A bit of Finland followed the Panthers home as the team showed up to the rink once again wearing the customized robes. It turns out that Sasha Barkov texted the team, telling them to wear them again since they’re undefeated while wearing them on game day. Everyone committed to wearing them, and if they’re superstitious, then it worked because the Panthers walked away with another win, this time against Nashville. Head Coach Paul Maurice said in his media availability following the game that he thinks the robes make the team show up on time since it takes some courage to walk into an NHL rink in the robes. The game with Nashville featured all the expected parts of a Florida game, depth goal scoring, an unending parade to the penalty box, and a defense that frustrates the opponent.
Goal Scoring Frenzy:
The Panthers’ offense has been scorching since getting Barkov and Tkachuk back into the lineup. They scored ten goals in two games while in Finland, getting goals from every line. Thursday night was no different, although this game would feature the top six forwards pulling most of the scoring weight. The sheer amount of penalties made ice time more difficult to manage, and as such, the top two lines saw a lot of action. But before the game got out of hand, Barkov forced a turnover and then made a crisp cross-ice pass to an open Reinhart. Reinhart then skated around the defenders and pulled Wedgewood out of position allowing him to put in a wraparound attempt. While the puck did hit Wedgewood’s pad, the pad was behind the goal line, and Florida took a 1-0 lead just three and a half minutes in. Just under two minutes later, the lead extended to 2-0 with a Tkachuk goal. A quick transition off a Nashville shot that went wide saw a stretch pass make it to Tkachuk. With Verhaeghe in tow, Tkachuk used Verhaeghe as a decoy to fool the defense, the initial shot bounced off a defenseman but went right back to Tkachuk, who put it into the net. After that, the goalies settled down in the period and there were no more goals scored, although Bobrovsky barely saw any action in the opening twenty minutes. Florida broke the game wide open in the second period, with Rodrigues scoring just two minutes into the period. Just as a powerplay ends, the puck gets rimmed around the boards by Bennett, where Rodrigues picked it up. With plenty of time and space to work with, Rodrigues put the puck in the net on a high bar-down shot, a 3-0 lead for the Panthers. Near the halfway point of the period, the Cats finally converted a man advantage for a 4-0 lead. Quick and accurate passing set up Cater Verhaeghe for his third goal of the season. While the puck was bouncing when he got it, he was able to settle it down quickly and flip a backhander over Wedgewood. The Predators would answer with a powerplay goal of their own off a Stamkos one-timer that has burned the Cats so frequently. But, with less than a minute to go, Verhaeghe scored his second goal of the night. Solid passing and zone entry speed set up a 2-on-1 with Verhaeghe and Barkov, and once again, Verhaeghe shot the bar down to give Florida the 5-1 lead going into the final period. The final period was nearly all special teams and in trying to even out the ice time, HC Paul Maurice put out his third powerplay unit that had his fourth-line players on it. The move would be rewarded as Tomas Nosek scored, while it was a bit of an awkward goal it was Nosek’s first career powerplay goal. The pass from Schmidt hit both of Nosek’s skates and then found its way past the goal line. Although Nashville would score a response goal from Parssinen, the Panthers took the 6-2 win.
Parade of Penalties:
The Panthers take penalties, that’s nothing new, so seeing a game filled with penalties isn’t out of the ordinary. Just look at any of their games against Ottawa or Arizona last season. However, it was Nashville that got called for the most infractions. A big fight at the end of the second period carried over some nastiness into the third, and as a result, there was barely a whistle without a penalty. The first period wasn’t too bad, with just three penalties, Luostarinen (tripping), Evangelista (high-sticking), and Schenn (holding). Both team’s PKs were sharp to start the match with the Predators touting the top PK in the NHL. The second period got more undisciplined by Nashville, with them taking three out of the four penalties, while Florida only had one infraction: Stamkos (hooking), Josi (tripping), McCarron (tripping), Forsling (tripping). Each team scored one goal on the man advantage in the period. A late hit by L’Heureux set off a full team fight after the period had ended, with Nosek going straight after him. Four rouging penalties were given out one each to Nosek, Greer, L’Heureux, and McCarron. Even strength play would be fleeing in the final twenty minutes as another fight sent Bennett and Schenn to the box for rouging. And then about every three to four minutes another player would go to box; Mikkola (2:21, slashing), Schenn (6:30, interference), Balinskis (6:47, holding), Del Gaizo (10:17, holding the stick), Marchessault (12:42, slashing), Mikkola (12:42, cross-checking), and finally Luostarinen (15:27, cross-checking). The final twenty minutes were very undisciplined from both sides. Florida went 2 for 7 on the powerplay, while Nashville went 1 for 5.
Defense Suffocates:
The stifling defense of Florida held the Predators to just 18 SOG. In the process, they blocked ten shots or forced shots to go wide of the net, or just plain disrupted play before Nashville could get significant pressure going. The Preds had a couple of good pressure moments but they were few and far between the Florida offensive zone dominance. I think the frustration on the Predators’ side showed up in all the penalties in the final period over not being able to get anything going offensively. The defense allowed for the offense to quickly transition back into the Nashville zone which gave the Cats enough time to set someone up for a goal or to put the puck in deep and get to work forechecking and cycling. While the Panthers only had 21 hits to the Preds 38 that’s largely in part to how well the defense did in keeping the puck out of their own zone. Another strong showing from Florida has them on a six-game win streak and the longest active period scoring streak in the NHL at 15 straight periods with a goal.
Florida takes on Fliers on Saturday at home.
