Panthers hit ‘a rough patch’ with second straight home loss. ‘We really haven’t adjusted’
The Florida Panthers are “in a little bit of a rough patch,” as MacKenzie Weegar put it. In this record-setting season, a two-game losing streak in Sunrise qualifies.
“It’s not going to be all sunshine and rainbows,” the star defenseman said after the Panthers’ surprising 6-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday in Florida. “We’re going to have to face some adversity at times in the year and this is one of them, so we’re going to have to find a way to get out of this.”
Right now, it’s not exactly the losses that are leaving the Panthers frustrated, but the way those losses are happening.
Florida went into the week with the best home record in the NHL; now it has five home losses, with three coming in the last two days. The Panthers had only lost three games total in regulation since the calendar flipped to 2022; now they’ve lost two in a row. They have the league’s highest-scoring offense at 4.10 goals per game; now they’ve failed to hit their average in back-to-back games.
There’s no easy explanation for Florida’s struggles. The Panthers (35-12-5) have taken leads and blown them, threatened comebacks and fallen short. While its power play is scuffling at 1 of 7 in the last two games, Florida has never won because of special teams.
Jonathan Huberdeau, who scored a third-period goal to move into a tie for the league lead with 73 points, offered up a broad explanation.
“We’re not ready off the start and it’s killing us right now,” the All-Star left wing said. “Usually, we’re on the other team right away and now they’re kind of all over us.”
It’s one of those things easier said than done, though, especially since the Panthers actually scored the first goal in each of these two losses in South Florida. On Thursday, the Panthers struggled throughout most of the first period and still managed to jump ahead 1-0 with 11:27 left because of one great shift by the top line, ending with star center Aleksander Barkov assisting Weegar for a go-ahead goal.
It’s what Florida always has the ability to do. Even though they only had an 11-10 lead in shots on goal at the end of the first period, the Panthers were tied 1-1 with the Blue Jackets and always expect to wear down their opponents, especially with a crowd of 15,730 at FLA Live Arena egging them on.
“It’s on us. We need to work harder,” Huberdeau said. “We’re trying to be a little too cute and maybe we have too much confidence.”
Columbus (27-23-1) took the lead for good with 10:28 left in the second when Blue Jackets forward Boone Jenner gave Columbus a 2-1 lead by deflecting a point shot past goaltender Jonas Johansson, who gave up five goals on 27 shots in his first start for Florida.
After the Blue Jackets pushed the lead to 3-1 with 16:48 left in the third period, Huberdeau briefly gave the Panthers life when he answered with 13:08 before Columbus scored twice in the next 3:05 — 10 seconds apart — to blow the game open.
Although it finished with a 42-28 edge in shots on goal, Florida only had a 28-23 advantage in 5-on-5 action and the Blue Jackets won a defensive struggle by blocking 20 shots and outhitting the Panthers, 43-27.
“They played a really fast, in-your-face, no-room type of game,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “That’s two teams in a row that’s kind of done that to us here. We really haven’t adjusted the way that you’d like to.”
Both Brunette and Huberdeau said they haven’t seen opponents doing anything differently this week to slow down Florida, though. The Panthers pinned the blame on themselves.
“The energy levels weren’t how they normally are,” Weegar said. “Usually, our pace is high, we’re skating hard, the D are up in the rush. It just felt like it was one of those games where we weren’t there as a unit, as a team.”
For a second time this week, Florida will hit the ice for practice Friday in search of answers.
It won’t, however, be back to the drawing board for the Panthers, who remain in first place in the Eastern Conference, albeit mainly because they’ve played more games than the second-place Carolina Hurricanes. It will just be about trying to get back to the way things once were — and usually have been — this season.
“We’ve got to forget about these two, I guess, and regroup,” Huberdeau said. “We know we’re a good team.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 9:38 PM.
