It seems that Montreal is this season’s Philadelphia for the Cats, a team they can’t seem to beat for whatever reason. The Panthers came out flat against the Canadians on Saturday night, and the young and hungry Montreal team made them pay for it. Besides lacking energy, the execution wasn’t up to par for where the Cats expected it to be. Missed passes, struggles breaking out of their zone, and a general sloppiness to their game. Despite the team’s struggles, however, Mackie Samoskevich was a bright spot on the team as his consistency continued to grow and develop.
Energy & Desperation:
HC Paul Maurice didn’t have much to say about the match in his post-game interview. He didn’t want to take credit away from a great game played by the Canadians, but felt that there wasn’t enough execution on the Panthers’ side to accurately asses how the teams match up or what Montreal did to them. He said that they’ll leave this game in Montreal and move on to the next one, but that they’ve liked their game from late December to this match. Carter Verhaeghe and Mackie Samoskevich shared similar sentiments in that the team wasn’t ready to play on time and that they’ll look to get a better start next game. Verhaeghe also said that mentally, the team needs to get in the headspace of playing every game as a playoff game since so many of their opponents down the stretch are fighting for their playoff lives.
Mackie Samoskevich:
Mackie Samoskevich is a rising star on this already star-studded Panther roster. He has six goals in his last eleven games. Across his last six games, he has four goals, three assists, and twenty hits. For the match against Montreal, Mackie topped the Hockey Stat Cards impact card for the Cats with his individual offense and team defense leaning well positive while his individual defense and team offense leaned slightly negative. In his post-game interview, he highlighted learning things from the players around him and that shooting on Bobrovsky has helped him when he takes shots against opposing goalies. Samoskevich scored the only Panther goal of the night off a shot that put in top-shelf. HC Paul Maurice has taken notice of how he’s played and said that he considered playing Mackie with Barkov but didn’t because he didn’t like what it would do to the rest of the lines. Maurice also said that Samoskevich has had enough reps on the left that they feel comfortable being able to play him on the left or the right. He’s currently tied for third in goals scored among rookies at 13.
Execution Struggles:
The early season turnover bug, which has been absent for a good chunk of time, reared its ugly head again. Florida had 25 giveaways against the Canadians, while Montreal only had nine in a stark difference in execution level. The Cats were sloppy most of the night, with passes going into skates instead of tape to tape. A slow first period by Florida saw them go down 0-2 into the first intermission with no sense of urgency to their play. When the Panthers play like that, it’s generally going to bite them, and it did as Laine opened the scoring on a power play goal where he had all the time and space he could want. Caufield made it 0-2 late in the period. The Cats couldn’t clear the zone, and Cole got the puck to the back of the net. It was nearly a 0-3 lead for Montreal, but the Newhook tip-in goal was called back for goalie interference. To add insult to injury, the Habs scored their third goal on their first SOG of the third period on a tip-in by Dvorak for the final 1-3 score. Verhaeghe and Samoskevich highlighted poor breakouts and said that they needed to get more traffic in front of Montembeault. The good news is that the Panthers haven’t played a game like that since the last time they played the Canadians; the bad news is that there are still two more meetings on the schedule with them. Hopefully, Florida can find its game against them and respond better in the next meeting.
ITR 40: Headed For A Repeat? – Inside The Rink
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