A big win over Quenneville’s former team has the Panthers in a good place at break
Joel Quenneville had a wide grin on his face, trying to keep his emotions in check from behind the visitor’s bench.
Almost seven minutes had elapsed in Tuesday’s game at the United Center as the Chicago Blackhawks played a tribute video to the coach who accomplished so much with the organization — 797 wins and three Stanley Cups over 10-plus seasons. The sold-out crowd gave “Coach Q,” now 49 games into his tenure leading the Florida Panthers, a standing ovation.
“It was a great feeling,” Quenneville told reporters in Chicago. “The enthusiasm, the excitement, it felt like a different game. It was special and felt great.”
He had reason to smile at the end of regulation, too. His Panthers held on for a 4-3 win behind a four-goal second period and a Frank Vatrano hat trick to keep Florida in a good spot in the playoff race heading into the All-Star break.
A six-game win streak, one in which the Panthers (28-16-5) have outscored opponents 30-17 and have trailed for less than nine minutes on the way to picking up 12 points.
A high-octane offense, featuring an NHL-leading 180 goals and seven players with at least 14 goals.
And most importantly for the Panthers, 61 points, third in the Atlantic Division and one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for second.
“It was something we wanted to do and accomplish,” Quenneville said. “Very pleased with how we’re entering [the break].”
The Panthers now have 10 days off before playing again. They’ll open the second half of the season with another three-game road trip, playing at the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 1, Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 3 and Columbus Blue Jackets on Feb. 4 before returning to the BB&T Center on Feb. 6.
“There’s still a lot of hockey to play,” Vatrano said. “We have to keep this thing rolling.”
Top performers
▪ Jonathan Huberdeau: The Panthers’ lone All-Star paces the team with 65 points and 47 assists and earlier this season set the franchise record for career points.
▪ Noel Acciari: He has as many goals through 46 games this season (18) as he did in his 180 career games with the Boston Bruins before signing with the Panthers this offseason. Acciari posted hat tricks in consecutive games and scored the game winner with about five seconds left in regulation against the Minnesota Wild on Monday.
▪ Evgenii Dadonov: Normally overshadowed by his fellow top-line forwards, Dadonov leads the Panthers with 23 goals and has nine goals in his past 10 games.
▪ Aaron Ekblad: He has 23 assists — four shy of his career-high set as a rookie in the 2014-15 season — and has a team-high plus-12 rating on the season, meaning the Panthers have outscored opponents by 12 goals in even-strength or short-handed situations when Ekblad is on the ice.
▪ Mike Hoffman: He has 40 points on the season and is riding a 10-game point streak into the All-Star break (five goals, eight assists).
▪ Aleksander Barkov: The Panthers’ captain shook off a slow start and now has 54 points (16 goals, 38 assists).
Bobrovsky turning the corner?
Sergei Bobrovsky’s overall surface numbers still aren’t great (.898 save percentage and a 3.24 goals against average), but the 31-year-old Russian goaltender and former two-time Vezina Trophy winner has come up with big moments when he needed to as of late.
After stopping 32 of 35 shots against him against the Blackhawks on Tuesday, Bobrovsky has won his past four starts and is 8-3-0 in his last 11 games. His 19 wins are tied for sixth most in the NHL.
It helps having the offense in front of him that the Panthers roll out on a nightly basis — the Panthers scored at least four goals in all eight of his most recent wins — but he has found ways to make timely saves as each game unfolded.
Since returning from an upper-body injury that sidelined him for two games, Bobrovsky stopped 88 of 96 shots (a .917 save percent) in road wins over Detroit, Minnesota and Chicago.
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 10:31 AM.
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