Three takeaways: Special teams going Panthers way, goaltending great on both sides
Florida holds a 2-0 lead in their best-of-7 series with Tampa Bay
The team built for playoff hockey is finding different ways to win so far during the postseason.
After a physical, gritty victory in Game 1, the Florida Panthers went into Tuesday’s matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning expecting a different kind of fight in Game 2.
That’s exactly what they got, as both teams made adjustments and found ways to open up the offense.
It didn’t lead to more scoring, though. Just to some spectacular goaltending and great playoff hockey.
With Tampa Bay down 0-2 in the series and heading home, it should make for an interesting Game 3 on Thursday night.
Here are the Game 2 takeaways:
Two very different games
It’s funny that both Game 1 and Game 2 between the Panthers and Lightning had identical 3-2 final scores, because the games themselves had very different feels.
Sunday’s opener felt like it was all about the physicality and the checking, while Game 2 saw an uptick in shots on goal and quality scoring chances.
Interestingly there were actually more hits in Game 2 (121) than there were in Game 1 (116), as both teams found a bit more success in dictating the pace of the game.
“We would expect pieces of each game, the other team would own,” Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said. “The quality of our offense tonight was considerably higher than Game 1, and the same for them as well. That was probably what both teams set out to do going into Game 1, but shots were 28-19, scoring chances are just about flat in most of the analytic groupings that we look at, and then this one, our “A” chances are considerably higher than they were, so were theirs, so now we're gonna go back and see how we can eliminate those.”
Two very good goaltenders
If you’re a fan of goaltending, this is the series for you.
Sergei Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy have been standing on their heads, frustrating elite scorers left and right and keeping these games tight and exciting.
There may not be a ton of shots, but there have been plenty of high-quality ones.
Bobrovsky has stopped 15 of Tampa’s 17 high-danger shots while Vasilevskiy has a ridiculous 26 saves on 29 high-danger shots by Florida through the first two games of the series, per Natural Stat Trick.
“If you slow the game down, there’s just some incredible saves going on in tight little areas, little tips,” Maurice said. “There’s some pretty fine goaltending going on in the series.”
Special teams going Florida’s way
There was plenty of discussion heading into this series about how important the special teams battle would be.
Tampa boasted the league’s top power play and fifth-best penalty kill during the regular season, and while the Panthers’ PK had been quite good for much of the season, Florida’s power play took a nose dive during the final weeks of the campaign.
That didn’t seem to be a winning equation for Florida, but here we are, two games into the series, and the Panthers are holding their own.
It isn’t just the numbers that lean toward the Cats – Florida is 2-for-7 on the power play while Tampa is 2-for-8 – it’s the timeliness of the conversions.
Verhaeghe’s PPG in Game 1 gave the Panthers a third period lead they wouldn’t relinquish, and Florida killing off a four-minute penalty with the game tied in the final fame of Game 2 was equally substantial.
“The power plays at the start of the third the last two games have been important for us,” Maurice said. “Scoring was critical in Game 1, and we didn't get scored on in Game 2. I liked our third period; I thought it was a place that we kind of came back to form. We generated some things. I liked our third period...I think the kill drove that.”
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