Maurice’s message to Nosek after game-deciding penalty in Florida’s Game 1 Cup Final loss
All Tomas Nosek could do is watch from the penalty box as the Florida Panthers’ hopes to win Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final slipped away.
He was an observer for the casualty he committed, flipping a puck over the boards with just less than two minutes left in overtime to give the Edmonton Oilers a power play. Edmonton struck on that chance, with Leon Draisaitl beating Sergei Bobrovsky to seal the Oilers’ 4-3 come-from-behind victory on Wednesday to open the best-of-7 series.
It’s a tough moment to take for Nosek, Florida’s fourth-line center whose play typically slips under the radar.
But the Panthers are doing what they can to make sure Nosek doesn’t hang his head too much.
“That stuff happens in the game of hockey,” veteran forward Brad Marchand said. “You know, it’s a bad break. He’s been a great player for us all year, all playoffs. So, yeah, we have his back on that one.”
While the blunder is the moment fresh in fans’ minds, a reminder of what Nosek has done for the Panthers this postseason.
He was a healthy scratch through the first seven games of the playoffs — all five games in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning and the first two of the second round against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After Florida dropped the first two games to Toronto, Maurice made a wholesale change to his fourth line, dropping Mackie Samoskevich, Nico Sturm and Jesper Boqvist and inserting Nosek, A.J. Greer and Jonah Gadjovich in their place.
The trio was integral in the Panthers winning Game 3 against the Maple Leafs and turning the tide of that series, which Florida ultimately won in seven games.
Nosek has been in the lineup every game since, is integral on the penalty kill and on multiple occasions has had to move up in the lineup midgame to fill in for injured teammates.
Through 11 playoff games, the Panthers have not allowed a goal at 5-on-5 in the 98:12 Nosek has been on the ice despite opponents having an expected goals for mark of 4.73.
“We’re not here without Tomas Nosek,” Maurice said. “It’s a tough break. We make sure he doesn’t eat alone tonight, he has lots of people sitting at his table reminding him of how good he has been for us. It’s going to be tough. He’s going to eat that one for a day. But from his penalty kill to that line changing the flow of that Toronto series, we’ll remind him of that a whole bunch of times.’’
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