Takeaways from Panthers’ final preseason game

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers wrapped up their eighth and final preseason game Saturday night at Amerant Bank Arena, losing 4-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

With preseason play now over, the Panthers will have to get their active roster down to 23 before the the regular season opener.
 

Here’s some Panthers’ takeaways from the last tune up game.

Eetu Luostarinen continued a strong preseason 

Eetu Luostarinen’s value to the Panthers is a high one. He plays up and down the lineup, on special teams, on the wing or at center — he’s everywhere.

With Sam Bennett now out with an injury, Luostarinen jumped back up to center, playing on line 2 with Matthew Tkachuk tonight. Depending on how long Bennett is out, he may be getting an extended stint down the middle.

Luostarinen was the best forward tonight in the Panthers’ loss, grabbing a goal and an assist to end off his preseason with four goals. 

Like the rest of the team, Luostarinen is ready to get the 2023-2024 campaign started.

“We’re really excited,” Luostarinen said postgame. “There’s still some things we can do better but I think overall we’re just ready to go.”

Depth forwards pushing the offense

Both tonight and Thursday’s game saw quality offensive contributions from players in the bottom-six. 

Florida’s first goal of the game was scored off the rush, and shorthanded by Ryan Lomberg. 

In back-to-back games, Florida’s favorite hard hitting winger got on the scoresheet with a nice shot past the Lightning netminder.  

Later in the game Florida had another quality chance to get on the board off a rush from Nick Cousins and Zac Dalpe.

When the final roster comes out, the winners of 12-14 forward spots will be interesting to see. Zac Dalpe, Kevin Stenlund, Steven Lorentz, and Justin Sourdif have all had good showings this preseason.

As for what happens with the final roster, Florida has a few days to sort things out.

“The three days before opening night there’s still a whole lot of things that are involved in the cap and the injury situation,” head coach Paul Maurice said postgame. “The numbers will get back down to one room and we can get back to work.”

Still no “clear cut” winner for the seventh defenseman spot

The first five names on the blueline to start the year will probably look like this: Gustav Forsling, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Josh Mahura, Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola. 

As for the sixth defenseman, Mike Reilly’s play during camp and preseason should have been enough to win him that job. So who gets the seventh spot?

After Lucas Carlsson and Matt Kiersted were sent down to the AHL, the two in the running are Casey Fitzgerald and Uvis Balinskis. 

Neither of them really stood out in tonight’s game, however Fitzgerald has stepped his physicality up this preseason, compared to what we saw in his limited games last year with the Panthers.

In this competition for the extra defenseman, Fitzgerald had the “head start” in familiarity, being with the Panthers from mid January through the playoffs. Balinskis on the other hand joined the Panthers organization this offseason after spending his entire career in Europe.

If sent down to the AHL Balinskis would be exempt from waivers, Fitzgerald would not.