Florida has lost six of their past seven games while Toronto has won seven of eight

It’s been a rough stretch for the Florida Panthers, who are struggling to find their way amid a four-game losing streak.

There is something that has been off with Florida’s play in their own zone.

Between defensive lapses, miscommunications and outright turnovers, it’s been more difficult lately for the Panthers to both keep the puck out of their own net and exit their end of the ice with any consistency fluidity.

Over their past seven outings, six of which have been losses, Florida has allowed an average of 4.3 goals per game, and that’s with a 5-0 shutout of Winnipeg mixed in.

Compare that to the Panthers first 15 games of the season in which they averaged 3.06 goals against per game.

With Florida reeling, Head Coach Paul Maurice put the team through an intense practice on Tuesday, just over 12 hours after they lost 4-1 to the Washington Capitals.

Maurice was quick to take the blame for the way his team has been playing and said it’s on him to find a way to get them back to right.

“One option is you don't like the way your team plays, so you take them on your bag skate them. That's foolish. They haven't earned that. That makes no sense. That the old bag skate, to me, is like one of the first signs – it works every once in a while, especially with a younger team – but you clearly don't have your handle on it, so you're going to take them out and make sure the media knows how tough and mad you are, you’re going to skate them into the ground. That's not what...I don't like the way we're playing.”

Only two Panthers players were not present at Tuesday’s practice.

Anton Lundell was hit in the face with a puck on Monday night and took some stitches as a result, and he was dealing with some residual swelling on Tuesday.

Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov was out today due to a non-hockey medical issue that Maurice revealed was a trip to the dentist.

Both are expected to be in the lineup against the Maple Leafs.

Toronto arrives in Sunrise riding high, winners of four straight and seven of eight.

Between the Leafs’ surge and Florida’s funk, the Cats were leapfrogged by Toronto in the standings.

Entering play Wednesday, the Maple Leafs hold a three point edge on the Panthers with a game in hand. 

Here are the Panthers projected lines and for Wednesday’s tilt with Toronto:

Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Mackie Samoskevich

A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Jesper Boqvist

Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov

Nate Schmidt – Uvis Balinskis

Scratches: Jonah Gadjovich, Adam Boqvist

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