Big shot totals are great, but Panthers ‘are looking for a balance’ with more playmaking
The vision for how these Florida Panthers should play finally came together for Paul Maurice on Wednesday in their 5-3 win against the Boston Bruins.
The Panthers piled up plenty of shots — 53 attempts in all — and still put an emphasis on controlling possession time, only they finally paired it with some of the high-skill playmaking Maurice inherited when he arrived in Florida in June.
This wasn’t one of those 50-shot, three-goal performances that have frustrated the Panthers for so much of this season. It was something elevated.
“We were trying to make some plays,” Maurice said. “We are looking for a balance with that.”
The final numbers, aside from the final score, weren’t particularly overwhelming — Florida’s 53 shot attempts were actually its fewest of the season and its 31 shots on goal were tied for second fewest — and yet the Panthers (10-8-2) took down the best team in the NHL by shooting their highest percentage of the year.
Florida converted 16.1 percent of its shots into goals, and Maurice credited some of the skill the Panthers brought to the ice for the big number — their previous best in a single game was 11.6 percent.
As an example, the first-year coach pointed to center Anton Lundell’s go-ahead goal in the second period. Sam Reinhart delivered a strong forecheck in the offensive zone to tap the puck back to fellow forward Nick Cousins and Cousins, instead of immediately shooting, waited for the defense to come to him, then tapped a pass across the ice to Lundell for a snap-shot goal. Reinhart’s ice-breaking goal in the first two minutes also came after he fed Matthew Tkachuk along the crease and the All-Star right wing made an extra pass back to Reinhart for a power-play goal.
They’re the sort of plays a team like Florida, which averaged more than four goals per game last season, can afford to make and a needed addition to the style Maurice is instilling.
When he took over in the offseason, Maurice said he wanted the Panthers to play a grimier, more postseason-ready game, but he also said he didn’t want them to forget about how skilled they are. After spending nearly a quarter of the season emphasizing high shot totals and a shoot-first mentality, Maurice saw Florida blend both identities to score its best win of the 2022-23 NHL season.
“Through 19 games, we had that covered pretty well,” Maurice said, referring to the Panthers’ league-leading 40.4 shots per game. “There are more plays to be made and we eventually want to get to the point that the players aren’t thinking about the direction of what we’re trying to do every time we touch the puck. As long as they’re moving like a shooter, we can make plays, too.”
So far, Florida has the second worst shooting percentage in the league at 8.4 percent — down from 11.0 percent, the fourth best park in the NHL, last year.
Now, the Panthers have to prove it wasn’t just a one-game outlier.
“You look to build off a game like that,” Reinhart said. “We’ve been so used to outshooting teams coming out early in the first. I thought they had a lot of zone time early, but we didn’t break. We kept with it. We kept with our structure.”
Aleksander Barkov misses Panthers practice
Aleksander Barkov was missing from practice Wednesday in Sunrise, still dealing with an illness which caused him to miss Florida’s loss to the Dallas Stars on Nov. 17.
Maurice, however, is hopeful the star center will be in the lineup Saturday at FLA Live Arena when the Panthers face the St. Louis Blues at 6:30 p.m.
“We expect him to be fine for tomorrow,” Maurice said. “We’re just trying to make sure that his energy level’s right.”
The Finnish forward recorded three points, including a power-play goal, in the Bruins game and is tied for third on the team with 18 points in 19 games.
With Florida set to go on the road for five games after facing the Blues (10-9-0) this weekend, the Panthers are taking a cautious approach with their captain.
“We’re going to get into a heavy set of road games coming up,” Maurice said, “so we’ll monitor him real close.”
