Fresh cut, fresh start? Weegar cuts hair after ‘fatal mistake’ in Game 2 vs. Lightning
Even Aaron Ekblad, MacKenzie Weegar’s closest friend on the Florida Panthers, didn’t know Weegar was going to show up at practice Saturday in Coral Springs with his trademark long locks chopped off.
“He just showed up like that today,” the star defenseman said Saturday. “He looks great.”
It’s impossible not to draw a through line from the ending of Game 2 to the dramatic new look Weegar debuted Saturday at the Florida Panthers IceDen. On Thursday, the Tampa Bay Lightning stunned the Panthers by scoring a game-winning goal with 3.8 seconds left and a mistake by Weegar was the final piece of an all-around disastrous final few seconds, which ended with versatile Lightning forward Ross Colton scoring a back-breaking goal.
Instead of staying in front of the goal to mark Colton, Weegar followed star right wing Nikita Kucherov behind the net, even though fellow defenseman Gustav Forsling was already back there.
The late goal let Tampa Bay steal a win in Sunrise and go back Amalie Arena with a two-game series lead.
Andrew Brunette on Thursday called the sequence “a fatal mistake.”
“Those are hard. I think we all make those mistakes sometimes in our career,” the interim coach said. “It wasn’t just him. It was a five-man group. We had the puck behind our net with 20 seconds and gave it away a couple times for no real reason, so I think it’s on everybody. Unfortunately, he probably feels the worst.”
Unsurprisingly, Brunette stuck by Weegar, who finished in the top 10 of voting for the James Norris Memorial Trophy last year. Although he has made a handful of costly mistakes, Weegar has been one of the better defensemen in the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, in terms of helping his team control possession. When Weegar has been on the ice in these Stanley Cup playoffs, Florida has generated 63.0 percent of all 5-on-5 shot attempts and 61.3 percent of all 5-on-5 scoring chances — both putting him in the top seven of all defensemen still playing, entering Game 3 on Saturday in Tampa.
“It’s a short memory. You have to have it in this league,” Ekblad said. “The mental aspect of this game is a constant battle for everyone, so it’s extremely important for us to just keep that positive vibe.”
At the same time, Weegar’s most glaring mistakes aren’t exactly outliers. In the regular season, the 26-year-old Canadian committed the fourth most giveaways among all NHL defensemen and opponents are actually generating more 5-on-5 high-danger chances than the Panthers when Weegar is on the ice so far in these Cup playoffs.
Weegar also committed a turnover leading directly to a game-winning goal in Game 1 of Florida’s first-round series against the Washington Capitals on May 3.
Panthers bench Anton Lundell
After he played fewer than five minutes in Game 2 on Thursday, rookie center Anton Lundell is out of the lineup altogether for Game 3.
In Lundell’s place, Brunette reinserted forward Maxim Mamin into the lineup.
Florida’s new-look lines have Mamin playing left wing next to center Eetu Luostarinen and fellow forward Sam Reinhart on the third line, and left wing Ryan Lomberg and right wing Patric Hornqvist flanking fellow forward Noel Acciari on the fourth.
Winger Mason Marchment will also miss his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury. Brunette said he is doubtful for Games 3 and 4.
For the Lightning, star forward Brayden Point will miss his third straight game with a lower-body injury.
This story was originally published May 22, 2022 at 11:34 AM.
