Panthers couldn’t execute offensively in Game 6. Now, a do-or-die Game 7 looms

The Florida Panthers are gearing up for their second Game 7 in their last three postseason series because their offense vanished at the worst possible time.

In their 2-0 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night, the Panthers were shut out for the first time in 56 postseason games. The last time Florida put a zero on the board through three periods? The team’s season-ending loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the 2022 playoffs.

The reason for Friday’s bizarre no-show? An uncharacteristic tentativeness by their best players in the offensive zone.

“I just thought we were late getting it off our stick,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said postgame. “I thought we were waving the gun a lot but didn’t want to pull the trigger on a few. It just made people nervous.”

The stats? They were just as ugly.

The Panthers had just six high-danger chances (compared to 13 for the Maple Leafs) Friday night.

Their top line of Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, and Jesper Boqvist combined for three shots on goal.

Collectively, the Panthers tested backup goalie Joseph Woll just twice in Game 6’s first 20 minutes – the fewest shots on goal by the team in any period this playoffs.

And their power play, which was just 4 of 18 in the series entering Friday’s game? Scoreless in four tries with just one shot on goal.

“We did a good job killing,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said postgame. “I thought we were aggressive, on our toes. Our PK was good tonight, [and] needed to be good.”

Added Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuck, who was held without a goal for the eighth straight game this postseason: “Their penalty kill was really good. They were blocking shots. Our power play has to be a lot better and that’s on us five that start and play a majority of it. We were pretty slow making plays and not making them when they’re there.”

The Panthers, on the man advantage and even strength, simply “couldn’t score,” Barkov said. “We didn’t have enough chances to do it.”

A big reason why? A staggering 31 blocked shots by the Leafs – compared to just 10 for Florida.

The reversal from Florida’s 6-1 rout of Toronto in Game 5 and Friday night’s no-show was eye-opening, but Maurice suggested that both games were actually similar in the way they were played.

“They got killed for the last game and didn’t deserve to, in my opinion,” Maurice said. “I mean, we had four knucklers go in that [usually] don’t. It was pretty tight game. It didn’t feel like that with a scoreboard. But when you watch the game and look at the analytics, that game, the 6-1 game is the second tightest game of the series. So, this one will look a lot like that.”

The difference was the Panthers cashed in on their chances in Toronto but couldn’t in Sunrise Friday, particularly with the man advantage.

So what made Toronto’s penalty kill so effective Friday night?

“Well, I thought what you saw from our team 5-on-5 was also true 5-on-4,” Maurice said. “We were late getting it off our stick, we were looking for something maybe slightly better. They did a good job for sure. I mean our entries are usually a little cleaner than they were tonight, because we got hung up on the line quite a bit. But they were good. We’ve got to be better.”

If they aren’t Sunday, they’ll have an entire offseason to agonize over it.

This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 11:57 PM.