Panthers have to regroup quickly after exhibition rout. ‘It certainly is a wake-up call’
The Florida Panthers’ lone exhibition tuneup before the expanded postseason starts Saturday began innocently enough. The Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning both took some time to settle, as everyone expected given the four-month hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then Florida actually started to generate some chances. It went on the power play and failed twice, but the Panthers were still playing even with — if not better than — the Lightning for more than 10 minutes Wednesday in Toronto.
Quickly, it all fell apart. Tampa Bay scored once in the 14th minute, then again with just seconds left in the first period. In the second period, the floodgates opened scored twice more in the first six minutes. With four goals allowed in less than 12 minutes, Florida was crashing to a 5-0 loss in their only exhibition game ahead of the qualifying round.
“It certainly is a wake-up call,” coach Joel Quenneville said.
The Panthers’ offense was bad, their defense was worse and now Florida stares down meaningful action Saturday with even more concerns than they had entering the exhibition at Scotiabank Arena.
Florida went 0 for 4 on the power play. Sergei Bobrovsky, who played all 60 minutes in net, gave up five goals on 34 shots. The Panthers now even have question marks surrounding their entire top defensive pairing after Florida mysteriously scratched MacKenzie Weegar for the exhibition, leaving both him and fellow defenseman Aaron Ekblad on the bench for the Panthers’ only taste of live action before they open their five-game series against the New York Islanders in the qualifying round Saturday.
“I don’t think there’s one area of our game,” forward Brian Boyle said, “that we can be even OK with.”
What went wrong on offense?
The first period was the closest Florida got to playing its winning style. The Panthers got their first power-play opportunity less than five minutes into the game and immediately started peppering star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, with five shots on goal in less than three minutes. Florida outshot the Lightning 11-10 in the opening period.
On those first two power plays, the Panthers commanded the puck and generated chances. The rest of the way, they never emulated those opportunities., squandering two more power-play chances in the second and third periods, including a 5-on-3 chance in third.
Florida’s top line — center Aleksander Barkov, and wingers Evgenii Dadonov and Frank Vatrano — combined for just three shots on goal. Second-line left wing Jonathan Huberdeau, the Panthers’ lone All-Star, managed just one shot.
“We were a little bit one and done today. We got some chances, like you said, but there wasn’t a whole lot of puck possession,” forward Erik Haula said. “Tampa had the puck pretty much the whole game and we didn’t, so they controlled play, and we’ve got to look at some stuff and kind of find it quick.”
How worried are Panthers about Bobrovsky?
The offense’s issues left Florida’s defense on its heels and it didn’t handle the challenge well.
When Tampa Bay pulled away from the Panthers in the second period, it did so by outshooting Florida 10-5. In the third period, the Lightning outshot the Panthers 14-10.
The story was the same for Bobrovsky as it has been all season: He was to blame for some of what went wrong defensively, but not all of it. He was not the reason Tampa Bay kept scoring, but he also didn’t elevate his play to make up for the deficiencies in front of him.
“I thought he battled and did what he had to do,” Quenneville said. “A lot of open looks at both ends of the rink today, but Bob did what he had to do. I thought he was fine under the circumstances. We’re going to need everybody across the board to be better after today.”
The Lightning’s first and fifth goals were the direct result of defensive-zone giveaways. Tampa Bay’s second happened when center Brayden Point streaked down the ice totally unmarked to field a long pass. On the fourth, Bobrovsky’s vision was shielded off by four teammates, caught out of position and strewn aimlessly in front of the net.
Defenseman Mike Matheson, who committed one of the giveaways and had the defensive breakdown on the second goal, was on the ice for all five Lightning goals.
“It’s just going to be a lot of work and thankfully we have a couple days to do it,” Boyle said. “We have an opportunity to learn our lesson and a couple of days before us, so we’ve got to put that time to good use.”
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 4:45 PM.
