Florida Panthers lose to Flyers, match worst start in team history
The game started off pretty well Tuesday night for the Florida Panthers, still searching for their first win of the season against the Philadelphia Flyers.
And while they didn’t get it, having overcome a horrific five-goal second period to erase a three-goal deficit, before eventually going down, 6-5 in a shootout, at least they had a point to show for their efforts.
Not to mention a solid vote of confidence from their coach. “My message to the guys afterward was ‘Everyone’s disappointed,’” said Bob Boughner, whose 0-2-2-club matched the franchise record for futility to start a season, set in the 2000-01 season. “’Everyone wants it more than the next guy.
“It’s going to happen. We’ve just got to stick with it.’
“But we’ve got some things to clean up. We scored five goals on the road. We won the special teams battle and were the more aggressive.
“So there’s a lot of good, but still some bad in our game we have to eliminate.”
Yet, thanks to a pair of goals from Frank Vatrano and Aleksander Barkov and another from Evgeni Dadenov the Panthers canceled out that brutal second-period onslaught. Down 5-2 after Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux both scored twice for Philadelphia — which had not had the lead on home ice all season until then — the Panthers closed the gap to 5-3 late in the second when Barkov tipped Mike Hoffman’s shot past Brian Elliott.
That revved them up for the third. “I told them ‘It is what it is,’” said Boughner, after Jordan Weal beat Michael Hutchinson in the shootout, then Vatrano was stopped by Calvin Pickard, who had replaced Elliott in the third. “’We’ve got 20 minutes to play, so let’s get the next one and feel good about ourselves.’
“Anytime you’re down on the road 5-2, come back and get a point and could’ve easily had two you feel good. We never give up. That’s one of the positives I’ll take out of this.”
On the other hand, he was less than thrilled with some of the defensive breakdowns, which allowed Simmonds and Weal to score the Flyers’ first two goals on redirections, then later convert odd-man rushes into goals. The other goal, the result of usually reliable Aaron Ekblad committing the cardinal sin by trying a cross-ice pass which Giroux easily intercepted, then whipped a one-timer past Hutchinson, could’ve put the Panthers to bed for the night.
Instead, Florida stormed back, tying it in the third when Dadenov and Barkov scored within a 3:01 span. “I don’t want to say we let up,” said Simmonds, after Jake Voracek and Barkov traded goals in the shootout, before Weal beat Hutchinson for what proved to be the game winner. “We made mistakes and they’ve got some pretty talented guys on that team.
“When you make mistakes they’re going to capitalize.”
Capitalize enough so that just maybe one of these days, they’ll finally get a win.
This story was originally published October 16, 2018 at 10:29 PM with the headline "Florida Panthers lose to Flyers, match worst start in team history."