82 games are now done and dusted. All eyes can turn to the playoffs and title defense. The Florida Panthers closed out their regular season on the road against Tampa Bay, and while some called it a round 1 preview, I disagree to a certain extent. The Cats were resting Barkov, Reinhart, Forsling, Lundell, Greer, and Nosek, and ran an 11-7 lineup. They looked nothing like the team they’ll be come Game 1, and there’s a strong possibility of Matthew Tkachuk getting back into the lineup as well. It wasn’t a game Florida took seriously in terms of win/loss as they were locked into the 3rd seed; it only factored into who they’d potentially play. Ultimately, it was a somewhat meaningless game as Toronto locked up the division with their win against Buffalo. The PK put in a strong performance against the dangerous Tampa power play, the final two periods were still strong outings from the Cats, and the battle of Florida is set to be an explosive series, and a healthy Panthers’ roster will be a formidable foe for anyone.
Penalty Kill Held Strong:
There was no shortage of PK opportunities in the final game of the season, as there were five power plays that the Panthers gave up, with one of them being a 5-minute match penalty. First period started quietly enough with just one penalty in the first ten minutes going to Mikkola for interference, which the Panthers killed off. Florida then got three power plays but was unable to convert on any of them, which isn’t surprising with all the big guns out for the night, but Seth Jones did have a great chance. The only penalty in the second period went to Matt Kiersted for hooking, and Florida killed that one off too. The third period is where things got out of hand, and the Panthers found themselves in a two-man deficit, which was where Tampa finally converted a man-advantage for a goal. All things considered, and with so many important penalty killers out for the night, it speaks greatly to the PK depth that they held the Lightning in check, and that Tampa needed a two-man advantage in order to convert. Personally, I’d like to see them not take so many penalties, but if last season’s series is anything to go by, I wouldn’t hold my breath, as Tampa had a 20-10 power-play advantage over the five games. Things could very easily go that way again this year, and it’s nice to know that the PK is up to the challenge.
Getting Better Over Time:
The first period was nothing short of ‘to be expected’. The Cats allowed three goals in the first period. Point opened the scoring just a minute and a half into the game when a cross-ice stretch pass from Gourde found Point, and his shot hit the far post and bounced in. Florida seemed to get a bit of a handle on things from there, at least for a while, before Connor Geekie made it a 0-2 lead. The pass from Point found Geekie for the one-timer and the goal. An unfortunate sequence during the power play resulted in Guentzel scoring short-handed and a 3-0 lead out of the first. Jones was in the corner and lost an edge; his teammates assumed the puck was heading out of the zone, and they’d departed. However, Cirelli and Guentzel were there and picked up the puck for the goal. It was a bit of a disjointed first period, but the stat sheet showed that the Panthers led in all areas except for SOG. Kucherov was able to get lost in the o-zone during the second period and scored on an open net while Vanecek was positioned to respect Gourde and Point. However, Brad Marchand broke the shutout on a quick zone entry with Carter Verhaeghe in tow. Marchand had the option to pass but instead opted to take the shot himself on the short side of Vasilevskiy and scored a response goal to cut the 1-4 TBL lead to three. Florida looked like an improved team in the second and third periods, but still gave up too many breakaways, which isn’t surprising given the playing roster. Raddysh scored the 5v3 PP goal to make it 1-5 for the Lightning win. But, stats-wise, the short-handed Panther roster still led Tampa in some areas and was close in the others. They only got outshot 26-30, and the Lightning held a slight 18-19 advantage in the faceoff dot. The Cats held the 10-8 blocked shots advantage and a 37-26 hits advantage. Those are signs of good playoff habits manifesting on the statsheet. Only Megna and Bennett didn’t register a hit while Puljujarvi led the team with eight.
Reign Red:
The new Florida Playoff theme dropped Wednesday morning with a hype video that ended with the words, Reign Red. The reigning Cup Champs are entering the postseason in title defense mode and a roster that’s getting healthier by the day. It might be hard to say what the Cats will look like come Game 1, but there have been bits and pieces sprinkled throughout the season that give good indications as to what the team can look like when fully healthy. From late December to early January, the top line had one of its most dominant stretches, scoring a combined 29 points in just six games. Over the last week and a half to two weeks, Carter Verhaeghe has looked like Carter Verhaeghe again. Kulikov was back in the lineup and will likely be Forsling’s partner until Ekblad is back from suspension. Kulikov doesn’t always get the recognition he deserves, but the Panthers don’t win the Cup without his goal-saving play in Game 7. When Matthew Tkachuk is back, whether that’s Game 1 or not, he’s played some of the best hockey of his career this season. When Florida had its fully healthy defensive pairings, they had three shutouts in four games, two of which were against teams contending for the playoffs, and nearly shut out Tampa as well, but they scored a bit of a fluke goal. Do I expect that type of shutout streak in the playoffs? No, I don’t, but I do think they’re capable of getting at least one or two shutouts against opponents, which is what they did last season. The high tempers and fights that occurred in the third period after the Puljujarvi hit, which resulted in that match penalty for an illegal check to the head, seem to have set the tone for how the series could play out. If there’s one thing that the Cats are great at, it’s playing in games with high emotion.
ITR 34: End Of The Road – Inside The Rink
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