Florida Panthers drop back-to-back games after blowout loss to New Jersey Devils
The backbreaking goal for the Florida Panthers on Tuesday came early in the third period. Jonathan Huberdeau turned the puck over in the offensive zone while on the penalty kill, and the New Jersey Devils made a series of passes before Pavel Zacha’s backhand on a rebound in front of the net became the latest to slip past Spencer Knight.
It was the third of five consecutive unanswered goals by the Devils en route to Florida’s 7-3 loss at the Prudential Center.
“It hurts,” Aleksander Barkov said. “We didn’t show up.”
For the second consecutive night.
Florida (10-2-1) once again looked like a shell of the team that avoided a regulation loss through its first 11 games of the season. The defeat came one night after the Panthers fell behind by four goals to the New York Rangers, went on a scoring flurry in the third in an attempt to rally back but lost 4-3.
Characteristics that have defined the Florida Panthers’ hot start to the season — strong goaltending, puck possession, stinginess on the penalty kill — were nearly non-existent.
Knight, the Panthers’ ballyhooed rookie goaltender, has given up 10 goals over the past two days and 16 over his last 11 periods of hockey dating back to the second period of Florida’s win over the Washington Capitals on Thursday when Sergei Bobrovsky was sidelined with an upper-body injury.
Some of it was on Knight. Others were a by-product of sloppy, inconsistent play in front of him.
“We didn’t help him either night,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said.
Florida, which had rarely played from behind all season, never led in its loss to the Rangers on Monday and led just twice on Tuesday against the Devils.
Sam Bennett, playing in his first game since Oct. 29, opened scoring less than four minutes into play when he corralled a rebound from his wrist shot and slipped a backhanded shot past Mackenzie Blackwood to give Florida an early 1-0 lead.
The Devils (6-3-2) closed the period with back-to-back goals. Andreas Johnsson’s wrist shot on the power play made it 1-1 with 4:14 left in the opening period before Nico Hischier tipped in a pass from Ty Smith two minutes later to give New Jersey a 2-1 lead.
Florida responded with a pair of goals of its own in the start of the second period. Barkov tied the game with a snap shot 24 seconds into the period. It was his 189th career goal — the most in Panthers history. Just over a minute later, Owen Tippett gave Florida a 3-2 advantage when he tipped in a Gustav Forsling shot.
The lead lasted... 29 seconds. Johnsson scored his second goal of the game on a wrist shot just to Knight’s left to tie the game at 3-3. New Jersey retook the lead for good on a P.K. Subban slap shot from the point with 1:45 left in the second period. The Devils added insurance on Zacha’s third-period power play goal, a snap shot from Smith and an empty-netter from Jimmy Vesey.
“We just haven’t really grabbed those momentum swings,” Brunette said.
Injury updates
Some good and some bad here.
The good: In addition to Bennett’s return, Bobrovsky was on the active roster Tuesday and served as Knight’s backup and looks like he could return as early as Thursday. Bobrovsky is 6-0-0 with a .948 save percentage and 1.72 goals against average so far this season.
The bad: The Panthers placed forward Mason Marchment on injured reserve Tuesday with an upper-body injury. He left Monday’s game in the third period after he crashed hard into the boards.
Brunette said Marchment will be out for “definitely the next couple games.”
“He’s been a huge asset for us,” Brunette said. “Kind of a player we don’t have a lot of. He was the kind of guy we can move all around the lineup and he brings obviously a physical presence and tenacity on pucks. Kind of a pain in the butt to play against. So yeah, we’re gonna we’re gonna miss him for the next little bit.”
In 10 games this season, Marchment has scored a goal and recorded six assists while playing an average of 13:23 per game as a bottom-six forward.
Up next
The Panthers continue their four-game road trip with a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday. It’s the second matchup between Florida and Pittsburgh this season. The Panthers won the first meeting 5-4 in overtime on Oct. 14 after rallying from a two-goal deficit on a pair of Aaron Ekblad goals in the third period before Carter Verhaeghe scored the game-winner.
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 9:33 PM.
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