Panthers have won early, but two key areas need to improve for it to be sustainable
First-year Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice overall is pleased with his team’s production six games into his tenure. That’s to be expected when a team is 4-1-1, one of nine teams remaining in the league with no more than one regulation loss two weeks into the season.
The Panthers have bought into his system that focuses more on defensive responsibility than high-flying offense and have shown a tenacity to shut down the opposition in the third period of tight games. There have also been a variety of point producers, with 13 different players each recording at least one goal so far.
With that said, the Panthers have had this success with minimal offensive production from their top line and from their power play, two groups that will need to find a spark if the team’s early winning ways are to be sustainable.
Maurice isn’t overly concerned about either group yet. He said Monday that he’s “patiently waiting” for the top line of Carter Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart to heat up and said last week that his confidence in the power play is “complete.”
But that confidence will only go so far and last so long if there aren’t results to show for it.
Power-play frustrations
Florida enters its Tuesday road game against the Chicago Blackhawks having scored goals on 27 power-play attempts, with both of those goals coming in the second period of their 4-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 15 — their second game of the season.
The power-play group has had a few different looks since that game, though, due to personnel changes.
The Panthers’ first-team power play unit for the first two games included Barkov, Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk at forward along with defensemen Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad.
Ekblad is on long-term injured reserve with a groin injury, and Montour missed two games with an upper body injury. When both players were out, Florida deployed a five-forward power play unit that had no success. Once Montour came back, Florida rolled with four forwards and Montour on the top unit, with center Sam Bennett taking Ekblad’s place.
“You build a foundation on a power play that’s run with a certain mind set, and that’s attack plays so you’re not waiting around the outside and looking for the perfect kill play,” Maurice said. “ You can bring that kind of power play into the playoffs and it’ll generate goals. ... It’s really early. We’ve had a lot of change over because of personnel and with Ekblad being out.”
With that said, scoring chances have been there. According to the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick, the Panthers have generated 47 shots on goal, 60 scoring chances and 27 high-danger chances on their 27 power plays. Their expected goals for total? 7.71 — the highest in the league.
“We’re creating chances,” Barkov said. “We’re putting pucks to the net. The pucks are there. We just need to put one in and not get frustrated.”
As for the top line...
Barkov’s comment can apply to his overall game. In addition to the lack of results from the power play, Florida’s top line centered by Barkov has also yet to get going.
The Verhaeghe-Barkov-Reinhart line has just two total goals in 5-on-5 play, both of which were scored by Verhaeghe in the first period Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Neither Barkov nor Reinhart, a duo that combined for 72 goals last season, has found the back of the net through six games.
While the group hasn’t been scoring — and only has an expected goal rate of 2.7 so far through six games — Maurice pointed out other aspects of their game that signal the group’s fortune could turn. In Florida’s 3-2 win over the New York Islanders on Monday, for example, the Panthers’ top line was regularly in the offensive zone and had a 6-1 edge in scoring chances in the 10:22 they were on the ice together.
“Those are freakish numbers,” Maurice said. “But the puck is not going into the back of the net. As long as it doesn’t change their game too much and it stays right on the cusp of their game changing into overpassing to a fault because they have to be allowed to make plays. They can’t shoot everything. They are too skilled, but there is a fine line there.”
If the results don’t come soon, could a line change be in order?
“I could flip things, there are some things we could do if it stays as it is because we do need production from them,” Maurice said, “but it might be a line you revisit later in the year when everyone has that confidence working. They are so close. Sometimes you consider breaking up a line not because it’s not working, but because they need a break from it. Then you go back to it.”
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