Was Game 2 the turning point for the Panthers’ playoff hopes? It’s probably not so simple
Even after a 5-1 rout of the Washington Capitals in Game 2, the Florida Panthers don’t quite feel like themselves yet.
Their first 15 minutes Thursday, after all, were abysmal and at least three of their goals were heavily aided by Capitals breakdowns. Although they finished with a solid edge in shots on goal, the Panthers weren’t quite as dominant as they often were throughout the regular season.
As Andrew Brunette put it, Florida is stuck in “third gear.”
“We need to find a way to get into fourth gear,” the interim coach said, “which we have all year.”
The closest the Panthers have come so far in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs was the third period Thursday. Florida outshot Washington, 17-3, in the final period to close out the lopsided win in Sunrise.
Of course, the Panthers were already up by four at the start of the third. Brunette doesn’t know how much of the period will be able to carry over into Saturday, when Florida faces the Capitals at 1 p.m. for Game 3 at Capital One Arena in Washington.
“I’m not sure you can read a whole lot into that,” he said. “They’re a veteran team. They know when they fall behind big on the road, they’re thinking, We’re waiting for the next game.”
With the first-round series even at 1-1, the change of venue will serve as a bit of a reset. The Panthers, who won the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time this year, will now need to steal a game on the road from the eighth-seeded Capitals if they want to avoid a Round 1 upset.
Even if its third period probably can’t be totally replicated across a full game, Florida still found positive building blocks from the way it finished up the two games in Sunrise.
“We played a pretty tight-checking game,” Brunette said. “We didn’t give them a whole lot and then we let a little of our skill take over, got a lead and then it forced them to open up, and I think when they had to open up and play a different style than they were playing I think it left them a little bit vulnerable to what we do best.”
The lesson from Game 2 wound up being a simple one: Build a lead and Washington won’t be able to defend like it did in Game 1 on Tuesday.
The Capitals have set a clear game plan through two games. Whenever the Panthers have the puck, Washington wants to have four or five players in the neutral zone to make it hard for Florida to get out in transition. Whenever the Capitals take the puck away, they want to clear it out of their zone as quickly as possible to eliminate the Panthers’ aggressive forechecking game.
When it went up 2-0 in the first period Thursday, Florida forced Washington to come out of its shell. On their fourth and fifth goals in the third period, the Panthers took advantage of rare Capitals mistakes when they either lost some of their defensive structure or turned the puck over in their own end of the ice.
“Once we got a couple in the net, I felt like the boys really rallied and really dug in,” winger Mason Marchment said.
It also helped Florida shake away some of its nerves.
Yes, the Panthers were nervous, Brunette admitted Thursday, and they played like it for most of the first four periods in South Florida.
It’s another reason scoring first is so important right now. Although they were playing loose by the end of Game 2, the Panthers will still have most of the pressure on them when they go up to Washington for two games and road games are different, especially given how good Florida was at home this year.
“We have a lot of guys that haven’t played a lot of playoff games, a lot of young guys, and I think getting on the board last night kind of helped them. You could feel on the bench where they kind of settled in a little bit. They were obviously a little nervous, a little excited and when you don’t get out on the right foot you kind of grind a little bit,” Brunette said. “We played with much more poise the second half of the game, and hopefully that’s a little bit of a step at building to get back to the level we’re accustomed to playing.”
Time set for Game 5
The Panthers’ win Thursday guaranteed the first-round series will come back to Florida for at least one more game.
Game 5 will be Wednesday at FLA Live Arena at 7:30 p.m., the NHL announced. Times for potential Games 6 or 7 remain to be determined.
