It was a bit of a mixed-bag week for the Cats as they had back-to-back home games against New Jersey and capped off the homestead with a game against Winnipeg. There was an abundance of PIMs going around as each game featured one 1v1 fist fight and a multitude of team fights. Florida struggled against the Devils in their two games but got a big win against the Jets to close the week out. HC Paul Maurice was especially unhappy with the second Devils’ game and had said that there were only three shifts that he was happy with. However, the ship righted itself the following game and Florida found its game again.
New Jersey Devils:
The Panthers struggle against teams that utilize a lot of speed, which was clearly on display in the two games with Jersey. The Tuesday night game was a lot closer than the score would indicate as the Panthers got their usual shot volume and hits as well as dominating the faceoff circle. But the Devils were the ones that walked away with the win that night as they put up four goals on Spence Knight. Knight was facing down Markstrom at the other end, who’s only allowed one goal in each of his last seven games, and this one was no different. The only Florida goal came on the power play, where Balinskis made a beautiful shot from the point that Reinhart tipped in. There were plenty of scoring chances for the Cats, especially at the front of the net, but Markstrom was on his A-game and had those covered. One thing of note is that the Panthers were without Sam Bennett for the first game, which led to what I thought was a bit of a confusing choice. Normally, when one of the centers is out, HC Paul Maurice will adjust up the centers and slot the new center in on the fourth line, but that’s not what happened for this game. Instead, Maurice opted to put Jesper Boqvist in at center with Verhaeghe and Tkachuk on the second line. Not that Jesper has been doing a poor job for Florida, but center isn’t his natural position and he’s been much more effective as the third or fourth-line winger. When they did have Jesper playing center when Barkov and Nosek were out, he was playing it on the third line and fourth line. The Panthers hit a handful of goalposts and crossbars with bounces that didn’t quite go their way, or Markstrom quickly picked up the rebound. In addition to Markstrom having a great night, the Devils also blocked a lot of shots as they held the 9-21 advantage. Florida gave up a handful of breakaways as well, and Jersey converted one into a goal. Gadjovich dropped gloves with Dillion in the second period, and he spent most of the fight with his jersey pulled over his eyes. That didn’t stop him from still throwing big punches before the officials broke things up. The 1-4 loss looks worse on paper than it was.
The game two rematch started off alright before things descended into chaos. While Jersey opened the scoring for a second straight night, Jesper Boqvist scored just two minutes later to tie it. It was a great goal as well, Boqvist skated his way through the defense and used patience to make Allen make a move first before he put the puck to the net; Tkachuk made a great cross-ice pass to the open Boqvist. It looked like it was going to be a tie game going into the second, but a late penalty by Verhaeghe put the Devils on the man advantage. In the final seconds of the period, Bratt found the back of the net and New Jersey took a 1-2 lead going into the second. Reinhart tied it early in the second off a shot he took from the faceoff circle. Barkov won the faceoff, and Reinhart picked up the puck; the defense gave him plenty of time and space to make the shot and tie the game. However, a Forsling penalty put Jersey on the powerplay, and the Florida PK had a bad night, so the Mercer scored to give the Devils a 2-3 lead. Once again, it looked like that would be how the period would end when Mikkola got called for the most questionable penalty of the night for interference. With the PK still struggling, Nosen scored his second of the game and put the Devils up 2-4 going into the final period. More penalties in the third for both sides, with the biggest one handed out going to Gadjovich and MacDermid for fighting. Florida’s PK finally managed to kill off penalties in the final period, but it was a moot point by then. A short-handed goal and a 5v5 goal scored by Bratt for a hat trick gave Jersey the 2-6 win. This game was plagued by undisciplined penalties from the Panthers, killing any momentum they had going and being slow both in execution and speed to the puck. HC Paul Maurice said as much in his post-game presser that the team was a half-step slow, and that can kill you. Kill the Cats, it did, and they went into Saturday’s game against Winnipeg looking to put forth a better effort.
Winnipeg Jets
A meeting with the top team in the NHL and the defending Stanley Cup Champions promised to be a great match. With a playoff-esque feel to the game and a goalie duel between Bobrovsky and Hellebuyck, the Panthers showed up big time and took control of the game from the start. Samoskevich drew back into the lineup after sitting out both games against New Jersey, and he had an impact on the game in the first period. Mackie threw a nice hit to force a turnover, the puck ended up on Forsling’s stick who then made a pass back to Samoskevich, Mackie then put the puck to the net for a 1-0 lead that they’d take into the second period. The Panthers busted the game wide open in the second. Nate Schmidt picked up a rebound from a Bennett shot, and he used his heavy slap shot to beat Hellebuyck; Reinhart got the secondary assist to extend his points streak to ten straight games. Ekblad’s shot got saved, Barkov picked up the rebound, but that was also saved, and then Evan Rodrigues picked up that rebound chance and put it to the back of the goal for the 3-0 lead. Florida wasn’t done scoring either, as a Barkov/Reinhart 2-on-1 chance converted into a Barkov goal for the 4-0 lead. Through 40 minutes, it had been a much better effort from the Cats, and they played it like a playoff game, which always puts more juice into their playstyle. The third period was nothing but penalties and fighting. Through all that chaos, Kulikov scored his third goal of the season during a 4v4 for the 5-0 lead, with Barkov and Reinhart getting the assists. The visibly frustrated Jets got more undisciplined as the game progressed, and the Panther lead grew. By the third period, five players were thrown out (Greer, Miller, Bennett, Poink, Namestnikov) with game misconducts. Ekblad fought Scheifele to defend Forsling after Scheifele threw a late hit so they both got five minutes. Tkachuk (tripping) and Scheifele (roughing) were the only singular minor penalties given out. The Cats defensively had a much stronger game and got into both the passing and shooting lanes. The Jets’ PP had been tearing teams up but Florida’s PK found its feet and killed off both power players and the 4v4 while scoring short-handed. Bobrovsky had an outstanding game, saving all 27 SOG for the first shutout of his career against Winnipeg. All in all, it was just the game the Cats needed to find their foundation again after two tough losses.
Next week Florida travels to Winnipeg and Chicago and finishes up at home against Colorado.
