool” on the bench. 

 

Well, that wasn’t the case tonight.

 

Florida started the second period with a 1-0 lead, however that quickly vanished three minutes into the second when Zach Aston-Reese put Toronto on the board. Right after the Leafs tied it, they appeared to have scored a second goal just moments after. 

 

While the Panthers challenged the goal for offsides, Maurice was absolutely letting his team hear his frustration. 

 

The players didn’t say what was said, but from the video – well… it didn’t seem PG. Panthers captain Sasha Barkov kind of confirmed that.

 

“Oh you don’t want to know,” Barkov said when asked about Maurice’s second period timeout talk.

 

Paul Maurice spoke about his bench shouting match after the game. 

 

“It was more of a cleanse for the coach, a cleanse, I needed to, it was cathartic,” Maurice said. “I thought it was a very nice opportunity to share, feelings.” 

 

Brandon Montour shines again as the OT hero

The rise of Brandon Montour’s game has been one of the few bright spots for the Panthers. 

 

Tonight he picked up another OT winner, while also setting a few franchise records on route. 

 

Montour now holds the Panthers all-time record for points in a season by a defenseman, the most game-winning goals by a defenseman and he became the second Panthers’ defenseman to have multiple OT goals in a season. 

 

“Ya it’s cool, obviously like I said you don’t go into the year looking to break records, but then again the coaching staff and players believe in me and playing a big opportunity and big role in this team,” Montour said.  “I’m just trying to take every opportunity and it’s nice to get that milestone.”

 

Montour now has 14 goals and 63 points on the year.

Matthew Tkachuk speaking to media

5 Takeaways from Panthers loss to Senators

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OTTAWA – With just nine games left in the regular season, the Panthers began their last road trip of the year in Canada’s capital as they took on the Ottawa Senators. 

 

With both Atlantic Division teams chasing a playoff spot, and being separated by just four points entering Monday night, it seemed like this would be a must win game for both teams as the season quickly dwindles down. 

 

At one point tonight it was a one goal contest however, a late power play goal from Ottawa put the dagger in Florida, as the Sens defeated Florida 5-2.

 

Florida has lost four straight games and are quickly slipping out of the chase for a Wild Card spot.

 

Here’s tonight’s takeaways:

Playing catch-up from the jump

For the fourth straight game the Panthers trailed by multiple goals. This time, they were down 2-0 after the first period. 

 

Ottawa didn’t have a plethora of chances in the first with just eight shots on goal. Despite that, they were able to capitalize on their chances. 

 

The Sens very well could have been up by another goal or two if it wasn’t for Sergei Bobrovsky bailing out the Panthers on odd-man rushes in the first frame. 

 

Looking at the standings, tonight was probably a must-win game for the Senators, and they played like it all game, but most evidently in the opening 20 minutes. 

The one-timer’s beat Bob

The Panthers’ goalie has had to play a lot of minutes this season and he’s kept his team in many of those games. 

 

Tonight he made some miraculous saves when his team was trailing by multiple goals. 

 

Yet, the kryptonite for Bob against the Sens was their shots from one-timers. 

 

Ottawa scored three of their four non-empty net goals off of one-timers, albeit two of those came with the man-advantage. The Sens used the open space to tee up their top scorers and they didn’t pass up the opportunity. 

 

Brady Tkachuk, DeBrincat and Stutzle’s goals were all one-timer slapshots. 

 

Ottawa’s power play went to work

Ottawa looked their best tonight when they were on the man-advantage. 

 

They were able to make use of the extra man, working the puck from the top down low. Their second goal of the game came off of a broken play which saw Eric Staal’s stick break and Gustav Forsling take a puck to the face before Erik Brannstrom found the back of the net to make it 2-0. 

 

Florida looked to be the dominant team in the second period, holding a 1-0 score advantage in that frame, up until Ottawa went back to the power play with under three minutes left in the period. 

 

Once again, Ottawa worked the puck around the zone until they found an open man and Alex DeBrincat didn’t waste his chance, blasting a one-timer past Sergei Bobrovsky to make the game 3-1. 

 

The final blow to Florida came in the final minutes when Anton Lundell received a penalty for playing the puck with his glove on the faceoff. 

 

Ottawa’s red-hot power play went back to work one last time and they iced the game with Tim Stuzle’s 36th goal of the season. 

