Panthers are by far NHL’s most penalized team. It’s a big problem, no matter what they say
By the end of the first period of their overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday, the Florida Panthers had already made as many trips to the penalty box as some teams do in the entire game and it cost them. The Panthers gave up two power-play goals in the opening period, went into the first intermission down by two goals and never could quite overcome their early deficit on the way to a 5-4 loss at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise.
It was nothing new for Florida, either: The Panthers are by far the most penalized team in the NHL this season, with 21 more committed than anyone else in the league entering Sunday, and it has been one of the biggest reasons why they’re likely to miss the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.
“We need to minimize that to give ourselves a chance,” defenseman Marc Staal said Saturday.
Florida’s league-leading 324 penalties and 715 penalty minutes have led to 245 penalty kills — the second most in the league — and 64 opposing power-play goals and no team has allowed a greater percentage of its goals on the penalty kill than the Panthers.
Their defense has been one of the 10 worst in the league this season, in terms of goals allowed, and yet they rank 10 spots higher when strictly sorting by 5-on-5 goals allowed.
The problem is not a secret in Florida. The challenge is fixing it and it’s not an easy shift to pull off with only 15 games left in the regular season. At a certain a point, a team is what it is.
“Obviously, we’re desperate out there,” Staal said. “Everyone’s trying really hard. We’re not trying to take penalties out there, but sometimes desperation, emotion can come into it.”
Paul Maurice, however, minimized his concern. The Panthers, he pointed out, also rank near the top of the league in penalties drawn.
Again, a team usually is what it is by this point of the year and Florida is “a high-event team,” the coach said.
“It would be a big concern if we didn’t draw as many, as well,” he said Saturday. “For whatever reason, we get a bunch, we draw a bunch.”
Matthew Tkachuk feels the same way.
“We’ve just got to limit them,” the superstar right wing said Saturday, “but we also draw probably more than a lot of teams.”
There is a bit of validity in this argument — the All-Star winger then pointed out the Panthers won the special-teams battle with the Jets by scoring them 3-2 on power plays — even as it is deeply flawed, too. As good as it is at drawing penalties, Florida still has committed 17 more than it has drawn.
As a contrast, look to the Lightning, which is the only team to have drawn more penalties than the Panthers this year and also have committed the second most penalties in the league. Despite this similar profile, Tampa Bay has drawn 16 more penalties than it has committed this year. Florida’s negative-17 penalty differential is the fifth worst in the NHL.
There’s also the problem of where the Panthers sit in both the power-play and penalty-kill rankings. At 22.1 percent, they’re still sitting outside the top-10 in power-play percentage and their penalty kill is even worse, ranking outside the top 25 at 74.3 percent.
There is a pathway to “high-event” hockey working. A team great on the power play and good enough on the penalty kill could live with the trade-off Florida is experiencing. There’s even a path for these Panthers to be one of those teams, as they had a 14-game stretch before Christmas with a power play hitting at 30 percent and a penalty kill at 80.
This is all theoretical, though. Despite all its issues, Florida still has the league’s seventh best 5-on-5 goal differential per 60 minutes. The best way to get better is to stay out of the penalty box. It’s obviously easier said than done, but it’s one potential fix almost entirely within the Panthers own control for the last month of the regular season.
“We take too many at key times,” Staal said. “We’ve got to clean up our discipline.”
