In a week that started pretty poor, it ended on one of the highest notes of the season for the Panthers. Coming out of the All-Star Break, Florida looked like they hadn’t played in over a week against the Fliers, but thankfully, that didn’t hold over into the rest of the week. The Cats looked better against the Capitals, and by the time they got to playing the Avalanche, the team was back in its groove. One aspect that didn’t have a slow start was the Panthers’ goalie tandem; despite the loss, Stolarz still had a great game against the Fliers and only allowed two goals. Bobrovsky did his best brick wall impression against the Capitals and the Avs and only allowed two goals between the two games. Head Coach Paul Maurice decided to shake up the forwards in the final period of the Capitals game, which has paid off and given the Cats more depth in scoring from its third & fourth lines. Now for the specifics, here’s how this week’s home stretch went.
Philadelphia Flyers:
It was Stolarz’s net on Tuesday night as the Panthers were back in action; Ersson was in the crease for the Fliers. Nick Cousins was back into the lineup after his injury back in January during the Coyotes game, where he got boarded. The second line of Verhaeghe-Bennett-Tkachuk started this off for the offense with Forsling-Ekblad on the defense. Tkachuk has upped his production since the start of the new year; he’s now had points in 14 out of the last 15 games. Reinhart passed to Mikkola early for a good scoring chance that was saved; Forsling followed it up with a pair of shots that got glove-saved and blocked. Ekblad was the next Cat with a shot that hit the post. It was all Florida’s offense in the opening four minutes. Tkachuk and Mikkola both got shots off that were saved. With 15:51 on the clock, Barkov had a one-on-one shot that hit the post, followed by Reinhart’s shot, which went wide. A Flyer’s player got too close to Stolarz which led to Florida players shoving him, no all-out fight though. Florida is the best team in the NHL at stopping rush chances, while the Flyers are 2nd worst team on rush chances. Philly got its first SOG around the midway point in the period. Cousins made a steal and then passed it to Lundell, whose shot got kicked and saved by Ersson.
The first powerplay of the night went to the Panthers after Gadjobich got tripped by Nick Seeler at 10:52 to play in the first. Barkov got the first shot, but Verhaeghe broke the ice and scored with a top-shelf shot on the short side; his shot came from the faceoff circle. Florida was 20-0-4 headed into this game when they scored first. Verhaeghe, with the takeaway, got the puck to Bennett, who shot it toward the net, but it got saved. Stolarz made the save on a backhand shot, followed by a sliding save across the crease with 8:07 to go in the opening period. Florida had more offensive pressure in the final 5 minutes, making Philly struggle to exit their own zone. Forsling’s takeaway shot went wide, and Stenlund’s shot got cover saved. The Cats utilized aggressive forechecking to clog passing lanes. Stolarz made a big one-on-one save with 1:48 on the clock, and Cousins responded with his one-on-one chance that Ersson saved. Ekman-Larsson’s shot got deflected wide, leading to a swarming offensive pressure in the dying seconds. A 1-0 lead for the Cats headed into the first intermission.
Stolarz started the second with a cover save on a rebound, and the Rodrigues took a stick to the face that didn’t get called. The Flyers made more of an offensive push in the first three minutes of the middle frame. Forsling’s shot went wide, and Lomberg’s chance got broken up by Philly’s defense. With 16:42 to play, Stenlund got called for tripping, sending the PK to work. Reinhart is tied for most specialty team goals in franchise history at 24. The PK gets it done and kills the penalty without allowing a shot on goal. Stolarz followed that up with a big save with 14:43 to play. Lundell had his shot deflected, and Forsling was saved. The teams went back and forth midway through the middle frame. A fight between Lomberg and Travis Konecny broke out after Lomberg’s speed led him a bit close to Ersson; no penalties were called. The Flyers got more offensive chances against Stolarz, who had the saves to keep the Florida lead. Philly was being more physical during the second period and made the adjustment to clog up the neutral zone. Konecny finally beat Stolarz with a shot just above Stolarz’s glove; he came in full speed off the bench. The Panthers responded with a good shift after the goal; Lomberg’s shot got saved, Gadjovich got a chance off the rebound that got saved, and Ekblad’s chance got blocked away. The Cats were getting chances off the rush, Reinhart’s went wide, Verhaeghe’s got saved. A fight broke out with 2:12 to play between Rodrigues and Sanheim; it wasn’t serious enough to call penalties on either player. The Flyers got extended offensive zone time in the final two minutes; Forsling came up big to break up Konecny’s breakaway chance. The fighting wasn’t over as a fight broke out between the teams after the period had ended. The fight started with Forsling and Konecny, and then Tkachuk got involved, followed by the rest of the team. The period ended tied 1-1.