 

The Sens scored on three of their four power plays tonight. Only one of their five goals came at 5-on-5. 

 

The Battle of the Tkachuks

It’s always a spectacle when the Tkachuk brothers take the ice against each other, even more so now that they are in the same division. 

 

Matthew took the upper hand in October when the two sides matched up in Sunrise, besting Brady’s goal with a three-point performance in a 5-3 Panthers victory. 

 

As the Tkachuk bowl entered round two in Brady’s neck of the woods, the Senators captain wasted no time letting his big brother know who runs this town. 

 

9:02 into the first period, off of a beautiful feed from Thomas Chabot, Brady fired a one-timer past Bobrovsky to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. 

 

Throughout the night, the Ottawa faithful directed their “Brady’s better” chants towards the older Tkachuk brother. 

 

Brady got the final laugh tonight with his two point performance and the win. Matthew finished the game with nothing on the scoreboard. 

 

Gustav Forsling’s goal scoring performance kept Florida alive 

An unlikely offensive lifeline for the Panthers tonight was defenseman Gustav Forsling. 

 

Twice in the game Florida found themselves trailing by two goals and both times the player who answered the call was the Swedish defenseman. His pair of goals looked nearly identical; both being slap shots from the point. 

 

After getting on the board twice Forsling was jumping up in the play to try and create something offensively with the game being 3-2. 

 

Unfortunately for the team, it was only Forsling who found the back of the net in Ottawa. He sits at 12 goals on the year, a new career-high.

Five Takeaways from Panthers blowout win against Lightning

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SUNRISE – After more than a week away from game play due to the All-Star break, the Florida Panthers traded in their flip flops for hockey skates as they returned to FLA Live Arena to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in another edition of the Battle of Florida. 

 

The Cats didn’t miss a beat from their last game, the Jan. 28th comeback win against the Boston Bruins tonight against their cross-state rivals. 

 

2023 All-Star Game MVP Matthew Tkachuk continued his dominant season with a five-point night in the Panthers 7-1 win. 

 

Here’s tonight’s takeaways.

No post All-Star slump for Matthew Tkachuk 

On Saturday night, FLA Live Arena belonged to the Panthers’ star forward Matthew Tkachuk.

 

No. 19 won All-Star MVP with his seven point performance across the two games the Atlantic Division played in the All-Star Game.

 

Two nights later he was back in the same building with a little more at stake.

 

Tkachuk finished the night with two goals and three assists, pushing his season point total to 71.

 

“I have a really good understanding of Matthew as a player,” said head coach Paul Maurice. “He’s an elite, elite talent.”

 

It took Tkachuk 60 games last season to reach 70 points with Calgary. He hit that tonight in game number 50. 

 

Carter Verhaeghe is creeping in on 30 goals 

Season three with the Panthers is proving to be the best one for Carter Verhaeghe. 

 

The 27-year-old was sitting on 26 goals entering tonight’s game against his former club.

 

Verhaeghe potted two more goals tonight, on top of two assists, bumping his career-high goal total to 28 this season. 

 

As long as he stays on the ice, it’s looking like a sure thing he hits the 30-goal milestone, with 40 not out of the possibility.

 

His teammates spoke about how effective Verhaeghe has been offensively. 

“He’s got so much speed, so it’s all about hitting him in the right spots in the offensive zone,” Tkachuk said about Verhaeghe. “He’s got such a great shot so it’s actually really easy to play with him.”

 

Aleksander Barkov injury scare

In the second period, Panthers’ captain Aleksander Barkov took a puck off the hand, which sent him to the locker room. 

 

Barkov did not return to the game following the blocked shot.

 

Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said Barkov probably won’t skate tomorrow, however they don’t think this is going to be a long-term injury. 

 

Sergei Bobrovsky makes 30 saves in his return

The Panthers starting goalie hasn’t seen game action since he got injured in the opening minutes  against Montreal on Jan. 19th. 

 

Tonight in his first start since then, Bob slammed the door on Tampa, stopping 32 of 33 shots faced.

 

“There was a tip early in that first period that he got his pad out on, [he was] real big on the penalty kill,” said Maurice on Bobrovsky’s game. “The right saves at the right time are so critical, especially against a powerful team like that.”

 

Bobrovsky’s movement was smooth across the crease; it didn’t look like there were any lingering issues from the injury that kept him sidelined for the last three weeks. 

