The Panthers’ new-look defense with Ben Chiarot, Robert Hagg is still a work in progress
After squeaking out two wins and taking one lopsided loss during their first weekend after the trade deadline, the Florida Panthers were finally on the verge of an easy victory Tuesday until, in the span of two minutes, they were back in a fight with the Montreal Canadiens.
The Canadiens scored three goals in 1:42 in the final three minutes of the second period to tie the game. Although the Panthers regrouped to win 7-4, those ugly moments in the second were enough to bring some underlying issues to the surface for Florida. Even as the Panthers have continued to win, their defense has slipped since the trade deadline, despite the additions of Ben Chiarot and Robert Hagg.
“When you make moves and get new players, it’s kind of hard to develop chemistry and feel,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said Tuesday. “Nights like tonight kind of give you an opportunity to move things around and see if there’s any lightning in a bottle.”
In four games with the two newcomers in the lineup, Florida (45-15-6) is giving up 3.75 goals per game, despite facing two of the worst teams in the NHL for three of those games, and has slipped to 14th in league in goals against per game.
They’re growing pains Brunette expected after those trade-deadline additions — plus a right knee injury for star defenseman Aaron Ekblad right before the trade deadline — forced the coach to change a full third of his defense last week.
On Tuesday, those three goals in two minutes led Brunette to reshuffle his lineup again and look for a new solution, at least in the short-term. In theory, Thursday should be another good chance to experiment as the Panthers will host the Chicago Blackhawks, another of the worst teams in the NHL, at 7 p.m. in Sunrise.
“It’s good to move them around and see what we have,” Brunete said. “We’ll reevaluate.”
To start, Chiarot got a look on the top pairing and Hagg on the third. Chiarot, who joined Florida in exchange for a first-round pick March 16, took Ekblad’s place next to star defenseman MacKenzie Weegar. Hagg, whom the Panthers got for a sixth-round pick March 20, slid in next to fellow defenseman Brandon Montour.
Through one week, the results mixed. The good: While the Hagg-Montour pairing has been on the ice for 5-on-5 action, Florida has outscored opponents 4-1 with a 46-17 advantage in shot attempts. The bad: While the Chiarot-Weegar pairing has been on the ice at 5-on-5, the Panthers have been outscored 5-2 and are giving up 15.4 high-danger chances per 60 minutes, as opposed to the 10.5 the Ekblad-Weegar combo was giving up per 60.
It made sense, then, for Brunette to make changes and maybe keep them when Florida hosts the Blackhawks (24-33-10) at FLA Live Arena. Brunette stuck Weegar with fellow defenseman Gustav Forsling — the top pairing the Panthers used last year after Ekblad’s season-ending injury — and Florida had a 12-2 edge in shot attempts while they were on the ice together. It helped Chiarot, too: While Chiarot played next to fellow defenseman Radko Gudas, the Panthers had a 10-3 advantage in shot attempts. Neither pairing gave up a high-danger chance as they did a better job of denying rushes and avoiding breakdowns.
It was the most positive sign yet for the new defensemen, even as Chiarot has recorded two assists and Hagg one. These two were added because of their defensive prowess and physicality, and the third period was one of the first time they really helped lock down an opponent.
“They’re getting comfortable,” Brunette said. “It’s a hard change as they’re coming from different teams and they play different styles, and we ask a lot of our defensemen being up the ice and a lot of gapping up. ... It’s a little bit, in the offensive zone, to get used to and they’re getting the hang of it every game, and we’ll continue to work with them to get them better.”
With 16 games left, Florida is trying to hang on to the top spot in the Eastern Conference — it leads based on points percentage right now — and even chase the Presidents’ Trophy, but it’s just as important for the Panthers to figure out how Chiarot and Hagg can bolster their defense.
The final weeks of the season will be about winning and experimenting in near equal measure.
“We’ve just got to focus on that and obviously be better defensively. We can score some goals, but obviously we can’t give up four or five every game,” All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau said. “We’re a good team and we can’t afford to do that, especially this late in the season.”
