Three takeaways: Samoskevich moves to Lundell line, tired Panthers play smart game
Florida enters the All-Star break on a four-game winning streak and with the most road victories in the league
Winning on the second night of a back-to-back is never an easy task, and it’s exponentially more difficult when both games are played on the road.
Well that’s exactly what the Florida Panthers did on Friday in Pittsburgh and Saturday on Long Island, picking up a pair of wins, one in a shootout and the second in overtime, by the same 3-2 final score.
Florida will now head into the All-Star break on a nice four-game winning streak and overall riding an impressive 13-2-2 run.
They've also got more road wins than any team in the NHL.
The win over the Islanders provided a nice little boost for the Cats, who grinded and earned a win while struggling to bring the same kind of fire due playing a third game in four nights and spending a week playing four games in four different cities in six days.
Here are your last takeaways before the All-Star break:
Samoskevich, Reinhart swap lines
Over the past couple games, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice tried something a little different with his forward lines.
With rookie Mackie Samoskevich up from the American Hockey League and top line center Sasha Barkov returning from a three-game absence due to a lower-body injury, Maurice took the opportunity to pair the two up and play them on the same forward line.
It helped that during Barkov’s absence, Sam Reinhart did not skip a beat while skating with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.
On Saturday, Maurice moved Reinhart back to Barkov’s wing and placed Samoskevich with the young Finns.
As he explained after the game, that was his original plan.
Perhaps, with Samoskevich continuing to improve and play well with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, there is a thought of him joining the Panthers for a playoff run and making the forward group that much deeper.
“My original idea with all of this was to see Samoskevich play with Lundell and Luostarinen. That's what I wanted to see,” Maurice said. “We brought him back up, Barkov happened to get hurt, so the whole thing kind of just timed out for the other line to go back together, for Samoskevich to start with Barkov, but that's what I wanted to see, and I was happy with it. He draws a penalty, rightfully so, I thought he was as good as the rest of the hockey team in terms of some of his defensive assignments, but he's back, he's here now (and) he's trying stuff. You want a young guy to figure out what he can get away with and what he can’t. We want him to get away with as much as he possibly can, but there are certain kinds of rules you have to adhere to. This stint here, he was very, very good. I thought he was more dynamic, tried more stuff, you see the confidence in him starting to grow. So (changing the lines) wasn't an emotion, it was a balancing of the lines. I talked to Bill (Zito) about 10 days ago I said I'd like to see Samoskevich with Lundell and Luostarinen at some point possibly before the break, so I wanted to see it tonight."
OEL deserved OT winner
Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s solid bounce-back season in South Florida continues to go well.
He’s been incredibly steady since putting on a Panthers sweater, whether playing on the top pairing, bottom pairing, top power play or penalty kill.
That’s why it was nice to see OEL rewarded with Saturday’s overtime winner, a night after he logged a pair of assists in the win over Pittsburgh.
“He's played incredibly hard for us and incredibly well,” Maurice said of Ekman-Larsson. “You like to spread those overtime, special goals around a little bit and he’s earned one.”
Tired Cats played a smart game
As previously mentioned, it was a long week for Panthers.
It started with a 4-1 win in Nashville on Monday followed by Wednesday’s 6-2 drubbing of the Arizona Coyotes on home ice.
Then came Friday and Saturday’s road back-to-back against the Penguins and Islanders, another couple wins, though these each took more than 60 minutes.
Florida had every reason in the book to do anything but go 4-0-0 this week and close it out with a well-earned win while playing with tired legs.
“I think we couldn't move the puck the way we normally would, we lost some battles, our legs maybe weren't there, but we weren't foolish with what we did,” Maurice said. “We kind of accepted alright, we're running at about 60 to 70% gas, let's not put ourselves in a position that we get into a track meet in this one. There were a lot of dumped pucks by both teams. Neither team forced the issue at the offensive line, they weren't trying to create stuff and neither were we. It was a grinder that we just got real comfortable with.”
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