 

Spencer Knight, who hasn’t played an NHL game since Jan. 8th in Dallas was the backup tonight, Florida sent goaltender Alex Lyon down to Charlotte (AHL). Lyon played in the last six games for the Panthers. 

 

Net front presence wins the game

When a team wins by six goals, it’s a little harder to pinpoint where they were most dominant.

 

What jumped out to me was how aggressive the Panthers were in front of the Lightning net. 

 

Goals from Tkachuk, Bennett, Luostarinen and Staal all came from around the Tampa crease. 

 

Florida is a fast team that is good off the rush, but when they are able to be the aggressor in 1-on-1 battles, it can change the dynamic of their game.

 

“The Luosatarinen goal is the way goals are scored in the playoffs and or I just say at this time of year, it gets harder and it’s a grind game” said Maurice. “Pucks from the point, pucks in the net front, Luostarinen’s tip, that’s the future of the way we have to score.”

Atlantic Division wins 2023 NHL All-Star Game, Matthew Tkachuk takes home MVP in Sunrise

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SUNRISE – The 2023 NHL All-Star weekend came to an end on Saturday night in South Florida, with the host team fans going home happy in more ways than one.

 

The championship game saw the Atlantic Division, represented by Florida Panthers’ stars Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, take on the Central Division All-Stars.

 

In the final, catalyzed by a Matthew Tkachuk goal 37 seconds into the game, the Atlantic stormed to a four-goal lead. They’d be able to hold onto their big cushion, defeating the Central 7-5 to take home the win and the $1 million bonus.

 

It was the first time the Atlantic won the All-Star game since the NHL moved to the 3-on-3 divisional format in 2016. 

 

Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk led all skaters with seven points across the two games. His efforts were more than enough to win All-Star game MVP.

 

During the pair of games, Tkachuk played on a line with Barkov and his brother Brady. 

 

“Getting to play with Barky and getting to play with Brady, it was just fun from the start,” said Tkachuk. “We had an unreal time… I really, really enjoyed it (All-Star weekend).” 

 

The Tkachuk brothers have never played together in a competitive environment before Saturday’s game. With the newest honorary Tkachuk brother Aleksander Barkov on their line, the trio combined for 16 points on the night.

 

“It was actually fun, I wasn’t expecting that,” Barkov said about playing with the two brothers. “[They are] two great guys, off-ice especially and on the ice we had a lot of fun. You never felt like you had any nerves because you were having fun and enjoying every second.” 

 

The weekend as a whole was a success for South Florida. The All-Star game was a sellout, with 19,250 fans in attendance. The league also brought in a record 7,000 guests during the week, according to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

 

Bettman said on Saturday that the estimated economic revenue from the weekend for South Florida is in the $25-$30 million range. 

 

Florida Panthers CEO Matthew Caldwell was more than satisfied with the way the events turned out over the week.

 

“I know Toronto’s got it next year but let’s get it back,” Caldwell chuckled. “ We love throwing events like this… as soon as Vinny [Viola] bought the team we’ve been trying to get an All-Star game.”

 

The NHL will return to action on Monday night, with the Panthers and Lightning starting it off in another edition of the Battle of Florida in Sunrise.

2023 NHL All-Star Skills Competition Results

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SUNRISE: FLA Live Arena played host to the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills Competition on Friday night. 

 

We saw movie references, a dunk tank and a putting green amongst other events.

 

Here’s the results of the competitions:

Fastest Skater – Andrei Svechnikov

The first event of the night saw five skaters do a timed lap around the arena, with the two fastest players advancing to the finals. 

 

Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov clocked in the fastest time in attempt one, while LA’s Kevin Fiala followed him to the finals with the second best time.

 

The championship round saw Svechnikov finish on top again, clocking in at 13.69 seconds. 

 

Breakaway Challenge – Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby 

Outfit creativity was on point in this challenge. Toronto’s Mitch Marner really took Miami Vice to another level when he came out in a James Crockett suit. 

 

Boston’s David Pastrnak wouldn’t let Marner outdo him with the entertainment references. Pasta paid homage to Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore, wearing the Gilmore Bruins jersey and putting away a putt into the back of the net. 

