Tag Archive for: Florida Panthers

Meaningful May in Miami Sports is Here

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May is setting up to be a memorable month in Miami sports.

It’s an exciting time as May ushers in multiple post-season series for Miami sports fans.

The East in both the NBA and NHL runs through South Florida.

Hell, even the Marlins are giving us hope (for now).

 

Not to mention a great end to the week with the Miami Grand Prix at Hard Rock Stadium.

 

The Miami Heat and Florida Panthers will each be in the spotlight this week.

Starting Monday the Heat and Panthers alternate game nights, including four consecutive South Florida home contests.

These are two teams that are stylistically different yet similarly effective, these matchups offer something for everyone.

Heat match up with Sixers in East semifinals

The Heat begin the second round of the NBA Playoffs against a weakened Philadelphia 76ers squad.

 

Without Embiid for the time being, this becomes a drastically different series.

Philadelphia will need more offense from James Harden, who averaged just 14 points-per-game versus Miami this season.

The Heat want teams to try and beat them from beyond the arc, and in this matchup Philadelphia will likely oblige.

That may not always work out for Miami as Philadelphia shot 40.8% from deep in the opening round.

The emergence of Tyrese Maxey has given the Sixers another option on the perimeter.

Maxey has played well in the playoffs and against Miami (21.3 PPG), how the Heat defend him could be a key to the series.

Is the the Panthers’ year?

Across the county line in Broward, the high-flying Florida Panthers open their post-season Tuesday against Washington.

Fresh off their first ever Presidents’ Trophy for the NHL’s best record, expectations are at an all-time high for the Panthers.

 

Unlike their colleagues on Biscayne, the Panthers are not terribly worried about defense.

The Panthers simply attack and overwhelm opposing teams with line after line of skill.

 

Washington played the Panthers tough this year; each game was decided by a single goal with the Cats winning two out of three.

The status of Alex Ovechkin is something to watch as he missed the final three games of the regular season with an upper body injury.

Ovechkin has never missed a playoff game due to injury, and if he is close to healthy expect the NHL’s third all-time leading goal scorer to play.

The Panthers have two superstars in Sasha Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, who just led the NHL in assists.

No team scored more goals or took more shots than the Panthers, with any semblance of goaltending the Cats should advance easily.

So relax, crack open a Biscayne Bay Brew, and enjoy this week for the ages Miami sports fans!

Make sure to check out our daily fantasy partners PrizePicks! Use promo code five for 100$ deposit match, www.prizepicks.com.

 

 

 


 

Florida Panthers clinch No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference

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SUNRISE – The Florida Panthers have officially clinched the first seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time in franchise history on Thursday night. 

After a 5-2 home win over the Detroit Red Wings earlier in the night, Florida had to wait for the Tampa – Toronto game to go final before they could be named the first seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Toronto’s loss to Tampa was enough for Florida to lock up the top seed with five games left in the regular season. Alongside the first seed, they are also the 2021-2022 Atlantic Division Champions. 

Florida will have home ice for the entirety of the Eastern Conference side of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Panthers currently sit atop the NHL standings with 118 points in 77 games. The Colorado Avalanche is the only team that can catch Florida for the President’s Trophy, they sit atop the Western Conference and second in the NHL with 116 points in 77 games.

As the first seed, Florida will play the second wild card team in the East in the first round.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to begin on May 2.

Florida Panthers Defense showing signs of improvement

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Credit: FloridaPanthersPR

Following Florida’s 7-6 comeback win over Toronto on April 5, most fans felt nothing but elation. For the Panthers themselves, that game marked a need for change. The Florida Panthers defense had been struggling mightily in the first eight games Aaron Ekblad missed due to injury, and that game marked the tipping point for the team’s coaching staff.

After the game against Toronto, head coach Andrew Brunette mentioned the need for stronger defensive showings. He knows the importance of a formidable defense in the playoffs. With the regular season winding down, the team needed to begin to shut down their opponents. Even with Ekblad presumably returning for the playoffs, the team needed defensive answers with the current group.

In the four games since that shift, the team has allowed only seven goals. Excluding the first period against Buffalo, the team surrendered only four goals in the past 11 periods of hockey. That impressive turnaround can be attributed to several factors which have re-energized the Florida Panthers defense.

New Florida Panthers Defensive Pairings

One change Bruno implemented with the Florida Panthers defense was to change up the pairings. For these combinations, Bruno decided to pair strength with strength. He paired offensive defensemen Gustav Forsling and Brandon Montour together, as well as physical defensemen Robert Hagg and Radko Gudas.

