The Panthers’ vaunted top line is struggling in February and Florida is following suit
The first period of the Florida Panthers’ eventual 5-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday was an outright shootout. Both teams scored three goals on nine shots. Both teams scored in the flow of their in-zone offense and out in transition.
Nearly every forward line was in on the action for the Panthers. The one exception was its first line — the vaunted trio of Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Evgenii Dadonov.
“Everybody needs to be better and obviously it starts with me,” Barkov said after the loss Thursday. “I need to be a lot better.”
At the time of the NHL All-Star Game, Florida was in playoff position, largely because of the highest scoring offense in the league. Huberdeau was an All-Star and Barkov still held a reputation as one of the best young players in hockey. Dadonov was the perfect linemate for the two.
Right now, Huberdeau leads the team with 77 points — 22 goals and 55 assists. Barkov is right behind him with 62 points — 20 goals and 42 assists. Dadonov is fourth on the team with 46 points — 25 goals and 21 assists.
On Thursday, they vanished. They combined to put just four shots on goal in more than 20 shifts. Toronto outscored them by two goals when they were on the ice.
The Maple Leafs boast another of the best No. 1 lines in the NHL and their top grouping severely outplayed the Panthers’ in Sunrise to put Toronto four points ahead of Florida for third place in the Atlantic Division.
“They didn’t have the puck enough,” coach Joel Quenneville said when asked about his top line’s struggles Thursday. “We didn’t get enough good looks or enough possession time and then we defended a little bit more than we’d like.”
Their struggles have been something of a common thread throughout Toronto’s second half struggles. The Panthers (33-25-6) have lost 10 of 15 since returning from the All-Star break Feb. 1, and Huberdeau, Barkov and Dadonov have combined for 26 points. Collectively, their plus-minus is minus-22 and Dadonov is minus-11.
On Thursday, they squandered Florida’s best chance to break the tie. Late in the third period, the Panthers got their only power play of the game, so Huberdeau, Barkov and Dadonov went out to try to put Florida ahead.
The Panthers didn’t put a single shot on goal in the two minutes. The Maple Leafs tested Sergei Bobrovsky twice.
“We didn’t really help each other out there and kind of let the guy with the puck do the thing,” Barkov said, “and Toronto took everything away and got a couple odd-man rushes, but nothing really happened on the power play.”
In the first 49 games of the season, Huberdeau had 18 goals and 47 assists, and Barkov had 16 goals and 38 assists. Dadonov, who hasn’t exclusively played with Huberdeau and Barkov, scored 23 goals and dished out 17 assists.
The average points per game have plummeted since the break. Huberdeau has dropped from 1.33 points per game to 0.8, Barkov, who missed three games, has dropped from 1.10 to 0.67 and Dadonov has dropped from 0.82 to 0.4. In four of the 10 losses, they haven’t scored a single point. Florida is now tied for fourth in goals per game.
The Panthers’ three-game homestand continues Saturday at the BB&T Center, though, and a 6 p.m. meeting with the Chicago Blackhawks could provide a chance to get back on track. The Blackhawks (28-28-8) rank in the bottom 10 in the NHL in goals allowed. When they played each other last month, Huberdeau and Barkov set up Dadonov for the opening goal to help send Florida into the All-Star break with a six-game winning streak.
“We missed the net a few too many times. We got some looks there — we maybe tried to get too fine with our shots,” said winger Colton Sceviour, who was plus-2 playing with the fourth line Thursday. “Offense is one of those things where it’s tough to keep it going consistently. It does tend to kind of come and go, but it’s something that we need to look for on a more consistent level.”
