The Florida Panthers will head back to the drawing board on Thursday and try to find a way to shake off the little three game losing streak they find themselves on.

It’s not a particularly maddening 0-1-2 stretch, aside from the losses themselves, because for the most part, Florida hasn’t played that badly.

Still, losses are losses, and if Florida wants to maintain its cozy little perch above the majority of the Eastern Conference, the Cats better start piling up the wins again.

Before we move on, let’s get to the takeaways from Wednesday night:

Frustration with late calls

There weren’t many penalties called during the second half of Wednesday’s game. Unfortunately, the only calls made during the third period drew quite a bit of scrutiny.

First came the hooking call on Robby Fabbri, but the hook caused Evan Rodrigues to fall to the ice, and official Jake Brenk deemed it embellishment on the part of Rodrigues.

Instead of a key, late power play for Florida, the teams skated 4-on-4.

Then in the final minute of the period, Aaron Ekblad was called for hooking Alex DeBrincat despite letting go of his stick after it got lodged into DeBrincat’s midsection.

Both Ekblad and Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice were furious with the call, and odds are some of that fire was left over from the call on Rodrigues.

Now there is always one topic that Maurice always tries to stay away from when talking to the media, and that’s criticizing the officiating.

Asked after the game what upset him the most about how things played out, Maurice offered an answer that didn’t get into specifics but still let us know how he was feeling.

“I don’t know that…I think it was just the way that the change of…yeah, I don’t want to your question, how about that?” Maurice said. “I'm not going to lie to you, but I don’t want to answer that question.”

Not playing that badly

Much like after the loss to Anaheim on Monday, the Panthers aren’t finding the need to kick themselves following defeats the way they did earlier in the season.

Even when Florida has come out of the style that they’ve, at times, appeared to perfect, it doesn’t take very long to snap back into things.

Unfortunately, those lapses have been joined by a plethora of penalties, goal posts and blown leads.

“I don't think we've been that far off really in our last three,” Maurice said. “I don't think we're given up a whole heck of a lot. We're not finishing around the net as much as we'd like, but hard games, and the other teams are battling hard.”

Throwback line looks great

With Sasha Barkov out of the lineup due to a lower-body injury, Maurice reunited a line that was both productive and consistent during last season’s playoff run.

Scorching hot Sam Reinhart slid to the wing of Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen’s line, and the trio picked right up where they left off.

While Reinhart and Lundell teamed up on Reino’s second period shorthanded goal, the forward line was downright dominant at even strength when looking at the advanced metrics, out-chancing Detroit 8-0.

“I liked his game,” Maurice said of Lundell. “I thought Reinhart has just been the best forward in so many ways for us. He’s played so well. I didn't mind that line at all.”

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