A promising start to the match ends in the Panthers’ first loss in regulation in a one-goal game. Florida has struggled against Philly in the last couple of years, even last year they lost both games to them in 2024, and the matches this year have been strange ones. They’ve been tightly contested one-goal games and periods with large numbers of goals being scored for both teams, so how this one played out isn’t necessarily that surprising. The penalties persist as an issue, and the PK is certainly missing Ekblad, but I think it’s also missing Stenlund, one of the team’s best penalty killers. The overall health of the team, I think, is in question as they started the year rather healthy but then had four players go down the tunnel during the second Tampa Bay Game, along with Gadjovich and Ekblad dealing with persistent injuries right now. A healthy Florida Panthers team is something to be feared, an injury-riddled team is a more beatable team with several players that are snake-bitten for goals or points.
Strong Start:
The Panthers got off to a quick start in the first period against Philly. They controlled the zone time and found themselves with a two-goal lead. The first goal came from Sam Reinhart on the PK scoring his 26th goal of the season. It was a highlight-worthy play as he out-skated three Philly players and out-waited Ersson, his shot went in from a tough angle as he was nearly level with the goal line. With that goal, Reinhart became the first player since Mike Richards to score at least five short-handed goals in consecutive seasons and passed Pavel Bure for fourth most shortys in franchise history. A minute and thirty-five seconds later, Uvis Balinskis scored his second goal of the season and extended the lead to two. His shot went in through the five-hole after he used one of the Flyers as a screen. Strong on the defensive side of things, the Panthers killed off both power-play opportunities and the 4v4. The Cats limited the Flyers to just nine shot attempts for the period and only seven SOG.
Defense Needs Boosting:
The star of the second period was Sergei Bobrovsky. He didn’t see many shots in the first but Philly turned up the pressure in the second and third. He did his best to keep the Panthers in the game and made key stops on a breakaway attempt in the second period and a huge save on the early power play in the third period. He kept things at a one-goal game and gave the Panthers a chance to win. The PK is in need of help at the moment with no Ekblad, and I think it’s also feeling the effect of losing Kevin Stenlund. The Cats gave up two power-play goals to the Flyers, both on rebounds that didn’t get cleared out of harm’s way and both which tied the game a 2 & 3, respectively. A 2-on-0 chance gave Philly the go-ahead goal, and Florida lost a one-goal game in regulation for the first time this season. The penalties are killing this team right now as their special teams isn’t quite as strong as last year despite still being rather good. Florida’s been one of the best 5v5 teams with their expected goals against per 60 average 2nd best at a 2.12 as of January 12th per the data from TopDownHockey. Missing Ekblad on the top pairing and QB’ing the top PP unit is a big piece of defense that’s out. I still expect the Panthers to target a right-handed defenseman at the trade deadline.
Snake Bitten:
This team gets snake-bitten at the absolute worst times right now. It feels like the entire offense is slumping at the moment, with only Sam Reinhart showing signs of life. His second goal came on the power play in the third period to put Florida up 3-2 early. Verhaeghe is struggling to score despite leading the team in SOG, Bennett hasn’t had a goal in 17 games and has the second-most SOG, Tkachuk’s goals are down, and so are Barkov’s. The first couple of months seemed promising, especially with Bennett, and it’s impossible to know how many players are dealing with some form of injury or if illness is still spreading around the locker room. On top of that, I can’t even count how many chances they’ve had this season with a goalie down and out with a wide-open net to work with, and they haven’t scored. I think giving the Rodrigues-Barkov-Tkachuk and Luostarinen-Lundell-Reinhart lines another go might be worth it. Those as top six lines looked good when they ran them, although I doubt Paul Maurice would run Bennett as his third-line center full-time. There are plenty of options for the Panthers in terms of line combinations, and whether it’s other teams knowing how to play against Florida or duplicating their style, something needs a bit of a shakeup. While Reinhart is still going on a crazy tear, the Panthers can’t rely on just him to score goals, they need goals from their other top players.
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