A new low point: If the Panthers don’t fix this issue it could cost them the division
By the time the Florida Panthers went on the power play for the fourth time in their 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, Joel Queneville decided he needed to try something new.
They had mustered just one total shot on three first-period power plays — giving the up just as many short-handed scoring chances as they generated — and their ongoing woes prompted a chance. Keith Yandle came out. Brandon Montour came in.
The experiment lasted all of 46 seconds.
“It was,” Quenneville said Thursday, “a tough night for our power play.”
Winger Nikita Gusev slid a lazy pass from his left wing spot to Montour at the point and Carolina pounced. Montour waited too long to come to the puck, Hurricanes forward Martin Necas stole it away and generated a 2-on-0 rush. He passed to star center Sebastian Aho, who passed back to him and he made one more pass back to Aho to finish the short-handed goal, and put Carolina up 3-1 at the BB&T Center.
When Florida (30-13-5) began its fifth power play in the third period, Yandle was back in for Aho and forward Alex Wennberg was in for Gusev.
“Shorthanded goals,” Quenneville said, “are generally deflating.”
On nine power plays Thursday, the Panthers used five different first groupings. After the addition of Wennberg didn’t help, Florida put versatile forward Sam Bennett in for Patric Hornqvist with the right wing in the penalty box. On their penultimate try, the Panthers kept Bennett on the ice with Hornqvist and put Wennberg back on the bench.
None of it was particularly effective. Florida went 1 of 9 on the power play and the only goal came on a 5-on-3. The Panthers had just nine shots on goal with a 5-on-4 advantage and are now just 3 of 35 on the power play against the Hurricanes (31-10-5) this season and have lost 6 of 7.
“That’s how it’s going to be. They have a good penalty kill, so you have to be ready all the time, all 60 minutes to do those little things right,” star center Aleksander Barkov said Thursday. “We’ve just got to keep our cool.”
Florida Panthers missing Aaron Ekblad
It was a new low point for a unit that has struggled to find consistent success since Aaron Ekblad went down with a likely season-ending injury last month.
Florida is 5 of 47 on the power play since the defenseman fractured his leg against the Dallas Stars in late March.
The Panthers had the seventh best power play in the league prior to the injury, at 24.8 percent, and have the 10th worst in 13 games since. They now rank 13th in the league in power-play percentage, while Carolina and the Tampa Bay Lightning both sit in the top five.
If Florida is going to overcome the Hurricanes and Lightning to win the Central Division, it needs to find solutions on its power play — and quickly. The Panthers wrap up a two-game series against Carolina on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Sunrise, with eight games left in the regular season and their division-title hopes fast disappearing.
Florida’s chances to win the Central shrunk from 24.9 percent to 9.7 percent with the loss to the Hurricanes on Thursday, according to Hockey-Reference.com.
“We’d like to win in regulation, so we still have a chance on the other end of it,” Quenneville said.
Even nearly a month after his injury, Ekblad is still tied for the league lead among defensemen in power-play goals and is one of only two defensemen with more than four. He’s still second on the team in power-play goals, ahead of Barkov and behind only Hornqvist.
After Thursday, the Panthers have tried about half a dozen players in Ekblad’s shooter spot the top power-play unit. First, forward Carter Verhaeghe got a shot before an upper-body injury sidelined him April 10.
After the trade deadline, Gusev got an extended look on the top line before his mistake Thursday prompted Quenneville to yank him. All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau briefly moved over there Thursday — he typically plays in the shooting spot on the opposite side of the ice — before Bennett closed the game there and helped Florida score its 5-on-3 goal.
The Panthers have spent more than a week using a first power-play grouping of Yandle, Huberdeau, Gusev, Barkov and Hornqvist. After spending most of Thursday tinkering, the Panthers are running out of time to find answers.
“Every game’s been a frustrating loss, disappointing in some ways. Special teams is the biggest emphasis coming out of game,” Quenneville said. “You’ve got to play a perfect game against them.”
