Mission accomplished: Improving penalty kill was goal of Panthers during offseason
A new style and savvy free agent additions have boosted Florida's penalty kill this season
After a bit of a bumpy start to the season, the Florida Panthers penalty kill has become one of the stingiest in the NHL.
It’s an area that Florida struggled throughout last season, and it lingered during their run to the Stanley Cup Final.
When the Panthers’ brass was planning how the team would approach the offseason, the penalty kill was an area they knew needed an upgrade.
“I think what it was is last year we had a problem that we had a hard time fixing, and then this year, we brought in some people that could help us fix it,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice.
One of those people was Kevin Stenlund, a big, right-handed center who is good at reading plays and continuing to improve as a shot blocker.
He has forged a strong connection with Eetu Luostarinen on the penalty kill, and the two have become Florida’s top forward duo when down a man.
On the back end, free agent additions Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov have also emerged as solid penalty killers.
“It makes a big difference. Those guys come in, and we take minutes off (Sasha) Barkov and (Sam) Reinhart,” Maurice said. “I think it's a credit to (Panthers GM) Bill (Zito) and his staff, because we knew the penalty kill was probably the area that we needed to improve the most. It was also the greatest opportunity for us to improve something in our game, and they brought in the people that can help us do that.”
It wasn’t as simple as finding players with penalty kill experience, though.
Florida was going to try something a little different this season on the PK, a more assertive style that would require a bit more effort, energy and focus.
It took a little while for things to start clicking for the Panthers when down a man – between executing the different penalty kill and the new players adjusting – but things have been humming along nicely of late.
“We've gone to a far more aggressive style at the start of this year,” Maurice said. “We're far more aggressive and we kind of paid for it in the first I would say 10 games, so it was a bit of a struggle for us. We had some strange things happen, but nobody wants to hear that, so that just it wasn't very good. And then confidence came through the aggressiveness.”
In addition to free agent additions, another example of a player excelling on the new PK is Gus Forsling, who thrives defending the rush at even strength.
His mobility and skating ability, combined with how well he reads plays, has him emerging as a key member of Florida’s penalty kill.
“It’s built for Gustav’s game,” Maurice said.
Entering Friday’s game against the New York Rangers, Florida has not allowed a power play goal in four straight games, and only one since Dec. 8.
Overall, the Cats’ kill is up to eighth-best in the NHL, operating at an 83.3% success rate.
Expect that number to continue rising as the Panthers get more comfortable with the new kill, and with each other.
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