These changes create some interesting wrinkles for opponents. The high-powered offensive duo have used their collective speed to grab the puck and push it out of their own zone. In the past four games the pair each have four points (Forsling 3g 1a, Montour 0g 4a.)

Conversely, Hagg and Gudas use their physical nature to shut down opposing chances. Because neither are offensively gifted, the team opts for a separation of responsibilities when they come on the ice. Indeed, the duo disrupts all opposing chances and the forwards do the heavy lifting on offense. So far, it has worked to perfection. In the 27 minutes of the Hagg-Gudas pairing thus far, the tandem boasts a remarkable 72.4 expected goals percentage.

Improved Goalie Play

Of course, none of this would be possible without the goalies. Both Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight have given amazing performances this past week. Bob was 3-0-0 with a 0.931 save percentage while Knight stopped 24 of 25 shots and won his lone appearance.

Specifically, this last start for Bobrovsky stands out. Against Winnipeg, Bobrovsky stopped 30 of 31 shots. He finished with a goals saved above expected of 1.43. After a horrible couple of starts against New Jersey and Toronto, these games have meaning. They help build confidence and rhythm going into the playoffs. Bobrovsky will likely be the team’s starting goalie come playoffs, and his play can make or break the cup run.

However, if Bobrovsky’s inconsistency proves to be Florida’s weakness in the playoffs, the team should feel encouraged about Spencer Knight’s progress. Knight played one of the best games in his career against Nashville last week. He finished with 1.45 goals saved above expected, which brought his total number for the year into the positive.

After a terrible start to the year, Knight has given the team very consistent play in net. While he likely won’t be the starter, he will end up in net at some point come the playoffs.

New Additions Getting Comfortable

When looking back at the terrible two-week defensive stretch, it is clear that working in some new additions played a part in it. Earlier this year, Sam Reinhart discussed the difficulties of getting acclimated to Florida’s unique system. After 15 games, he became one of the teams best players. His slow start was quickly forgotten by fans and media alike.

The same should have been expected of the deadline acquisitions, namely Ben Chairot and Roberg Hagg. We talked earlier about Hagg finding his fit with Gudas, and the same could be said for Chairot. Now spending his time with Weegar, the two increased their expected goals percentage together from 55% to 62%. Chairot also has two assists over his last four games.

With the chemistry this Florida Panthers defense gained in the past week, the team may have solved its biggest problem. If the team regains its strong defensive play AND adds Aaron Ekblad going into the playoffs, they instantly become the team to beat. Indeed, the ceiling is high, but the team needs to make tweaks in these last few games more than most in their position.

*** This story was originally published on the ATB Network by Sam Schetritt***

Panthers coach Joel Quenneville focuses on the positives from opening-night loss to Lightning. (Craig Davis for Five Reasons Sports)

Joel Quenneville resigns as coach of Florida Panthers

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Joel Quenneville has officially resigned as the head coach of the Florida Panthers, effective immediately.

The Panthers announced today that Quenneville resigned from his role with the club and an interim head coach announcement will be coming. 

This news comes just two days after the release of the Jenner & Block investigative report on the Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault investigation.

Quenneville was the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010 when video coach Brad Aldrich allegedly assaulted a player, who has come forward as Kyle Beach.

Today Quenneville, alongside Panthers GM Bill Zito and President/CEO Matthew Caldwell met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in New York to discuss Quenneville’s role in the sexual abuse cover-up scandal from the 2010 Blackhawks team. 

Here is a quote from Quenneville following his resignation:

There has not been an official announcement from the Panthers regarding the interim coach, however, reports say that Panthers assistant coach Andrew Brunette will take over as the interim coach. 

Brunette played over 1100 games in his NHL career and has served as an assistant coach for both the Panthers and Minnesota Wild.

The Panthers have had the fastest start in franchise history, at 7-0-0.

 

Florida acquires defenseman Brandon Montour from Buffalo

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The Florida Panthers have acquired 26-year-old defenseman Brandon Montour from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a third round pick. The trade was first reported by David Pagnotta. Kevin Weekes added on, saying the return was a third round pick. 

 

Montour has one year remaining on his $3.85 million contract, he will be a UFA this offseason.

 

The Brantford, Ont. native was selected 55th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2014 NHL Draft. He was traded to Buffalo for a first-round pick and Brendan Guhle at the 2019 NHL trade deadline. 

 

This season in Buffalo, Montour had 14 points in 38 games and was a minus 13. The Sabres are currently sitting at the bottom of the NHL and rank near the bottom of the league in team defense.

 

Montour’s best season came in 2017-2018 when he put up 32 points in 80 games with the Ducks.