 

Hometown guy Matthew Tkachuk pulled out all the tricks for his attempt. Not only did he bring out his brother Brady, he also involved Panthers’ captain Sasha Barkov, former Panthers’ goalie Roberto Luongo and Miami Dolphin star Christian Wilkins. 

 

The winner of the competition would be Alexander Ovechkin and his son Sergei, who involved Sidney Crosby in their breakaway challenge.

 

Tendy Tandem – Connor Hellebuyck and Juuse Saros 

This new event sees one goalie shoot the puck from behind the goal-line, while the opposing division’s goaltender attempts to stop an “odd-man rush” coming the other way.

 

The Central Division tandem of Connor Hellebuyck (WPG) and Juuse Saros (NSH) took home the win.

 

Accuracy Shooting – Brock Nelson

The accuracy shooting contest initially started off with ten players. Only the top four times would advance to the final round. 

 

Edmonton Oilers’ captain Connor McDavid demolished round-one, going 4/4 in under ten seconds.

 

In the semi-final, McDavid went 4/4 again,  however Nazem Kadri was a step quicker, knocking McDavid out of the competition. 

 

The final saw Brock Nelson defeat Kadri to win the competition.

 

Splash Shot – Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar

In a very beach themed event, NHL players attempted to sink each other into the water by shooting pucks at a dunk tank.

 

Colorado Avalanche teammates Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar continued their winning ways when they won the Splash Shot challenge from Fort. Lauderdale beach.

 

The most impressive feat from the competition may have been New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin using a goalie stick to shoot the pucks.

 

Hardest Shot – Elias Pettersson

The favorite entering the hardest shot competition was Washington Capitals’ captain Alexander Ovechkin.

 

The winner would not be the Great 8, but Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson.

 

Pettersson clocked back-to-back triple digit speeds, with the winning speed coming in at 103.2 MPH.

 

Pitch ‘n Puck – Nick Suzuki

This pre-taped event combined two sports that have often been intertwined, hockey and golf.

 

Players made their way to the golf course, teeing off with hockey sticks rather than drivers.

 

Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki put away the birdie putt to clinch the title.The most impressive feat from the competition may have been New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin using a goalie stick to shoot the puck.

Five Takeaways from Panthers’ win over Canadiens

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MONTREAL: The Panthers ended their three game road trip with a dominating 6-2 win over the Canadiens in Montreal. 

 

The team will head back home to face Minnesota on Saturday night before jumping on the road again for another away back-to-back.

 

Here’s tonight’s takeaways.

 

Early injuries for the Panthers

Florida saw two of their veterans leave the game in the first period, both of whom did not return.

 

In the opening minutes of the game, goaltender Sergei Bobrosvky appeared to hit his foot against the post when sliding over to the opposite side of the net.

 

He left the game at the next whistle, leaving Alex Lyon in goal the rest of the way.

 

Later in the period, when Eric Staal was chasing a puck in the offensive zone, Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson laid a reverse hit on Staal.

 

Staal did not have possession of the puck when he took the hit.

 

 The 38-year-old was slow to get up and eventually went to the Panthers’ locker room.

 

Both players will get looked at tomorrow, per head coach Paul Maurice.

 

Alex Lyon comes in relief for Bobrovsky

With Sergei Bobrovsky leaving the game in the first two minutes, the usual Panthers’ third-string goalie Alex Lyon had to play pretty much the whole game. 

 

Lyon has been the Panthers’ backup goalie with Spencer Knight on IR, however he has not played in a game this season with Florida.

 

The 30-year-old goalie played a solid game, finishing the night with 23 saves on 25 shots.

 

Lyon had no problem jumping into the game after Bob went down.

 

“I think experience goes a long way,” Lyon said.  “Just getting into more of those situations, you get more confident. Just trust yourself and trust the things that make you good and just stay in the moment.”

 

Power play goal fest 

The biggest area of domination for the Panthers tonight was on the man-advantage. 

 

Florida scored four goals on the power play, with two of those coming from Matthew Tkachuk. By the time they scored the last power play goal, it was a five goal game.

 

The Panthers took their time on the PP; controlling the puck, feeding the open man and shooting with open lanes. 

 

“We had good patience on the power play,” Paul Maurice told the media.

 

Brandon Monotur hits his career-high in points

It has a fantastic season for Panthers’ defenseman Brandon Montour.

 

On Tuesday night in Toronto, the 28-year-old tied his career-high point total at the 44 game mark of the season.

