Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice singled out three Panthers after the game, including 50-goal scorer Sam Reinhart
Don’t look now, but the Florida Panthers are starting to the Florida Panthers once again.
A team that, for much of the season, was viewed as the one who you did not want to meet come playoff time, had recently fallen into a bit of a funk.
Over the past couple weeks, the Panthers had stopped playing the five-man, tight checking, imposing forecheck game that had turned them into Stanley Cup favorites.
Perhaps that’s due to the roster fluidity, with a few new players coming in while several regulars have moved out.
Whatever the reason, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice has remained steadfast that the team would come out of it and perhaps be better for it, as has been in the case during past funky segments of the season.
It’s starting to look like the coach might know what he’s talking about.
To the takeaways we go.
Back to Panthers hockey
Florida started getting back to playing the hits on Saturday night in New York.
Despite missing several roster regulars, Florida dug deep and took the Metro-leading Rangers to a shootout.
It was such a gutty, hard-working effort, that a drop-off on Sunday in Philadelphia would’ve been understandable.
Nope, Florida wasn’t done re-setting the tone that they were back to being a team to be reckoned with.
“We feel like we've had a whole bunch of adversity lately, and we kind of need it to be at our best,” Maurice said. “So there won't be a lot of video that we use in terms of perfect style of play for our game, we won’t brag about what we were trying to do, but we had some hard efforts out there and I’m really happy for the team.”
Stolarz spectacular
Another game, another elite effort from Panthers goaltender Anthony Stolarz.
He finished with 32 saves, including all 13 high danger shots by Philadelphia, on a night where the Flyers’ expected goals was 3.98, per Natural Stat Trick.
The win was Stolarz 14th on the season. It dropped his goals against average below the Mendoza Line to 1.97 while his save percentage rose to .927.
“His game looks slightly different now than it did maybe the first month or two, and I mean that in a very positive way,” Maurice said. “I think he's grown as a goaltender. He just gives us great nights, big saves, calm in the net. He’s just been an incredible find for us. He and Sergei work together so well."
Maurice singles out trio
In addition to Stolarz, Maurice took time during his postgame media availability to highlight a pair of Panthers who he felt had standout games.
“Niko Mikkola, that guy was an incredible find for our team,” Maurice said. “He went from corner to corner, heavy all night long. Sam Reinhart, 50 goals is such a rare thing in a player's career, to be able to score 50 goals. That puts you in an elite class.”
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