The third period started with 4v4 play; Forsling and Konecny were both in the box for slashing. Stolarz came up with a big save with 18:41 left and followed it up with a kick save. However, sloppy puck management from the Panthers would come back to bite them as Noah Cates would score to give Philly the 2-1 lead. Florida responded with shots from Frosling and Verhaeghe, but they went high and got saved, respectively. The first half of the period was mostly back and forth, with neither team getting extended offensive zone time. Stolarz made a great save off a shot that came right off the faceoff. Rodrigues got a chance off a turnover but it went wide, Lundell’s shot went wide, and Mikkola’s got blocked away. Bennett and Tkachuk went after Tippet, who got called for boarding and headed to the box. The PP generated shots from Ekblad, Forsling, and Mikkola, but none found the back of the net. The Fliers had 16 blocked shots with just over six minutes left. As has been the case this season, Florida made a big offensive push in the last five minutes, getting shots from Bennett, Verhaeghe, Cousins, and Luostarinen but no goals. Stolarz got pulled for the man advantage with just under three minutes left. The Cats had more offensive pressure, but the Flyers’ defense held strong in front of the net to hold on for the 2-1 win.
Washington Capitals:
A chance to rebound came on Thursday night with the Washington Capitals in town. Bobrovsky got his first start after being at the All-Star Game; Kuemper was between the pipes for the Capitals. Reinhart’s line started for the forwards, with Forsling-Ekblad pairing on defense. Barkov got a shot off early from a turnover. Bennett and Wilson collided, Wilson fell awkwardly to the ice and was slow to get to the bench. Luostarinen got a good feed from Lundell for a two-on-one chance, and the Washington defense broke up the play. Gadjovich headed to the box for boarding just 3:14 into the period. Bobrovsky made a couple of saves during the power play, while Ekblad made a great defensive move by breaking up Ovechkin’s play. With the penalty killed, Gadjovich got an opportunity right out of the penalty box, but Kuemper made the save. Rodrigues had a point-blank chance saved, and Montour’s shot got blocked. Malenstyn crashed into Bob, leading to shoving between players and Tkachuk having words with Dowd. Malenstyn got sent to the box for goalie interference with 6:22 on the clock. However, it wasn’t long until he had company; Tkachuk and Fehervary both joined him, getting called for slashing. Bobrovsky made a great kick save with 11:29 to go. The Capitals got awarded a penalty shot, and Ekman-Larsson got called for hooking on a breakaway. Still, Bob used patience to wait for the Capitals player to commit to a shot before moving to make a blocker save. As the penalties died out, both teams got chances from players coming out of the penalty box. Ekblad and Kulikov both got chances that Kuemper saved. Dowd was the next one in the box for interference with 9:52 left to play. Washington scouted the Florida PP tendencies and clogged up the passing lanes. There was no SOG for the Cats, and the Capitals blocked what shots were made. Bennett got held by Kuemper, but there was no call from the referees. The carousel of penalties continued this time, with Ekman-Larsson going to the box for high sticking. The Washington PP ran through Ovechkin, and the Panthers made the mistake of leaving him wide open, so Ovechkin broke the ice with a one-timer shot that Bob got a piece of but not enough to stop it. The Capitals were holding the offensive zone time as the period wound down, however, the merry-go-round of penalties wasn’t done and Oshie went to the box for tripping Kulikov. Verhaeghe and Montour both got shots off before the period ended, but no goal reward, so the Capitals led 1-0 heading into the first intermission.
