Florida has lost two straight and now will play three divisional road games in four nights

The Florida Panthers hit the road on Sunday, flying across the border to Canada for three games against a trio of Atlantic Division rivals.

Before heading to the airport, the Panthers took the ice at Amerant Bank Arena for a high-energy practice under the watchful eye of Head Coach Paul Maurice.

“We needed to deal with some things from our last outing,” Maurice said. “So we did that this morning, and then did it on the ice.”

Florida has lost each of its past two games – Wednesday against Boston and Friday to Winnipeg – the latter of which being possibly the worst collective game of the young season for the Panthers.

Maurice said as much when addressing the media after the 3-0 loss to the Jets. 

Sunday morning, back inside their home barn, Florida’s players gathered for what was likely an uncomfortable video session before taking out their frustrations on the ice.

“We all get paid to perform, and when you’ve got 16 of your 19 guys that played were lousy, the coaches have got to take some heat for that too,” Maurice said. “I didn't like my job. I didn't get my job done the other night, so I got to come to the rink yesterday to get prepared for today, and then you’ve got to get your job done today. It’s the easiest thing in the world to say, ‘you know, the guys were no good,’ but I get paid for a simple thing. It's to prepare a hockey team. It may not be that simple, but that's my job. I didn't like my performance, I didn't like their performance, so we dealt with it today.”

It wasn’t a particularly long practice, but you can bet the players were skating with purpose.

For his part, Maurice could be heard shouting instructions and voicing his opinion at times, according to those who were there to witness it.

“When we went out there, we wanted to not just get through practice, but put in a day's work and earn it,” Maurice said. “Earn the right to be better tomorrow. So I'll do everything I can to be really good tomorrow and expect the players to the same.”

The Panthers will kick off their three-game-in-four-night extravaganza on Monday night in Ottawa with the first half of a back-to-back set against the Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Florida will wrap up the relatively quick trip on Thursday night in Montreal.

Considering the Panthers are coming off consecutive losses and were particularly unhappy with how they performed in the second of those defeats, they should be properly motivated for this challenging few days.

“I wouldn't minimize it,” Maurice said. “This is like a playoff week, right? Every game has (importance), whether this week happens now, or it happens in March, it's the same thing. We've liked most of our hockey in the first 20 (games), but we still have to get better and we've got to improve in some areas. So it'll be a good test.”

UPDATE ON MAHURA

Defenseman Josh Mahura was back on the ice with his teammates on Sunday for the first time since being placed on Injured Reserve a couple weeks ago.

He was wearing a gold, non-contract jersey, but it was a nice step in the right direction for the young blueliner.

“That's the first stage,” said Maurice. “I would think that over the next three or four days, he'll get out of that sweater, get out the gold and get into a red, and then once that happens, we'll get leaning on him and get banging on him, and then he'd be ready to play.”

Maurice added that he still thinks Mahrua is in a window of “seven-to-10 days” where he could return to the lineup. 

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