Florida is looking more and more like themselves, and doing it against some high-end opponents

Things are starting to feel back to normal around Pantherland.

The Florida Panthers have bounced back from their rough patch earlier this month, reeling off three straight wins capped by Saturday’s 6-0 trouncing of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Not only are the Cats back to pouncing on their opponents, scoring the first goal now in each of their past five games, but they’re also getting back to the group that grinds their opponents into the ground as games progress.

Overall, there is a lot to like about what we’re seeing from the Panthers, especially when compared to just a handful of games ago.

On to Saturday’s takeaways:

ROUNDING BACK INTO FORM

Over the past few games, we’re seeing more and more of the familiar Panthers team that’s become one of the most feared in the NHL.

They’re doing more of the little things we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from Florida since they hired Head Coach Paul Maurice.

Winning boards battles, clean plays below the circles, fluid exits and entries, quick and effective shifts…staples of the Cats over the past several seasons.

Whatever was wrong or malfunctioning with the team appears to have been addressed by Maurice and his staff.

“It's not about kind of almost fixing, it's, okay the problem was identified,” Maurice explained. “The challenge is, it's a really hard game to play. To play that way every night is very, very difficult, and we've been looking for a bit of that emotional ‘where do we get the energy to play like that?’ We haven't had it, and I'm not blaming them. Some of it is, there's about a 10-day block of coming off Finland, but we weren't bad. Both of those New Jersey losses, the game's tied halfway through, so we're not behind it that much, but we're not at our level, our game. So credit to the veterans and the leadership, got the room wound up, there was a recognition that we weren't playing on a high enough level, and they got her going.”

FINISHING STRONG

During their three-game winning streak, Florida has been pretty lights out during the third period.

While yes, the Panthers did hold a multi-goal lead after two periods in each of the wins, they also kept the pressure on and didn’t give their opponents any chance to get off the mat,.

Between Toronto on Wednesday and Carolina on Friday and Saturday, Florida outscored them 9-0 during the third period.

“We’ve been strong in the end, and part of that is that we started strong, especially in the two previous games, and that carried the momentum,” Maurice said. “So we're not burning energy, chasing down turnovers or spending so much time…Carolina's really got a high offensive zone number, they move so well and they skate so well, you spend time in your end, and I thought we mitigated that strength by a strong forecheck.”

KNIGHT LIGHTS OUT

Florida received as strong of a game in goal as you could ask for from Spencer Knight.

He finished the game with 20 saves, and while he was only called upon to make one high danger save, there was a steadiness that he provided in some very shaky moments during the first 40 minutes for the Cats.

Rebound control was also on point for Knight as he picked up his first shutout since Nov. 9, 2022, which was also, ironically, against Carolina.

The upward trajectory for Knight is particularly encouraging considering he’s going to get a healthy amount of starts over the course of the season thanks to Florida’s funky schedule.

“He's building as the season's gone on, from his start tonight to his first start, there's clearly an improvement every time he goes out,” Maurice said. “Our schedule now for the rest of the year says he's just going to get more starts too, and we're still sitting on a lot of back-to-backs coming up. He's also earned them. He's been really good. I don't really look at the goaltenders’ numbers to tell you how he's playing. Tonight, he found pucks through traffic. We did a marvelous job boxing out and when we didn't, he was right there and sharp.”

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