 

The NHL trade deadline is two days away on April 12.

Florida Panthers make deal, clear cap space

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The Florida Panthers have acquired forward Lucas Wallmark and defenseman Lucas Carlsson from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for forwards Brett Connolly, Henrik Borgstrom, defenseman Riley Stillman and a seventh-round pick, as reported by TSN’s Pierre LeBrun.

 

Wallmark, 25, played in seven regular season games as well as two playoff games for the Cats last season after he was acquired from Carolina as part of the Vincent Trocheck trade. Wallmark appeared in 16 games for Chicago this season, he will be a Restricted Free Agent (RFA) after this year. His current cap hit is $950k.

 

Carlsson, 23, split time between Chicago and their AHL affiliate, Rockford. He will also be an RFA after this season. The Swedish defenseman’s current cap hit is $792,500. 

 

Connolly has been in and out of the Panthers’ lineup all season. He has bounced between the active roster and taxi squad. The trade clears his $3.5 million AAV contract which was set to run through the 2022-2023 season. The 28-year-old had 4 points in 21 games this season with the Panthers.

 

Stillman, 23, played in eight games this season and has only played in 43 total games in his NHL career. The Panthers drafted Stillman 114th overall in the 2016 draft.

 

Borgstrom, also 23, was Florida’s 2016 first-round pick. The Finnish prospect only appeared in 54 games with the Panthers since he was drafted. Borgstrom is currently playing for HIFK in Liiga, Finland’s pro league.

 

With this trade, Florida clears additional cap space for both this season and for the future. Aleksander Barkov’s contract expires after next season, Jonathan Huberdeau’s deal expires after the 2022-2023 season. Capfriendly has Florida’s deadline capspace north of $18 million after these moves. 

 

The NHL trade deadline is April 12.

Panthers win an afterthought after injury to Aaron Ekblad

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The Florida Panthers completed the sweep on Dallas this weekend with a 4-1 win against the Stars on Sunday night. Unfortunately for the Cats, this win was an afterthought after their star defenseman Aaron Ekblad went down with an injury midway through the second period.

 

Ekblad took an awkward fall near the boards after a collision with a Stars player and had to be taken off the ice with a stretcher. 

 

The 25-year-old has been with the team since 2014 when he was selected first overall by the Panthers in the 2014 NHL draft. Ekblad was having a career year this season, currently he is tied for the league lead in goals by a defenseman with 11 and is ranked top 20 in points for his position.

 

As of now, we do not know how much time Ekblad will miss. Any amount of time without him is a big loss for the Panthers, he leads all skaters in total ice time, averaging 25:31 a game and is the team’s number one defenseman. 

 

On top of Ekblad’s injury, captain Aleksander Barkov has been out the last four games with a lower body injury and Patric Hornqvist has missed the last three games with an undisclosed injury.

Panthers fall to Lightning in physical rematch

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At the end of the first period, the Florida Panthers were probably at least satisfied with their performance. They were scoreless, but so were the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

At the end of the second, the Panthers were down 4-0 en route to a demoralizing 6-1 loss on Saturday night at the BB&T Center. 

The Lightning suffered an embarrassing 5-2 loss on Thursday night to the Panthers, their Central Division rivals. Apparently, they had had enough. Even without captain Steven Stamkos, Tampa was able to put together a litany of scoring chances in the second period that Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was simply unable to stop. Conversely, the Cats couldn’t find a way to get past Andrei Vasilevskiy, who totaled 33 total saves for a .971 save percentage. 

The lone Panthers goal of the night came in the third period when Brett Connolly and Frank Vatrano teamed up to slide one past Andrei Vasilevskiy. But the celebration was short-lived. Less than a minute later Tampa’s Alexander Volkov scored the Lightning’s fifth of the night, effectively squashing any desperate hopes at an unlikely but not completely impossible comeback for Florida.

“We lost our composure when they got ahead,” head coach Joel Quenville said. “The game just got away from us.”

Both Radko Gudas and Patric Hornqvist made their own attempts to turn the tide by dropping gloves with Blake Coleman and Yanni Gourde respectively but all efforts fell short. MacKenzie Weegar also scuffled with Killorn late in the first and the two exchanged words even after moving to the box. 

The loss keeps the Panthers (8-2-2) at the second position in the Central Division behind the Lightning (10-2-1). They play the third game of the series in Tampa Bay on Monday.

Five Takeaways from Florida Panthers’ win over Blue Jackets

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The Florida Panthers came out on top of a wild comeback thriller against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. This was Florida’s first game in a week after their two game series against Carolina was postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the Hurricanes organization. Florida looked like the stronger team tonight but it wasn’t the prettiest of wins. Here are the takeaways from the game.