The Cats started the second period on the powerplay; however, no goals would come out of it. That said, Florida did continue to have offensive pressure after the powerplay ended. Reinhart and Rodrigues both had shots blocked, and it would be Tkachuk who’d get the Panthers on the board by tipping in a shot from Forsling that came from near the blue line, 15:31 to play in the middle frame. Forsling took advantage of a broken play to get set up and take the shot toward the net. Just a minute and a half later, the Cats would strike again, this time from Rodrigues, who converted a turnover. Unfortunately, Washington successfully challenged the play for being offsides, so the game stayed tied. Dowd headed to the box for tripping 8:28 into the period, putting Florida back on the powerplay. This time around, Reinhart and Ekman-Larsson both had shots hit the post, and Ekblad had a couple of shots that got saved. Tkachuk and Bennett made their presence known in front of the net, ready to play any rebounds. The Capitals killed the penalty, but the Cats got seven SOG. Gadjovich got a chance off a steal, but it was saved. The refs didn’t call a blatant trip on Ekman-Larsson from Washington. Mantha would give the Capitals the lead with just under six minutes to play, his shot went over the top of Bob’s glove. The fans were unhappy about the missed call and could be heard chanting, “Refs you suck”. Stenlund took an elbow from Wilson, giving the Panthers one more powerplay before the period ended with 2:40 on the clock. This time Florida would be successful, Tkachuk took a shot from the blueline that Reinhart tipped in. This puts Reinhart up to 21 PP goals on the season; Washington as a team had 20. Time ran out, and the game was tied, heading into the 3rd period 2-2.
Florida’s great 3rd period effort would show itself once again, but this time with a bit of a twist. Head Coach Paul Maurice elected to shake up the forward lines, moving Verhaeghe up to Barkov & Reinhart, Cousins to Bennet & Tkachuk, and Rodrigues to Lundell & Luostarinen. The offensive pressure started early, with the Panthers getting sots from Verhaeghe, Lundell, and Ekman-Larsson. After the initial offensive pressure from Florida, neither team can hold significant pressure, so things go back and forth, heading toward the midway point through the final 20 minutes. Ekman-Larsson took yet another SOG, a one-timer that ended up breaking his stick, but the shot was saved. Washington made some defensive adjustments to make more plays, breaking up rush chances. The Panthers have had a stifling defense, only allowing six SOG for the Capitals since the first period. Florida is finally able to hold the offensive zone at the midway point, getting shots from Gajdovich, Stenlund, Forsling, Ekman-Larsson Verhaeghe, Bennett, Montour, and Tkachuk. No goal reward for anyone yet, as the shots are saved or blocked. The fighting started up again between Mikkola and Strome after a slash on Ovechkin wasn’t called. The bottom six were putting in the work to get scoring chances, and they’d finally get the payoff, Lomberg scored off a pass from Kulikov with 5:32 on the clock. Washington was finally able to exit their zone to get some o-zone time, but they were being outshot 26-8 with five minutes left. Bennett and Tkachuk had a breakaway chance that Kuemper saved. One final penalty went to Montour for cross-checking with 3:36 left to play. As of late, opponents having the man advantage late in the game has spelled trouble for the Panthers. This time, the PK would hold the Capitals to a single shot on goal. It’s been an offensive onslaught from Florida, as they’d had around 88 shot attempts during the game. Tkachuk made the takeaway and passed it to Luostarinen who scored the empty netter with less than a minute left 4-2 the final score. The Panthers dominated the last 40 minutes of play and got Head Coach Paul Maurice his 849th win, putting him tied for 5th most All-Time wins.
Colorado Avalanche:
Saturday gave fans the much-awaited rematch between the Florida Panthers and the Colorado Avalanche. The last meeting gave viewers a crazy high-scoring match with each team going on scoring runs and ultimately ended in an 8-4 Cats victory. Head Coach Paul Maurice was sticking with the mixed-up lines from the previous game and had Bob back in the net; Georgiev was the goaltender for the Avs. Barkov’s line was the starting forwards, with Forsling-Ekblad on defense. Florida would get possession first and get a shot from Verhaeghe that went wide. A late penalty call on Ekblad gave the Avs the first powerplay of the night just 2:47 into the game. Bob made a great save on a PP shot with 16:53 to go. MacKinnon’s shot got blocked by the Panthers’ defense, followed by Kulikov breaking up a play and Forsling clearing the zone. Bob made one final save as the man advantage ended for Colorado. Bobrovsky came up big one more time when the Avalanche got a shot directly off a faceoff win. The Cats responded by getting offensive zone time which saw shots from Forsling, Montour, Rodrigues, and Lundell, however, none of the shots made it to the net.
