3 Takeaways From The Florida Panthers & New York Islanders Game 03/16/2025

The last time the Cats lost back-to-back games was late December. Since then, they’ve been good about rebounding back from losses, and it looked like they were going to against the Islanders after losing to Montreal. However, for the second time on this road trip, the Panthers relinquished a two-goal lead in the third period. It also wasn’t Florida’s best effort, as they were held to a season-low one SOG in the first period. Vitek Vanecek had another outstanding performance, especially in the first two periods. Barkov and Reinhart’s chemistry gave some life to the offense. But poor puck management in the third period and an even more short-handed defense allowed the Islanders to rebound in the final twenty minutes to take the 2-4 win. I don’t think it’s worth panicking over for a few reasons, the short-handed roster chief among them.

Vitek Vanecek:

Vanecek’s made quite the impression in his first two starts. He had a shutout in his first game and nearly a second one in his second game, although the score would say he wasn’t close to a second shutout. In just two games, Vitek now owns the Panthers’ franchise shutout record previously held by Chirs Driedger; Driedger’s record was 89:26, Vanecek’s number comes in at 106:29. It’s an impressive number and Vitek didn’t have an easy go of it as Florida had arguably their worst first period of the season as they got outshot 1-12 and were outshot 10-22 by the end of the second period. Vanecek bailed them out on more than one occasion and is proving to be a great backup goalie for the Panthers. He still left the match with a .909 SV% and stopped 30 out of 33 shots. HC Paul Maurice was plenty pleased with him and said in his post-game presser, “He was good tonight. Boy, we needed that. You come in back-to-back, and he was really good. I feel for the young man. He played well enough to earn recognition with a win. We’ve got a good one there.”

Top Line Duo:

When Barkov and Reinhart are on the ice together, magic happens. They set the league on fire last season and have been just as great this year despite some decrease in goal-scoring. The top line was in the driver’s seat in the second period as both Barkov and Reinhart left the middle frame with a goal and an assist. It was borderline comical that the Panthers struck first, given how the first period went. Reinhart broke the ice a minute into the second period. Great work along the boards from Rodrigues got the puck to Forsling, whose shot ended up rebounding to Barkov. Barkov then made a slick pass to Reinhart to put it into the back of the net and gave the Panthers the 1-0 lead. The Cats then converted on their first power play of the night. While Samoskevich generated plenty of pressure, it was the Islanders giving Reinhart a shooting lane and time and space that doubled the lead. Reinhart took the shot from the faceoff circle, where the puck bounced off of Barkov at the net and went in for the 2-0 lead.

Not Time To Panic:

I know that the gut reaction to back-to-back losses and two games of playing poorly is to panic that the team is washed. However, there isn’t good reason to panic at this point in time. Yes, the puck management is back to being a struggle like it was earlier in the season. Back-to-back games of double-digit giveaways aren’t great, and the defense being short-handed is a concern, especially with Kuilikov now injured. There’s no update on his status as of Monday morning. But even with all that going on fans shouldn’t be worried. There are currently two big pieces of the lineup out with Tkachuk and Ekblad, both will likely be back for the playoffs, we know Ekblad will be as of right now once his suspension is up assuming nothing else occurs to keep him out. We haven’t seen Marchand in a game yet with the Panthers, but we know what he brings to a team. Once Marchand is worked into the lineup, it should help alleviate some pressure on Barkov and Reinhart, as Florida is expecting him to be on the penalty kill and possibly one of the power play units. The other reason I’m not concerned? The Cats hit the same skid of losing games at exactly this time last season. They had a great January despite a four-game losing streak, an incredible February, and a good start to March last year. Yet right as mid-March hit, they won one game between March 14th and March 28th and got shutout twice in that stretch. This season, they had a mixed January and didn’t always get the wins they deserved, a great February with good performances at Four Nations, and a great start to March. The Cats also haven’t been shutout in a game since December, when they got shutout four times in that month, so they’re down on that side of things. If the trend continues, I’d expect more game struggles till early April, when the Panthers won five of their last six games last year. They still have four back-to-backs on their schedule, so we’ll see how those factor in. But overall, this team has trended very similarly to how the team played during the regular season last yea,r albeit with a few more losses here and there.