Panthers split up Ekblad, Weegar — and get best defensive performance in 7 years — vs. Caps

Andrew Brunette faced a difficult decision with his Florida Panthers trailing the Washington Capitals in their first-round series and in danger of once again bowing out of the Stanley Cup playoffs. His best players were not playing well — particularly his top two defensemen — and changing up his defensive pairings would be something of a leap of faith.

For the past two years, Aaron Ekblad had played almost exclusively with MacKenzie Weegar, but, for whatever reason, their pairing was not working for the first three games of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs. Brunette had to trust his gut: Ekblad and Ben Chiarot never had a chance to play together in the regular season, yet, with Florida staring down a disaster, the interim coach knew he had to try something different.

“It’s always hard, especially with defenseman partner, to change things, especially in a playoff where you haven’t played with a guy,” Brunette said. “I just thought we’d give it a try.”

The result was the Panthers’ best performance of the Cup playoffs so far, a 3-2 win in overtime to even their series with the Capitals at 2-2. After splitting a pair of games in Washington, Florida now heads home for Game 5 on Wednesday in Sunrise, where it will face the Capitals at 7:30 p.m. with a chance to take full control of the series.

In Game 4, the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers held No. 8 seed Washington to just 16 shots on goal — their fewest allowed in a game since 2015 — and only 10 in 5-on-5 situations. All three defensive pairings were various degrees of productive in even-strength situations, with Ekblad on the ice for two of Florida’s three goals and Weegar, paired back up with defenseman Gustav Forsling as he was at the end of the regular season after Ekblad hurt his knee, helping the Panthers control play as well as almost anyone on the team.

“We didn’t give them many shots, obviously,” star center Aleksander Barkov said Monday. “It was a huge step forward for us, confidence-wise and game-wise.”

For three games, the Ekblad-Weegar tandem struggled. Brunette reawakened his star defensemen by splitting them up.

“I liked the way we played with the puck and we had the puck a lot more than we’ve had, and we killed plays quick in the D zone,” Brunette said. “We played heavy and quick to attack, and kind of like they’re doing to us a little bit, and not spending a whole lot of time in there, so it was a good positive sign for us.”

When Ekblad was on the ice for even-strength play, Florida had a 22-16 edge in shot attempts, a 12-9 edge in scoring chances and outscored the Capitals, 2-1. When Weegar was on the ice at even strength, the Panthers had a 23-8 edge in shot attempts and a 9-1 edge in shots on goal — only Forsling was more productive in those two metrics.

In the first three games, Washington matched Florida in goals when Ekblad and Weegar were on the ice together, and bested the Panthers in expected goals. Weegar committed multiple giveaways leading directly to goals, while Ekblad struggled to run the power play and cleanly handle pucks with regularity.

Neither was exactly a surprise — Weegar had the fourth-most giveaways among defensemen in the regular season and Ekblad missed the final six weeks of the regular season with a left knee injury — and Brunette found a way to cover up both players’ deficiencies by breaking them apart.

Forsling lis maybe Florida’s fastest skater and his recovery ability lets Weegar be aggressive with the puck on offense. Chiarot is a classic stay-at-home, defensive-minded defenseman and he frees up Ekblad on offense, too.

Ekblad also is just getting more comfortable on the ice, he admitted. His injury in March happened right before the trade deadline, meaning he never got to play with Chiarot or versatile All-Star forward Claude Giroux. His first game back was his first postseason game — not counting the qualifying round of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs — since 2016 after a leg injury also kept him out for the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs.

“I hadn’t played a playoff game in seven years or six years, so I was as nervous as I possibly could be,” Ekblad said Sunday. “No doubt a little bit of nerves, but I think those nerves have passed us by.”

At least for one moment, he played like the old Ekblad, leading a 2-on-1 break, and playing patiently enough with the puck to draw star defenseman John Carlson his way and set up forward Carter Verhaeghe for the game-tying goal. He also picked up a secondary assist on Verhaeghe’s game-winning goal in overtime when he gathered a loose puck near his own blue line and made a long pass to Verhaeghe to start a rush.

Before his injury, Ekblad was a legitimate contender for the James Norris Memorial Trophy. After the injury, Weegar solidified himself as a star by anchoring the defense of the best team in the NHL.

Ekblad’s return was one of the key reasons Florida was viewed as the favorite to reach the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals out of the Eastern Conference and his performance Monday has the Panthers back on track.

“It’s hard to come right in and play at this level, and I thought he’s played really well,” Brunette said. “Last night was his best game. I thought he was feeling a little bit more up to the pace, I thought he was more active in being the Ekky that we know and I think he competes so hard.”

Fallout from Oshie-Bennett hit

Brunette does not expect forward Sam Bennett to miss any time after he took a high hit from Capitals winger T.J. Oshie in the third period Monday.

Bennett needed stitches and was able to come back and play. The Oshie hit — which went uncalled — sprung All-Star center Evgeny Kuznetsov for a breakaway and go-ahead goal.

“He’s OK, but it’s a little bit early,” Brunette said. “I haven’t really gotten in touch with our guys.”

Brunette didn’t explicitly call for Oshie to be punished, but said, “I didn’t like the hit.”

This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 12:49 PM.

David Wilson

Miami Herald

305-376-3406

David Wilson, a Maryland native, is the Miami Herald’s utility man for sports coverage.