‘Teams don’t want to play against us’: Panthers’ playoff-style approach paying off early
Prior to leaving for their trip in Canada, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice challenged his team.
Yes, it’s only November, but he wanted them to look at this block of games as a playoff series — three divisional games on the road in four days is a challenge whenever you play it, Maurice said. Plus, the team was coming off its worst performance of the young season right before the trip with a shutout loss at home to the Winnipeg Jets.
“We just needed to refocus,” Maurice said.
How did they do?
A 5-0 shelling of the Ottawa Senators in which Florida dominated the entire game before the wheels fell off in the third and 13 total players were ejected (including 10 at the same time).
A 2-1 shootout loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs that the Panthers appeared to have won before Evan Rodrigues’ fifth-round shootout goal was overturned.
And a 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens in which Florida opened scoring midway into the second period and then scored three goals in the first six minutes of the third to blow the game open.
Five out of a possible six points achieved backed a dominant performance by the defense and goaltending — exactly the way Maurice wants his team to play.
“Getting five out of six is huge,” Rodrigues said. “We gave up two goals in three games. That’s the way we like to play. It’s hard. Teams don’t want to play against us, and that’s what we want our MO to be.”
While an uptick in scoring in two of the three games is noticeable, it’s the defensive effort in which the Panthers are taking pride right now.
Florida is giving up just 2.48 goals per game, the fourth fewest in the NHL. They have allowed no more than three goals in each of their past 12 games and 16 of their past 18 overall.
And the penalty kill has been outstanding — and that still might be an understatement. Florida killed off six penalties in each of the three games in Canada and is now a perfect 26 for 26 when playing a man down over the past six games.
“Everybody is reading off each other and having good sticks and that kind of stuff,” Florida defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said of the penalty kill. “It’s simple, but it’s also hard work on the PK. I really like the PK, but at the same time we try to get better on that, too.”
The 2-0-1 outing in Canada allowed the Panthers to keep their second-place standing in the Atlantic Division nearly one-third of the way through the season.
Now, they need to carry that success into their upcoming homestand, which begins with a 6 p.m. puck drop against the New York Islanders on Saturday. The three-game stretch at Amerant Bank Arena continues 7 p.m. Wednesday against the Dallas Stars and ends at 7 p.m. Friday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Sergei Bobrovsky’s big November
Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky went 8-3-0 in 11 November starts, including a pair of dominant efforts on the past road trip (20-save shutout against Ottawa on Monday and 21-save performance against Montreal on Thursday).
Bobrovsky’s eight November wins led the NHL and he was one of two goaltenders with multiple shutouts. Meanwhile, his 2.11 goals against average over the month were second and his .918 save percentage was fourth among 18 goaltenders who started at least eight games in November.
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