 

#1: Sergei Bobrovsky’s play put the Panthers in a hole early on.

 

After a subpar 2019-2020 campaign with the Panthers, the $70 million goalie looks like he hasn’t changed. In the opening minutes of the game, Bobrovsky gave up two weak goals on Columbus’ first two shots. After the Panthers clawed back to make it a 2-2 game, Bobrovsky let in a short handed goal on another saveable puck. The two-time Vezina winner couldn’t seem to find his groove in regulation despite his team keeping Columbus to just 17 shots through three periods. Bob stood his ground in the overtime and shootout, but he didn’t help his team at all by giving up those early goals. If his performance continues to hinder the team like this, promoting Chris Dreidger to the starter shouldn’t be out of the question.

 

#2: The penalty kill was spectacular, going 6/6.

 

It’s never a good sight when your team takes six penalties in a game. Luckily for Florida, their 12 penalty minutes didn’t lead to a goal against. The penalty kill (pk) unit was able to not only kill off all the penalties, but also generate a few short handed chances the other way. Each time Florida killed a penalty, it completely took the momentum away from Columbus. One of the six penalty kills came during the overtime when Frank Vatrano took a tripping penalty. The team had to kill a 4-on-3 to stay alive in the game. Last season the Panthers penalty kill ranked twentieth in the NHL with a 78.49 penalty killing percentage. An improved pk unit will be extremely valuable down the stretch in this condensed season. 

 

#3: New Panthers shine once again.

 

Florida’s team looks completely different this season. The offseason acquisitions of Carter Verhaeghe, Patric Hornqvist, Alexander Wennberg and Anthony Duclair paid dividends tonight against Columbus. The four first-year Panthers combined for six points, while Hornqvist got the game-tying goal with two seconds left in regulation and the shootout winner. Florida moved to 3-0-0 for the first time in franchise history.

 

#4: The first line controlled the game from the jump.

 

Aleksander Barkov is known around the league as one of the best two-way centres in the game. Heading into this season, head coach Joel Quenneville decided to split up Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau to provide more balance across the top 6. As they did against Chicago, the line of Barkov, Verhaeghe and Duclair controlled the game. Columbus couldn’t find a way to stop the constant pressure from this unit. Between Verhaeghe winning loose puck battles, Duclair walking past defenders and Barkov ripping pucks towards goal, this line was nothing short of dominant. The three of them combined for two goals and five points on the night. 

 

#5: Aleksander Barkov was more aggressive.

 

Throughout his career, Barkov has never been a selfish player, sometimes he was too unselfish for his own benefit. In the past Barkov often looked to dish the puck to his teammates rather than taking the shot himself. It looked like Barkov flipped a switch tonight, he came into the game with a shooter’s mentality. The captain led the game with eight shots on goal and found the back of the net once on a beautiful shot from the slot. An aggressive Barkov will keep goalies guessing and it will ultimately help evolve his game more as a two-way playmaking centre.  

Florida Panthers: Dale Tallon out as general manager after loss

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The Florida Panthers are making a general manager change. According to multiple media reports, Dale Tallon is out as the team’s general manager.

Tallon joined the Florida Panthers on May 17, 2010, replacing Randy Sexton. Tallon was coming off a Stanley Cup ring with Chicago, and seemed pretty convincing during his introductory press conference

Despite the lack of sustainable success in recent years, he did have some successful years in Florida. In the 2011-12 season, the Panthers compiled a 38-26 record. Nevertheless, they were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round.

2016 was a another successful season for the organization. With the Panthers posting a 47-26-9 record in the 2015-16 season again, they could not get over the hump of the first round, as they were eliminated by the New York Islanders in six games.

With the Islanders defeating the Florida Panthers on Friday, they were eliminated from the best-of-five qualifying series. It was just another unfortunate notch in the belt of a Panthers organization used to early playoff exits.

Florida Panthers have talent to compete

Now, the Panthers are in search for another general manager. There is no doubt that they have young talent in Evgenii Dadonov and Jonathan Huberdeau. those two should carry the team for years to come and make the team competitive.

This season in particular was marred by several factors. Two of the most glaring ones were a lack of solid defensive play, and inconsistent play from goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. In a tough Atlantic Division, every game meant something this season. Too often, Florida found themselves on the precipice of big things, but not where they needed to be in order to compete.

It will be interesting to see who the Panthers tab as a replacement. They are in a unique position right now, and they should definitely take advantage of this window of opportunity.