 

Two days later in Montreal, Montour surpassed his previous best, as he now sits at 38 points in 45 games. Last season was his best year to date, with 37 points in 81 games.

 

As he sits top-10 in defenseman scoring league wide, Montour is on pace to shatter last season’s point total.  

 

The game turned physical, lots of fights

Montreal and Florida really have no history between each other. 

 

Besides a few trades and former players playing on both teams, there’s not alot there.

 

This season on the other hand has seemed to ignite a new fire between the two sides.

 

In tonight’s game, it was anything but clean hockey. The third period had three fights, there were bodies flying everywhere, the game had more than the usual bad blood.

 

By the end of the night, there were 90 combined penalty minutes, with Montreal’s 57 being the majority. 

 

Panthers’ forward Ryan Lomberg was one of the players who dropped the gloves in the game.

 

“Two teams that are close in the standings pushing for that spot…they’re a good team, it’s competitive,” Lomberg said. “We love that type of game and we’re pushing for the playoffs here so we’re trying to play a playoff style game for sure.”

Florida Panthers head coach wearing black suit and tie speaking to the media

Five Takeaways from Panthers’ OT loss to Leafs

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TORONTO: In a game that was anything short of ordinary, the Florida Panthers dropped a hard fought game to the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 in overtime.

 

Between the interesting calls in the game and the reaction from head coach Paul Maurice, this game was something to talk about. 

 

Here are the takeaways.

 

Penalties, penalties and controversy?

By the second period, this game had so many penalties called we started to lose count. 

 

The story of tonight’s game was all about the officiating. 

 

Between 30 combined penalty minutes, confusion on which team received the penalty, on top of questionable calls.

 

Panthers coach Paul Maurice spoke about the questionable officiating in tonight’s game.

 

“I don’t know what the hell those guys were doing tonight but it wasn’t Florida Panther friendly.”

 

Maurice continued, “I just explained to them [his team], it had nothing to do with my players, it had to do with me and the relationship that I have with one of the referees, that’s what that was all about,” he said. 

 

At the end of the night, Florida had 18 of the 30 total penalty minutes in the game.

 

Brandon Montour ties his career-high in points

The Panthers’ defenseman has been having a career season on the blueline. Tonight in his 44th game of the season, he got point No. 37, which ties his career best.

 

Last season, Montour finished the year with 37 points in 81 games. In nearly half the amount of games, he has reached that.

 

“He is an incredibly elite skater, above and beyond what you normally see,” Paul Maurice said. “He’s starting to use that speed, that skating to defend. When he does that, he’s going to be a star.”

 

The Brantford, Ontario native has been one of the best players for the Panthers this season and comfortably sits top to in points by a defenseman in the NHL.

 

“He’s calm, he’s confident,”  Aaron Ekblad said about Montour. “I love Monty’s game and it’s a treat to play with him.”

 

Cats pick up points in three straight games

While Florida wasn’t able to string together that third-straight win tonight, which would’ve been their first winning-streak of the season, the team has picked up five of a possible six points over that three game stretch. 

 

“I feel like we’ve been finding our identity a little bit,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “I think the last two, three weeks we’ve been kind of finding how to play as a team, how to work really hard, play smart.”

 

The Panthers next opponent is a Montreal team that they defeated a few weeks ago 7-2 at home. Florida has a great chance to pick up more points on the road on Thursday.

 

Panthers get second short-handed goal of the season  

Florida’s penalty kill was extremely busy tonight and they fared pretty well considering they had seven power plays to kill, keeping the Leafs to two goals on those attempts.

 

The short-handed goal department hasn’t been explosive this season, with Florida only having one tally on the kill to their name prior to tonight, which belonged to Anton Lundell. 

 

Lundell was able to make that number two tonight, as he scored the team’s second shorty of the season, off a nice link up play on the kill between him and Barkov.

 

Barkov didn’t convert on the initial breakaway attempt after stealing the puck in the neutral zone, however his linemate and fellow countrymen were right behind to put away the rebound.

 

Lundell has goals in back-to-back games. 

 

Grigori Denisenko is working hard to stay in the lineup

Tonight was the second game in a row that saw Grigori Denisenko in the lineup. He replaced a struggling Colin White yesterday in Buffalo and retained his spot on the third line tonight in Toronto.

