Even after loss to Lightning, home ice was good to the Panthers. A look at the numbers
FLA Live Arena was good to the Florida Panthers during the regular season.
They hope that continues in the playoffs.
Even with their home schedule ending with an 8-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, they still set a franchise record with 34 wins on home ice in 41 games played in Sunrise.
The Panthers, as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, will have home-ice advantage at least through the conference finals should they advance that far in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
If they can pick up three points during their final three games of the regular season — road contests against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, Ottawa Senators on Thursday and Montreal Canadiens on Friday — the Panthers (57-16-6) will win the Presidents’ Trophy, given to the club that finishes the regular season with the best overall record and have home-ice advance should they advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.
“It has been huge right from the start,” forward Sam Reinhart said. “We feel comfortable here. Our fans really help us out so any time you can get that advantage, it’s a nice thing to have.”
Just how good have the Panthers been in South Florida?
They only loss consecutive games at FLA Live Arena twice — a two-game stretch against the Senators on Dec. 14 and the Los Angeles Kings on Dec. 16 (the second game of which Florida was without seven regulars due to COVID-19 protocols) and a three-game stretch at the end of February (Feb. 22 against Nashville, Feb. 24 against Columbus and Feb. 26 against Edmonton).
They had three separate home winning streaks of at least nine games, including two streaks of 11 straight home wins.
Their 191 goals at home are a franchise record and most in one season since the Pittsburgh Penguins recorded 215 in the 1995-96 season.
And Florida’s 40.4 shots per game at home is the fourth-highest in NHL history. The other three: the Boston Bruins in 1969-70 and 1970-71, and the Philadelphia Flyers in 1975-76.
Lomberg suspended
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety on Monday announced that Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg will serve a one-game suspension without pay for instigating a fight with the Lightning’s Erik Cernak late in the third period of Florida’s loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday.
Lomberg was assessed a minor penalty for instigating, a major penalty for fighting, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct at 16:24 of the third period.
Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette was also fined $10,000 for getting a game misconduct following the Lomberg-Cernak scuffle.
Duclair honored
Winger Anthony Duclair is the Panthers’ nominee for the 2021-2022 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, as selected by the South Florida chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
The Masterton Trophy is awarded each season to the NHL player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”
Duclair is a founding member of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, which was founded in June 2020 with the goal to “inspire a new and diverse generation of hockey players and fans,” and a focus on “eradicating systemic racism and intolerance in hockey.”
Duclair and several Panthers players donned special stick tape labeled with ‘Racism Has No Place in Hockey’ during warmups prior to the Panthers’ game against the Dallas Stars on Jan. 14.
Duclair led an effort to create “We Stand Against Racism” shirts that Panthers players and staff wore the shirts throughout February in honor of Black History Month.
On the ice, Duclair has a career-high 31 goals and 56 points through 71 games this season.
One Panthers player has won the award before: Jaromir Jagr in 2016. Goaltender Roberto Luongo was a finalist for the award in 2018.
This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 3:10 PM.
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