Florida Panthers enter playoffs qualifying round with even more defensive question marks
The Florida Panthers’ porous defense was always going to be the biggest obstacle they had to overcome in the expanded postseason. Now the unit faces even more issues with just two days until the Panthers open the qualifying round against the New York Islanders on Saturday.
As expected, Aaron Ekblad did not play in Florida’s exhibition game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday. Unexpectedly, neither did MacKenzie Weegar, Ekblad’s usual partner on the Panthers’ top defensive playing, and Joel Quenneville didn’t offer any assurance’s about Weegar’s status moving forward.
“We’ll see on Weegs,” was all the coach said about the defenseman’s status following Florida’s 5-0 scrimmage loss in Toronto.
Ekblad’s absence was precautionary as he’s recovering from an undisclosed injury, which kept him off the ice for the Panthers’ final three practices of their postseason training camp last week in Coral Springs before he returned to practice Monday in Ontario.
Weegar is a new addition to Florida’s informal injury report. He didn’t miss any time throughout training camp at the Florida Panthers IceDen and Quenneville didn’t say anything about Weegar’s participation at Florida’s first practice in Canada on Monday.
With the defensemen both out, Quenneville turned to a top defensive pairing of defensemen Keith Yandle and Josh Brown. Defensemen Mike Matheson and Brady Keeper filled in as the third defensive pairing. Keeper, who spent the entire regular season with AHL Springfield, looked solid in his action, while Matheson struggled, on the ice for all five Lightning goals.
“We’ve got to be better in all areas,” Quenneville said.
Quenneville said Noel Acciari, who was shaken up after blocking a puck, “should be fine.”
An unusual atmosphere
The NHL’s setup for the qualifying round of the Stanley Cup playoffs will be a bit more intricate this weekend, but the Panthers did get their first taste of competitive action in the COVID-19 world Wednesday.
With no fans in the crowd, Florida found there’s a new point of emphasis to think about for Saturday: a lively bench.
“It was definitely different from what we’re used to. It’s the same for everybody,” forward Erik Haula said. “It’s kind of nice to get an exhibition game, get a feel for what it’s going to be like. We talked in the locker room that it’s very, very important to have a positive bench, be up, be talking because you’ve got to find that energy among yourselves, so we were working on that. I feel like we did a good job. We were positive and on that aspect I think we were pretty solid.”
NHL social-justice stance
The NHL has had a template for social-justice gestures throughout these scrimmages in Canada, and Florida and Tampa Bay took part Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena.
As the national anthems played, the Panthers and Lightning lined up intermingled on the two blue lines, rather than have each team stand on their own. The gesture is intended to show the teams stand “united in solidarity ... against social injustice, racism and hate,” the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins said in a joint statement Tuesday as they became the first teams to do so.
“The Florida Panthers stand proudly with the Tampa Bay Lightning in joining other National Hockey League teams in the fight against racial injustice and discrimination,” the team said in a statement. “As we stand in solidarity, we continue to learn more about the role we can play in bringing forth positive change and equality in our community and beyond.”
