Two assists for Giroux, one each for new defensemen: New-look Panthers win in Montreal
The Florida Panthers couldn’t wait for Thursday. Forget Claude Giroux, Ben Chiarot and Robert Hagg — everyone on the roster wanted to see how Bill Zito’s midseason tinkering would play out when they got to get back on the ice against the Montreal Canadiens.
“You could tell all week,” winger Anthony Duclair said. “Guys are excited. ... Guys are buzzing out there, big smiles on our faces.”
It didn’t take long to see what all the fuss was about. In the first minute, Giroux and Hagg assisted on Aleksander Barkov’s game-tying goal. In the second and third periods, Chiarot assisted on the go-ahead goal and Giroux added another on the game-winner in the Panthers’ 4-3 win.
Those three newcomers — all added via trades since March 16 — combined for four points in their debuts to put Florida (43-14-6) alone atop the Eastern Conference, even as it played for the first time since star defenseman Aaron Ekblad went on long-term injured reserve with a right knee injury.
“They did a really good job just coming in and filling the void,” Duclair said. “Those guys are going to be huge additions moving forward.”
Giroux, the true deadline prize, gave the Panthers their biggest boost. The All-Star forward immediately joined Barkov and fellow forward Carter Verhaeghe on the top line, and tallied his first assist in 36 seconds.
After Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki gave Montreal (17-37-10) a 1-0 lead with 19:31 left in the first period, Barkov won the ensuing faceoff back to Hagg, who fired forward a long pass, which Giroux deflected back to Barkov in open ice to score seven seconds later.
With Giroux in the fold, Florida outshot the Canadiens, 10-2, when its first line was on the ice with a 5-1 edge in scoring chances. It was the Panthers’ most productive line, in terms of possession control, in a game Florida finished with a 42-31 shot differential.
Giroux’s production wasn’t surprising, though. He was the Most Valuable Player of the 2022 NHL All-Star Game just last month and the Panthers had to send a first-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers to land the 34-year-old Canadian. His four-shot, two-point performance was his fourth of the season — not an outlier, considering he played his first 57 games for one of the worst teams in the league.
Hagg, however, only had eight points in 48 games for the Buffalo Sabres before the Panthers traded for him Sunday and Chiarot only had 18 in 54 games for last-place Montreal before Florida traded for him March 16. They were brought in to bolster Florida’s defense — and they helped with three blocks for Chiarot and 24 total — yet even they couldn’t help but get involved in the offense.
It’s what the Panthers figured might happen by inserting the two middling defensemen into the best offense in the NHL.
“You can see the skill up front,” said Chiarot, who didn’t practice with Florida until its morning skate Thursday in Quebec. “The plays they make are pretty incredible.”
His assist came on a second-period deflection. The 30-year-old Canadian ripped a shot from the point into traffic, and Duclair rose his stick and deflected it past Montreal goaltender Jake Allen to put Florida up 3-2. After he helped lead the Canadiens’ unlikely run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals, the 20,788 at the Bell Centre gave him a warm ovation
Giroux added his second assist on a power play in the third period and the Panthers needed it because Montreal scored with its goalie pulled in the last three minutes to give Florida a final scare in Canada.
It wasn’t perfect, but the new-look Panthers still looked a whole lot like the top at the top the East.
“It’s a hard situation to come in,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said, “but I thought they fit in well and it was nice to see them on the ice together. Now we’ve got to work to continue to get a little chemistry, a little rhythm.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 9:48 PM.
