Three takeaways: Panthers ride strong defensive effort, timely forward play to victory over Carolina
The defensive play by Florida is light years ahead of where it was at this time last season
Things have been quite going well for the Florida Panthers in recent weeks.
On Friday, the Panthers hosted the Carolina Hurricanes in what was a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference Final.
The game would prove to be a continuation of Florida’s winning ways, with the Cats earning a convincing 5-2 victory at Amerant Bank Arena.
Florida is now 8-2-1 over its past 11 games and seem to be picking up steam at a great time.
Let’s jump right into THN’s three takeaways from Friday’s big dub.
Perfect Night For Penalty Kill
Florida’s early season issues while down a man have been well documented.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice hasn’t seemed overly frustrated, at least not to this point, and that’s likely due to him understanding that the combination of new players and a slightly different system on the PK would take some time to find cohesion.
After killing off both Washington Capitals penalties during Wednesday’s overtime win in DC, the Panthers went a sparkling 3-for-3 on the PK Friday against Carolina.
The cherry on top is that Florida allowed exactly zero power play shots to the Hurricanes.
“I think what's happened is (Eetu) Luostarinen and (Kevin) Stenlund now have built a chemistry together and then (Anton) Lundell and we used (William) Lockwood tonight on the kill…It's a new system that we're running, it took a little while to get, but I think our aggression is starting to show and that only comes when the players get a good handle on what they're trying to do,” said Maurice.
Bobrovsky Struggles With Rebound Control
An area of Sergei Bobrovsky’s game that the veteran goaltender has struggled with during his tenure with the Panthers has been rebound control.
This season, however, Bob has been much better in that department, and it’s been noticeable.
That wasn’t the case on Friday night though, as Bobrovsky had a hard time keeping his rebounds from going into high-danger areas.
Carolina ended up with six rebounds shots on goal, per Natural Stat Trick, scoring on two of them, but there were several second-chance looks that could have gone poorly for Florida if not for the team playing very solid defense in front of their goaltender.
THN Florida asked Bobrovsky after the game about what makes one game more difficult to control rebounds than another.
“It depends what’s going on in front of you and whether you see the puck or not,” Bobrovsky explained. “If you’re fighting for vision, it's hard to control and you try to block it.”
Very Strong Game By Eetu
While Florida’s third line didn’t have the best night in terms of advanced metrics, left wing Eetu Luostarinen’s game more than passed the eye test.
He was active on both ends of the ice, picked up an assist on Uvis Balinskis’ first NHL goal and his overall effort earned some praise from his head coach.
“I thought Eetu Luostarinen had his best game of the year by far,” Maurice said after the game. “He was outstanding tonight.”
Eetu finished with an assist, a plus-1 rating, a blocked shot and two shots on goal, but he was also hard on the puck, played some suffocating defense and was his usual, active self while working on the penalty kill.
Both he and Anton Lundell appear to be turning a corner, and the pair is expected to be reunited in the not-too-distant future once Sam Bennett returns from injury.
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