After early season struggles, Panthers ‘finally starting to go’ with recent surge
As he spoke with enthusiasm Wednesday afternoon from loanDepot park about the upcoming Winter Classic, Florida Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito also brought up a dose of reality surrounding the state of his current team.
“We’re balancing that [excitement], particularly now, with the fact that we need the two points,” Zito said. “We’re coming in and staying focused as a hockey team trying to win and at the same time making sure that we enjoy every moment. I think we’ll do a good job of that.”
The Panthers certainly have done well in that regard over the past two weeks.
Ever since a 4-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 2, one that put them in last place in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers have gone 6-1-1 in their past eight games — most recently beating the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on Wednesday night at Amerant Bank Arena.
Everything is starting to come together. Florida’s defense has clamped up, holding opponents to three goals or fewer in six of these eight games. The offense has seen an uptick in production, too, scoring 30 goals in this stretch.
Overall, it has brought Florida (18-13-2) back into the middle of the conference standings. Ahead of their home game against the Carolina Hurricanes (22-9-2) on Friday, The Panthers are one point back of a playoff spot and three points behind the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Atlantic Division as they continue a push to win a third consecutive Stanley Cup.
“We certainly have picked up our game,” Zito said. “Collectively, there’s a little more attention to detail, and we see it in the results. Margins are so narrow in our league that you can’t really afford to have a night off or more than a handful of mistakes in any game, or you’ll have to pay. The more we tighten things up, generally we have more success. And there’s no reason to doubt that moving forward.”
Wednesday night was the latest such endeavor, with Florida grinding out a close win in a game where the puck bounced around a lot.
All five goals scored came either through deflections, tips, redirects or fluky plays.
The Kings took a 1-0 lead 13:39 into the first period when Joel Armia re-directed a Brandt Clarke shot from the point past Daniil Tarasov with Los Angeles on the power play.
Florida then scored the next three goals — twice in the second, once in the third — to take the lead for good.
Anton Lundell, similarly to Armia a period earlier, tipped a point shot from defenseman Aaron Ekblad on the power play past Anton Forsberg to tie the game at 1-1 2:14 into the second period.
Carter Verhaeghe then got hold off a loose puck from a Jeff Petry missed shot and flung it toward the net, where there was plenty of traffic. The puck got through all of it for a 2-1 Florida lead 7:04 into the middle frame.
And Sam Bennett made it 3-1 10 seconds into the third period when a Brad Marchand shot attempt hit Bennett’s stick in front of the net and went past Forsberg.
Lundell, Verhaeghe and Bennett have each scored 11 goals this season — with Lundell scoring five in his past seven, Verhaeghe nine in his past 11 and Bennett five in his past eight.
“We’ve got a whole bunch of guys scoring now that weren’t at the start,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We’re getting to three and four goals a night here. That puts us at 12 in our last three games, and we haven’t given up more than two [in those games].”
The Kings’ second goal came on a fluke play, with Florida defenseman Gustav Forsling’s clearing attempt from deep in the Panthers’ defensive zone instead bouncing off Kings forward Kevin Fiala and going straight into the Florida net.
Tarasov, for his part, shook that one off with no issue.
“Sometimes bad bounces happen,” Tarasov said with a grin. “And, I was like ‘nothing happened.’ … It was kind of a funny moment.”
Tarasov then made sure nothing happened the rest of the way to preserve Florida’s lead.
He made 27 saves total, including 10 in the third period and two point-blank breakaway attempts from Trevor Moore, to pick up his fourth win in six starts.
“We kept fighting,” Lundell said.
And that’s what the Panthers will have to keep doing. Florida is still playing with a lineup without several key players — most notably captain Aleksander Barkov and star winger Matthew Tkachuk — but the team has appeared to turn the corner.
It has them back in the thick of the standings in a tightly-contested Eastern Conference.
And it has brought back some confidence that as recently as two weeks ago was waning.
“Over the last couple of weeks, I feel like we’ve just kind of clicked,” Lundell said. “We all know how to play. It’s been more about finding the same page with all the small details. We’re doing those details better. That’s obviously helping us play, and it shows on the scoreboard as well.”
Added Verhaeghe: “At the start of the year, it was a little bit of a struggle to get going. Now, we’re finally starting to go. I don’t know what’s changed, but we’re having fun out there.”
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