Panthers play ‘garbage’ game in Dallas, but trade for defensive help ahead of deadline
Joel Quenneville can count on one hand — with two or three fingers to spare — the number of absolute duds his Florida Panthers have put out this season.
The problem is two of those have come in the last two games, including a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday in Dallas.
“Garbage-can game,” the coach called it. Throw it right in the trash. “First one of the year.”
The Panthers fell behind 1-0 in the first minute, then 2-0 in the second. By the end of the first 10, Florida trailed 3-0 and was tumbling to one of its ugliest losses of the season.
The Stars had three goals before the Panthers even attempted a shot. Florida didn’t score until 1.5 seconds remained in the second period in Dallas and got the goal back less than two minutes later.
On Thursday, the Panthers went quietly in a three-goal loss to the Carolina Hurricanes and Quenneville said it “might’ve been the one game all year we were ordinary.” On Saturday, they were something less than ordinary and gave up more ground in a tight Central Division race.
In the opening minute, Stars left wing Jason Robertson took advantage of a giveaway and beat goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to jump ahead 1-0 with 19:00 left in the first. Less than a minute later, Dallas forward Joel L’Esperance capitalized on another giveaway and put the Stars ahead 2-0 with 18:11 left. With 10:57 left in the period, Dallas forward Jamie Benn scored on a power play to give the Stars a 3-0 lead and send the 4,165 at the American Airlines Center into celebration.
Dallas had eight shots on goal. Florida didn’t have any.
“I don’t know what was the problem. They started really well and we didn’t,” star center Aleksander Barkov said. “It wasn’t a good start by us and obviously we’re not happy.”
The loss was the Panthers’ third straight — matching their longest of the skid of the season — and the same issues have now persisted across multiple games. Florida followed up a 24-shot performance Thursday with just 21 on Saturday. Defensively, the Panthers have given up at least one power-play goal in three straight games. They started 0 of 2 on their own power play, running their streak of futility to 1 of 22 since defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s injury last month, before Barkov finally scored a power-play goal in the waning moments of the second period.
Florida went into the second intermission with a 3-1 deficit, but a reason for hope. Robertson quickly quashed it.
In the opening minute of the third period, Stars goaltender Anton Khudobin stuffed star forward Carter Verhaeghe on a breakaway and Robertson came back the other way to beat Bobrovsky and put Dallas back ahead 4-1 with 18:39 remaining.
Bobrovsky’s four goals allowed were his most in his last six starts and his .800 save percentage was his worst since the first half of February.
“That’s how we need to handle it: Just forget about this game and move forward, and think about next game and think about how we get a better start, how we play a better game,” Barkov said. “Do a better job to get to the net, get the second chances and recover pucks from that. That was our strength the whole season. We shot pucks and we recovered them, and got another shot, recover another puck and then we would play in the zone.”
Panthers trade for Brandon Montour
The trade deadline also looms as a chance for the Panthers to reshape themselves in the midst of a rare losing streak. On Saturday, they started to.
After making two cap-clearing trades in the last two weeks, Florida traded for Brandon Montour from the Buffalo Sabres, hoping to bolster its defense after Ekblad’s likely season-ending injury in March. All it cost the Panthers was a third-round pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft to land the defenseman, who’s making $3.85 million on a one-year deal.
Montour has five goals and nine assists this season for the league-worst Sabres and should give Florida a top-four defenseman to play on one of its top two pairings, especially given defenseman Keith Yandle’s shrinking playing time.
“Brandon is a capable and talented right-shot defenseman who will have an immediate impact on our club,” general manager Bill Zito said in a statement. “His two-way acumen and ability to play important minutes make him an exciting addition to the Panthers.”
This move doesn’t have to be the only one for Florida, either. The Panthers still have more than $12 million in trade-deadline cap space, according to CapFriendly. It gives them room to continue bolstering their defense or make a move for another high-profile forward as they make a run for their first Stanley Cup.
This story was originally published April 10, 2021 at 2:35 PM.
