Nobody in the NHL has scored more shorthanded goals than Sam Reinhart and the Panthers

That four-game losing streak sure seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?

Well, not really, but it’s still been a solid holiday week for the Florida Panthers.

The Cats built on their 5-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday with a solid 6-3 road win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.

With cleaner zone exits, longer zone time and more overall physicality, the Panthers are getting back to what has made them so successful over the past several seasons.

We’ll be getting right back at it for Saturday’s rematch soon enough, but here are the takeaways from Florida’s muscle-flexing win in Raleigh.

CATS USED THEIR NOGGINS

Even with Carolina missing their top two goaltenders, playing in the Hurricanes’ barn is never an easy thing.

They came into the game with a 9-1-0 record at Lenovo Center, after all.

Florida played smart hockey when they had the puck, and that was a big part of their success against Carolina.

It wasn’t just the smart, quick passes to get out of their zone or turning over the Hurricanes with strong neutral zone structure, it was what they did with the puck after making those plays.

Considering all the talent on the Panthers roster, if they’re also playing a thoughtful game, you’d think that would make them a pretty difficult team to overcome.

“I know we had a lead here after one, but I liked the big block of the second period, and then we were pretty solid there in the third,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “I thought we were right on our decisions to get pucks deep, but there was still some creativity in our game, we were still making plays, and you don't want to just bang the puck out against this team because their counter games too good. So I thought we managed the puck well mentally based on the score.”

WELL-ROUNDED FORWARD GROUP

The Panthers received contributions from all over the lineup on Friday.

Not only did six different Cats cash in with goals, but all four of Florida’s forward lines were represented on that list.

With the Panthers operating at full health, they have an extremely deep forward group.

Rolling four lines is a luxury that Maurice and his staff have enjoyed, even if it’s not always easy to keep the minutes where he’d like.

“It's good because it was one of those funny nights that I had lots of time for the Nosek line, I just didn't play them a lot,” Maurice said. “We got into all the penalty trouble at the end of the first and sometimes it's just the way the TV timeouts fall. They've got a hard match, which we're all right with on the road, we were okay with the way the matchup was being played out, so Nosek’s line didn't get as much ice as they deserved, but all the lines had, I thought, a pretty solid identity to their game.”

ANOTHER SHORTY

It probably comes as no surprise to you that the Panthers lead the NHL in shorthanded goals.

They’re up to seven thanks to Anton Lundell’s shorty on Friday. Sam Reinhart had one during Wednesday’s win over Toronto and leads the league with four.

Florida has also had four different shorthanded goal scorers this season, with Sasha Barkov and Gus Forsling joining Reinhart and Lundell.

All this shorthanded offense comes as the Panthers penalty kill has remained one of the better units in the league over the past several seasons.

For his part, Maurice says it has absolutely nothing to do with him.

“I’ve got no idea,” Maurice said. “In truth, I stopped going into the penalty kill meetings in November of last year, and that's when it took off. I'm not joking. It's almost the exact day it got better. Barkov and Reinhart have been the big scorers. What they do is they pick the right time to go. It's not a philosophy where we're trying to press the game every time we touch the puck we're trying to score. It's just two really, really smart guys and if there's any advantage, they take it, and if not, they just get it down and come off. I don't find us to be one of those hyper aggressive up ice teams, they’re just two really, really smart guys. One's a Selkie (Trophy winner), the other scored 57 (goals), so they can do some things.”

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