Three takeaways: Even strength excellence can't rescue power play issues as Panthers road trip ends in disappointment
Florida lost multiple games on its road trip despite controlling play at even strength
The Florida Panthers ended their five-game western North American road trip with a bit of a bad taste in their collective mouths following Monday’s 3-1 defeat in Calgary.
It wasn’t just the loss that was frustrating, it was the fact that in two of Florida’s three losses on the road trip, they were arguably the better team.
Not that it made a difference in the short term, as the Panthers lost by a combined score of 7-1 in those two better team games.
Looking at the big picture, it’s important for Florida to play a consistent brand of winning hockey, and for the most part, that’s what they’ve been doing.
Games like Seattle and Calgary are going to irk the fanbase, but they are also not going to drive the coaching staff too crazy.
As long as the Cats continue to perform the way they're being asked, odds are they're going to win a lot more games than they're not.
Here are the three takeaways from Monday's showdown at the Saddledome:
Solid effort in defeat
Once again the Panthers put forth a solid effort, but this time things did not fall their way.
Jacob Markstrom was excellent in goal for Calgary, which capitalized on some friendly bounces to score a pair of third period shorthanded goals.
The Panthers were the better team at even strength, looking at the advanced metrics, but when a hot goaltender keeps a team in a game, the smallest of things can shape the outcome.
“I think for the for the fifth game of a trip, the first 40 minutes we're real happy with,” Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said afterwards. “The shorthanded goal set you back, and then we're chasing after that.”
Power play struggles
It wasn’t just that Florida’s power play came up empty on four of its five opportunities, it’s that two of those missed chances also included Calgary scoring a shorthanded goal.
The Panthers penalty kill has been one of the strengths of the team, and it was a perfect 5-for-5 on Saturday, but the power play is taking a while to round into form.
Losses like this one to Calgary are games that could swing the other way if Florida were holding the special teams edge.
“Tight games on the road, you're looking for your power play to be the difference,” Maurice said. “Tonight it struggled a little bit.”
Finally going home
After five games in five cities in two countries over ten days, the Panthers are finally getting home on Tuesday.
The trip was already Florida’s second visit to the Pacific Time Zone, and we haven’t even hit Christmas yet.
Through the Panthers first 31 games, 18 have come away from Amerant Bank Arena.
Florida has rung up a 9-7-2 road record, which is nothing to sneeze at, but now they’ll get a nice run of time on home ice.
Over the next month, the Panthers will play four of their next five games in Sunrise, and nine of their next 14.
“We’ve got 18 road games under our belt,” Maurice said. “We’ve been a pretty good team on the road, and we've been a real good team at home, so it’ll be good to get home.”
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