Florida Panthers drop into last in Eastern Conference after loss to Toronto
Home-ice advantage has been good to the Florida Panthers over the past few years as they have evolved into one of the NHL’s top teams.
Which is why this current stretch, even with Florida missing so many players, is a bit surprising.
With a 4-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday at Amerant Bank Arena, the Panthers (12-12-1) have now dropped four consecutive home games and are just 8-6-1 overall on home ice.
This ties for the longest stretch of consecutive home losses under coach Paul Maurice, matching a stretch of four consecutive home defeats from March 16-28, 2024.
With the loss, Florida is now in last place in the Eastern Conference nearly one-third of the way through the season. Toronto improves to 12-11-3.
“In these situations, just staying with it is the most important thing,” Maurice said, “but then we got to get better, right? We got to get some higher-end performances out of guys. They’re playing as hard as they can. The puck’s not as friendly as it used to be. There’s tension on the stick. That’s normal. You see that when you lose a few in a row.”
The Panthers gave up two goals in the opening eight minutes, with Troy Stecher and Dakota Joshua beating Sergei Bobrovsky on two of Toronto’s first three shots of the game. Stecher’s shot came on a wrister from the point 5:24 into regulation for his first goal of the season. Joshua got a pass from Bobby McMann right in front of the crease and beat Bobrovsky five-hole at 7:54.
Bobrovsky then stopped the next 23 shots he faced as Florida attempted to mount its comeback bid.
“Made a bunch of big saves when our game does slightly open up and it needs to at points,” Maurice said.
Reinhart cut Florida’s deficit to 2-1 with 5:17 left in the second period by scoring his second shorthanded goal of the season — and 14 goal overall of the campaign — on a feed from Anton Lundell. It was Reinhart’s 12 career shorthanded goal with Florida, which ties Tom Fitzgerald for the third-most in franchise history. His mark trails only Radek Dvorak (16) and Aleksander Barkov (13).
But Scott Laughton pushed Toronto’s lead back to multiple goals when a bounce went his way in front of the net with 7:42 left to play. Joshua added an empty-net goal with 18.6 seconds left to cap scoring.
Joseph Woll made 26 saves for Toronto.
“Things are not going our way at the moment, but we have a good group of guys,” Bobrovsky said. “We have a good team. We have good coaches. We believe in each other. It is what it is. That’s where we’re at tonight. Get ready for the next one, for the next game, for the first period, and try to chip away.”
The Panthers were down yet another top player Tuesday. Winger Carter Verhaeghe did not play Tuesday as he and wife Casey are expecting the birth of their first child. They already have seven players sidelined in forwards Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Eetu Luostarinen, Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich and Cole Schwindt plus defenseman Dmitry Kulikov.
Florida continues its homestand Thursday when it hosts the Nashville Predators. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on Scripps Sports.
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 10:00 PM.
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