Paul Maurice on Panthers at midway point of season: ‘I’m happy with where they’re at’
What a difference a year makes.
At the midway point of the 2022-23 season, their first under coach Paul Maurice, the Florida Panthers were 18-19-4 and needed basically a perfect second half of the regular season to sneak into the playoffs on the way to their Stanley Cup Final run.
This year? The Panthers find themselves in much better shape through their first 41 games.
After their 3-2 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday that extended their win streak to a season-high nine games, the Panthers are 27-12-2 at the halfway mark of the season. They are second in the Atlantic Division, just one point behind the Boston Bruins (24-8-9) for the top spot in the division and Eastern Conference.
They got to this point despite missing several of their big names early. Defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour missed the first 16 games, second-line center Sam Bennett was out for 12 of the first 13.
They got to this point while integrating more than a half-dozen new players into the lineup.
And they got to this point with the understanding that, even with things going as well as possible, they are far from a finished product.
“I’m happy with where they’re at, let me start with that,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “There’s still some newness. This team is different than last year’s team. ... We’re still learning.”
That said, the Panthers are playing true to the style Maurice has been trying to ingrain in this team for the past season-and-a-half. They are defense-focused, all five skaters working to minimize the damage in their end without compromising their offense.
It took until late last season for the Panthers to figure things out, and it allowed them to sneak into the playoffs playing their best hockey.
Even with a slew of turnover this offseason, the Panthers’ core returned and Florida picked up where it left off.
The results have been noticeable.
At this point last season, the Panthers were giving up 3.41 goals per game (23rd in the NHL) and had one of worst penalty kill units in the league with just a 75-percent success rate (22nd in the NHL).
Through 41 games this year, the Panthers are allowing the third-fewest goals in the league (2.46) and have the NHL’s sixth-best penalty kill (84 percent success rate). Their offensive numbers, meanwhile, are on par with what they had at this time last season (3.20 goals per game so far this year compared to 3.22 at the midway point in 2022-23).
And the Panthers are getting contributions from up and down the lineup.
Their top forward line of left wing Evan Rodrigues, center Aleksander Barkov and right wing Sam Reinhart has been arguably one of the best in the league. The Panthers are outscoring opponents 27-6 when they are on the ice together at full strength. The plus-21 goal differential is the largest for any forward line in the NHL through games played Thursday.
Reinhart is second in the NHL with 30 goals and leads the league in power-play goals (15) and game-winning goals (nine). Barkov is seventh among forwards with 34 assists. And Rodrigues is on pace for a career-high 52 points.
Matthew Tkachuk has returned to his goal-scoring ways. He has found the back of the net seven times over the past five games after scoring just five goals through Florida’s first 37 games.
Newcomer Kevin Stenlund has a career-high eight goals while centering a physical fourth line and being critical on the penalty kill. Florida’s new defensemen — Niko Mikkola, Dmitry Kulikov and Oliver Ekman-Larsson — have been key in that area, too.
And then there’s the goaltending. Sergei Bobrovsky is tied for second in the NHL with 21 wins and his 2.42 goals against average is third among 14 goalies with at least 25 starts. Backup Anthony Stolarz has been stellar in spot duty as well, going 6-3-1 in 11 appearances (10 starts) with a .923 save percentage and 1.95 goals against average.
“It’s going well for us,” Reinhart said. “We’re really kind of in the moment, taking it day by day.”
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