Florida goes into holiday feeling good after big win over division rival

This one felt pretty good.

As far Wednesday night regular season games go, pulling off a big win on home ice over the division leaders when you’ve lost four straight…yeah that must feel nice.

It had been a tough stretch for the Florida Panthers, but they pulled together and came up with a vintage performance and took down the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 at Amerant Bank Arena.

Now the Cats get to head into Thanksgiving with some well-earned positivity before they return to face a tough home and home with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Here are our takeaways from the win over Toronto:

FOCUSED ON THEIR IDENTITY

There are certain things that the Panthers do that tie into their identity as a team and they way they play the game.

In order for Florida to play a consistent brand of hockey in the way that Head Coach Paul Maurice asks, there are things they must do on the ice, as a cohesive, five-man unit.

When they get away from their identity and aren’t sticking to the core elements that have made them who they are over the past several seasons, the results are what we’ve seen over the past several games.

Wednesday, they got back on track.

“I think we just had our priorities right in what we were trying to accomplish on the ice,” said Maurice. “So much of that is the leaders of our team, I thought were really strong tonight. You can't be all things at all times, and I think we tried to be over the last little while, so we got our priorities right.”

STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

The vibes after Florida’s win over Toronto were great, and rightfully so.

Winning is a great thing, especially when you haven’t had one in a little while.

But ultimately, this was one win in an 82-game season.

Consistency, longevity – the things Florida strives for – are still a ways away from being back.

If they are going to start building toward that, Wednesday’s win over Toronto could be a great first step.

“They had a bunch of guys out of their lineup tonight, but they've won a whole bunch of games without those guys, so they've been a good team,” Maurice said. “It was a good, solid home win, and most importantly, we got the priority right, and it was evident.”

EKBLAD QUIETLY IMPRESSING

Aaron Ekblad has been showing up more often on the scoresheet lately.

He’s logged assists in four of Florida’s past six games, which is more of the pace Ekblad has played much of his career at.

In Maurice’s systems, though, his offense has taken a back seat to the defensive side of his game, where he has continued to be a solid, consistent force on the Panthers top pairing.

Asked about Ekblad after the win over Toronto, Maurice gave some credit to Ekblad while praising him for sacrificing one part of his game in order to do what was best for the group.

“You know what happens, and I understand it, but how we appreciate defenseman has changed over the years, and it's skewed to points now,” Maurice said. “And Aaron came in as that player who's quite a point producer for a while, but he's been a big part of the change in style of play. He is a spectacular defender. He and Gus are fantastic players, they were probably close to 26 minutes tonight. I appreciate that for him, because there's a sacrifice that goes with it. When a player is up for a contract, these guys all now get paid on points, and there's a sacrifice for him, to our team, for him to put the defense first, and he's done that.”

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