 

The former first-round pick of the Panthers hasn’t been able to make his mark in the NHL yet, however you can see the clear improvements in his game and why the team wants him in the lineup now.

 

Denisenko played a hard fore-checking game and his game down low led to him picking up an assist on Josh Mahura’s goal.

 

Paul Maurice said he likes the type of puck control game that Denisenko brings to the table.

 

“He’s hard on pucks and he’s strong on pucks and I’m really trying to work on some puck control here, not throwing pucks away,” Maurice said. “He’ll hang onto a puck… he’s got the understanding on how hard you have to work to be a good player and he’s starting to do it, so we’re pretty excited.”

Five Takeaways from Panthers’ 4-2 loss to Knights

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VEGAS – Florida ended their four game road trip in Thursday night with a 4-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.



The Panthers finished the trip with a 2-2 record.

 

They’ll return home for a Saturday night clash against the Vancouver Canucks before hitting the road again for a trio of Atlantic Division matchups.

 

Here’s tonight’s takeaways. 

 

Florida survived Vegas’ first period attack

Florida entered the first intermission with a 1-0 lead, but it wasn’t a dominating period for the Panthers by any means. 

 

Vegas didn’t take their foot off the gas in the opening period and they were pretty much all over the Panthers for the first half of the period.

Even with a one goal deficit, the Knights stuck to their game; hard fore-checking, clean breakouts and puck possession in the o-zone. 

 

Sergei Bobrovsky weathered the storm of high-quality Vegas chances, stopping all 14 shots he faced in the first.

 

Florida strikes on their first man-advantage 

The first power play of the game for either side came midway through the second period. 

 

With Florida on the man-advantage in a tied game that saw Vegas dominating to that point, a successful power play would be very helpful to change the flow of the game.

 

On the back end of the power play, Aleksander Barkov fed a streaking Sam Bennett a glorious look at goal, but the play was ended by Knights’ goalie Adin Hill. On the play, Hill lost his stick while another Knights’ player broke his, leaving the Knights exposed around the crease.

 

The Panthers used the Knights’ misfortune to their advantage. Matthew Tkachuk hit an uncovered Sam Reinhart in the bumper position and Reinhart buried the shot past Hill, giving the Panthers a 2-1 lead.  

 

The Anton Lundell wing experiment is working 

This is game number two in which Anton Lundell is playing on Aleksander Barkov’s wing. 

 

Paul Maurice decided to move the natural centerman to the wing in order to “Take some pressure off of him being down low.”

 

With Lundell not having the same defensive responsibilities he would need as a center, the ice is opening up for him and it was very clear that was the case tonight. 

 

Lundell appeared to have given the Panthers a 3-1 lead in the second period after he roofed a shot on a tight angle into the net. However, following a Vegas coaches’ challenge, the play was deemed offsides and the goal was taken off the board. 

 

Despite the disallowed goal, the play showed how much space Lundell has when he’s playing along the boards. 

 

A few minutes later, Lundell and Barkov played an aggressive gap near the Knights’ blueline. Barkov caused the turnover and stretched a breakaway pass to Lundell. If Lundell was playing down the middle, that play probably wouldn’t have occurred since he would’ve been playing lower in the zone. 

 

Panthers fail to convert on a third period 5-on-3

Florida had a glorious opportunity to put their stamp on this game in the third period.

 

The hot Panthers had 1:44 of 5-on-3 power play time in a 2-1 game. In such a tight game, just one goal would’ve given Florida some breathing room.

 

The Panthers had their top unit out there for nearly the entire man advantage but could not find the back of the net.

 

On the other side of the ice, Vegas picked up the momentum off the big kill.

 

It only took a few minutes after the kill to find the equalizer, off a Jack Eichel breakaway goal.

 

The Knights odd-man rushes proved troublesome for the Panthers 

Looking back to the effective breakouts from Vegas tonight, the area where they really had Florida on their toes was off the rush. 

 

The Knights had plenty of odd-man rush chances in the game, whether that was two-on-ones, three-on-twos or breakaways.

Jack Eichel’s tying goal in the third came via an offensive zone mishap by the Panthers blue line and a subsequent neutral zone lapse by the defense.

 

The same exact play happened later in the period with the same pairing, only this time the crossbar kept the Knights out of the goal.

Vegas would get the go ahead goal with 2:36 left in the third and seal the game away with an empty netter.