Panthers drop second in a row to Devils for rare skid, with league-best Jets coming to town
The Florida Panthers got two shots at one of their peers near the top of the Eastern Conference this week and missed them both. Now, the schedule gets even tougher.
The Panthers dropped their second game in a row to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday, blown out 6-2, and Aleksander Barkov was already to move on after a frustrating week in Sunrise. There’s another test waiting on the horizon: The league-best Winnipeg Jets are coming to South Florida this weekend.
“We know who’s coming into town, the best team in the league right now and playing unbelievable hockey, so we’ve got to be ready right away,” Barkov said. “It starts now. Obviously, we’re not happy at all.”
With a second straight loss to the Devils, Florida (11-5-1) dropped back-to-back games for only the second time all year — and the first time since the first week of the season. On Tuesday, the Panthers were within a goal of New Jersey until the giving up two in the final five minutes to lose by three. On Thursday, Florida was competitive only into the second period before the Devils (11-6-2) blew away the Panthers with four straight goals after Florida tied the score at 2-2.
The Panthers were sloppy across the board. New Jersey scored three power-play goals on its five chances. Florida didn’t score any on its five. The Devils extinguished the Panthers’ momentum at every turn, scoring in the final seconds of both the first and third periods, and answering Florida’s game-tying goal in the second period with the game-winning goal just 1:11 later.
The four-goal loss was the Panthers’ second most lopsided of the regular season and has them reeling with the best team in the league coming to town Saturday.
“You’re not going to let it go, but you’re not going to put a weight on it that it shouldn’t carry,” coach Paul Maurice said. “I haven’t loved our last two and you’re not going to love them all. You’ll always get better.”
Although Florida outshot New Jersey during 5-on-5 play, the Devils dominated on special teams and got to play nearly the entire game with a lead because of it. New Jersey winger Stefan Noesen scored first 9:59 left in the first period, then winger Jesper Boqvist answered 2:12 later, but Devils winger Jesper Bratt beat the buzzer in the first and scored with 1.4 seconds left to send New Jersey into the first intermission with a 2-1 lead.
All-Star winger Sam Reinhart tied the score again at 2-2 with 15:15 left in the second, but Florida gave up another go-ahead goal to Devils winger Dawson Mercer just 71 seconds later and the Panthers never recovered.
Both Bratt’s and Mercer’s goals came on power plays, and New Jersey padded its lead to 4-2 with another power-play goal with 10.7 seconds left in the second period.
“We’ve got to get those kills,” Maurice said.
A rare rocky week for Florida will give the Panthers a chance to get better. A showdown with the Jets is the perfect chance to show they can bounce back.
“Everything in our game,” Barkov said, “we need to be a little better.”