Should Panthers play Barkov and Tkachuk together more often? A look at the pros and cons
With 20 minutes left and the Florida Panthers desperate to pull off their first multigoal comeback of the season, Paul Maurice unleashed one of his most dangerous weapons.
For the final period of the Panthers’ 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, Maurice reunited Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, and, for a moment, the All-Star forwards gave Florida an injection of hope. With 8:57 left, Barkov scored to cut the Avalanche’s lead to one goal.
“Any time you get a chance to play with those guys, you’ve got to play hard, you’ve got to find the way to get open,” Barkov said Saturday, “and that’s what I did.”
Although the comeback fell short, the Panthers’ rejiggered top line delivered. When Barkov and Tkachuk were on the ice together for 5-on-5 action, Florida outshot Colorado, 5-1, with a 7-0 advantage in scoring chances, a 3-0 edge in high-danger chances and, of course, a 1-0 lead on the actual score sheet.
Still, it’s not probably not something the Panthers will start with Monday when they open up a four-game road trip against the Minnesota Wild at 8 p.m. at the Xcel Energy Center.
“We won some games and played pretty darn well coming into this one tonight,” Maurice said Saturday. “You’re not running the table, so managing this loss emotionally will be important.”
At the same time, it’s a valuable weapon for Florida (26-23-6) to have in its arsenal.
After Barkov and Tkachuk put together another dominant performance together this weekend, the Panthers have ridiculous season-long numbers when they share the ice in 5-on-5 action. They have:
- outscored teams 21-16,
- outshot teams 166-96, and
- had a 167-85 advantage in scoring chances and
- a 78-45 advantage in high-danger chances.
Unsurprisingly, Florida putting its two best skaters together yields results. The Panthers are just choosing to value depth, which is understandable.
If Maurice bumped Tkachuk up to the top line to play with Barkov, it would probably require center Sam Bennett to play with either forward Sam Reinhart, who played next to Barkov and Tkachuk in the third period Saturday, or forward Anton Lundell. Bennett and Lundell have only played 25 minutes together this year, while the numbers when Bennett and Reinhart play together are ugly, with Florida getting outshot and outscored 7-1.
The Barkov-Tkachuk tandem, though, has a role in spots.
“With all our O-zone time,” Tkachuk said Saturday, “we probably should’ve gotten more than one.”
Aleksander Barkov’s return goes well
The third-period goal punctuated a mostly successful return to the lineup for Barkov, who missed the Panthers’ last game with an apparent right hand injury.
The 27-year-old captain finished with one goal, three shots, four scoring chances, two takeaways and one hit in his first appearance since sustaining an injury on a blocked shot in Florida’s rout of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday.
The one piece missing from Barkov’s game was at the faceoff dot — he only took two faceoffs, going 1 of 2 — and Maurice said it’s something he’ll add back into his game as he gets healthier, perhaps as early as Monday when they face the Wild (28-20-4) in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
“As he gets stronger,” the coach said, “he’ll get back on the dot.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2023 at 9:43 AM.