The Panthers had good pace and tempo to start the game, but Colorado was outshooting them 5-1. Forsling got another shot off with Cousins there to play the rebound, but Georgiev made the save. O’Connor was guilty of the first penalty of the game for tripping Forsling. Coming into this game, Florida had scored PP goals in their last s consecutive games. After Washington scouted the PP tendencies, the Cats made some adjustments. Barkov made a last-second pass to Verhaeghe after Georgiev had committed to Barkov’s shot, and that gave Verhaeghe a near completely open net to shoot at. That brings Verhaeghe to a career-high eight PP goals and 26 goals on the season. Colorado responded with some offensive pressure of their own, but Bobrovsky was there to make all the necessary saves to keep the lead. Toews would give the Cats their second PP on the night after he got called for hooking. Verhaeghe got a one-timer shot that was saved. However, that freed up Reinhart enough to score. His one-timer shot went top shelf right under the crossbar. Barkov was down at the goal line, he passed to Tkachuk, who was at the faceoff circle, and then a no-look pass right to Reinhart in the slot to score 16:55 into the period. Reinhart is now up to 39 goals on the year and 22 PP goals. Barkov and Tkachuk are both tied to lead the team with 39 assists. The bottom six went back to work, and Lomberg got a couple of shots off that hit the post and got deflected out of play. Luostarinen had a sharp-angle shot blocked away. The offense is humming, Tkachuk has had multi-point games in five out of the last seven, and Barkov has had 11 assists in his last 11 games. The Panthers end the period with a 2-0 lead.
The middle period was sheer Florida dominance over the Avs’ lethal offense. The Cats utilized a strong forecheck and clogged up the neutral zone to keep Colorado out of the offensive zone for the majority of the period. The first shots came from Ekblad, Cousins, Kulikov, and Tkachuk. All the chances were saved, but Florida has a shoot-first mentality this period. When Colorado finally managed to get out of their zone, Bob was waiting at the other end to make all the saves; even through traffic, he was seeing the puck well. The next wave of shot chances came from Forsling, Mikkola, Montour, Kulikov, and Rodrigues. The Avs were putting bodies on the line to block shots, and Georgiev was able to stop the ones that didn’t get blocked. Bob made a great poke check on a Colorado chance, allowing Cousins to jump on the loose puck and take it back into the Avs zone. Barkov’s line was matched up against MacKinnon’s, but they were able to be the more physical team and hold the offensive pressure on. Bobrovsky was able to make a save on a long shot from Colorado that came from the blue line. The hardworking bottom six got rewarded for a second game in a row, Luostarinen scored on a rebound that came from Kulikov’s shot, 3-0 the lead 17:52 in the 2nd period. That’s Luostarinen’s 10th goal of the season, and what’s more impressive is that he made the shot while he was falling to the ice. Florida was outworking the Avs this period, a rare shot Colorado in the dying seconds got to Bob who made the blocker save. The Cats were skating a clean game and not allowing Colorado any chances on the powerplay. Time ticked down, and Florida headed into the 3rd period with a 3-0 lead, and they outshot the Avs 28-9 in just that period.
The Cats didn’t let up as the 3rd period started; they hit the 40 SOG mark just two minutes into the period. The starting five minutes gave the Panthers shots from Verhaeghe, Reinhart, and Lomberg before the Avalanche finally got a chance that Bob saved through traffic. Makar turned the puck over to Lundell, who got it to Luostarinen, but the shot went wide. The Cats blocked a couple of shots before heading back on the attack, with both Forsling and Barkov getting looks. Bobrovsky made a great save on a wraparound attempt with 11:51 left to play. Lundell hip-checked MacKinnon, he was then slow to get to the bench and eventually headed down the tunnel; MacKinnon didn’t return to the game. Colorado turned the puck over to Barkov, who outwaited Georgiev and then scored with 9:20 left to play to give the Panthers a 4-0 lead. Some fantastic saves from Bobrovsky had the crowd chanting “Bob-by” in appreciation. Barkov passed a turned-over puck just out of reach of Verhaeghe in a rare miscue. The Avalanche found a little bit of offense late in the period, but Bob was there making the saves to keep them scoreless. Time ran out, and the Cats swept the series with Colorado, this time in shutout fashion. That gives Head Coach Paul Maurice his 850th win and solo 5th Place on the All-Time Wins list. This was probably the best game Florida has played all season, and they shut down the best-scoring offense in the league. It was Bobrovsky’s first career shutout against the Avs. Ending the week on a high note, Florida travels to meet the Pittsburg Penguins on Wednesday to start the week-long road trip.
