It was an eventful night for the Florida Panthers from start to finish. They raised their Stanley Cup Banner, got into plenty of fights, scored a lot of goals, and won their first game of the season. The biggest part of their game that needs improvement right now is special teams. If there’s one weakness the Cats have, it’s that, they gave up two goals to the Bruins on special teams, one powerplay goal and one short-handed goal. Some of the struggles could be due to Adam Boqvist taking a puck to the face in the first period and then leaving the rest of the game, but I don’t think it’s just that, as during the preseason, they gave up several short-handed goals. Overall, though, it was a strong start to the Panthers’ title defense season.
No Cup Hangover:
There was talk from both the Panthers and HC Paul Maurice during preseason that they didn’t believe in Cup Hangover, and that belief was on full display Tuesday night. Florida started hot in the first period and looked every bit like a team wanting to go back-to-back. The Cats struck first with two quick goals from Sam Bennett and Eetu Luostarinen in the first half of the period. Bennett tipped in a rebound off a Rodrigues shot for the opening goal of the season. The whole play started with Kulikov playing low in the o-zone, cycling the puck back behind the net, and then up to Rodrigues. The coaching staff is expecting a big year from Florida’s third line, specifically Lundell and Luostarinen, and that line had a great night. Lundell cycled the puck low toward the net, and Luostarinen cleaned up the loose puck for a 2-0 lead just seven and a half minutes into the period; Reinhart got the secondary assist. Reinhart got his second point of the game with an incredible short-handed goal where he shot the puck with his stick over the Boston defender’s right in on the glove side for Florida’s third goal of the period. Bennett made things 4-1 before the period ended as he tapped in the rebound from AJ Greer’s shot. Jonah Gadjovich put the Cats up 5-1 off a great play from the fourth line. Jesper Boqvist was centering the bottom line and made a beautiful cross-ice pass to Gadjovich, which he redirected into the net. It’s not often that a team can almost completely restructure one of their forward lines and have it get better, but that may be the case here and that’s with Tomas Nosek out injured. Evan Rodrigues, with a nasty wrister shot, gave the Panthers a 6-2 lead in the third period en route to their 6-4 win over the Bruins. As far as opening nights go, this was a great one for the Panthers, and the things that made them great are still there, including having good depth scoring. It looks like the team hasn’t missed a beat, even with all the new pieces.
Return of Fight Club:
If you’ve watched Florida and Boston play at any point in the last year and a half or so, then it’s no surprise at all that fighting and chippiness occurred throughout the game. The new Panthers players got a proper welcome to what things are like with AJ Greer and Kastelic getting into a fight just six minutes into the period. Both were given five-minute major penalties for fighting, and the temperature didn’t simmer down either. Two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were called on Boston, and four roughing penalties were split between the two teams, and you can throw in a cross-checking penalty to Boston’s side as well. Right after Rodrigues scored his goal, it looked like Bennett had just skated into Korpisalo and taken him out. Upon closer inspection of the video of the incident, it seems like Carlo either trips or pushes Bennett into Korpisalo. However, you can argue that Bennett should’ve given himself more space to not be that close to the blue paint at that time. Either way, the result was a fight between Boston and Florida, rightly so, players should always defend their goalies regardless of whose fault it was. On the night, the Panthers failed to convert on six of their powerplays, while Boston converted one of four powerplays into a goal. Florida had 15 penalty minutes to Boston’s 19.
Special Teams Struggles:
Special teams was an interesting part of Florida’s game last season. At one point, the powerplay looked nearly unstoppable, and the PK was just good, only for things to flip in the latter part of the regular season and into the playoffs. Florida had a game here and there where the powerplay had a good night, but it wasn’t nearly as consistent as it was when Reinhart was basically automatic on the man’s advantage. They certainly took enough penalties that the PK got a lot of work in right before the playoffs and during the playoffs, where it suffocated opponents. The powerplay needs work, it’s as simple as that. They had some good looks, but unfortunately, with Adam Boqvist taking a puck to the face early in the first period, we didn’t get a good look at what that could look like with him. Florida’s also given up several short-handed goals between preseason and opening night, an issue not unique to Tuesday night but actually dates back to last season. The Panthers can get themselves into a lot of trouble if they keep giving up short-handed chances, especially to teams with high-end scoring talent. While the PK looked pretty good, at this moment in time, I think the presence of Kevin Stenlund is being felt. Stenlund was a big part of the penalty kill, and Lundell had some big shoes to fill as he stepped into that role. He’s absolutely capable of doing so but he still needs time to get more game scenario reps in. It’s far too early in the season for me to say things are concerning on special teams, and it’s definitely a weak spot in their game. But it is worth monitoring to see how things progress during the season.
Capping off an emotional night and a hard game came the surprise news that the Florida Panthers have given Cater Verhaeghe an eight-year extension at $7M AAV. It’s not surprising in the sense that Carter had already stated to the media that he wanted to stay with the Panthers, very reminiscent of what Reinhart said last season before his extension in the summer. The Cats, of course, wanted to keep him, he’s the franchise leader in more than a few playoff stats, and he scored the opening goal of Game 7 of the Cup Final. He’s a clutch player that shows up in the biggest moments of the season, and that’s something you can’t teach, and you can’t coach into someone. With Verhaeghe’s extension, that means that Florida has Barkov, Tkachuk, Reinhart, Verhaeghe, Lundell, and Forsling through at least 2030, giving them plenty of time to win more Cups and be extremely competitive.
Up Next: Florida starts a four-game road trip with Ottawa and Buffalo up first this week.
