Florida has played two games with a fully healthy lineup but still holds a 9-3-1 record so far this season
Florida has played two games with a fully healthy lineup but still holds a 9-3-1 record so far this season
The Florida Panthers sure look a little differently on the ice than they did when they left for the road a couple weeks ago.
Currently, the Panthers are as close to full strength as they have been all season.
The trio of Sasha Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Tomas Nosek all returned from extended absences during Florida's recent roadie that took the team through New York state and Finland, lasting nearly two weeks and spanning around 10,000 miles, give or take.
Tkachuk was out for five games with an illness while Barkov missed eight with a lower-body injury.
Nosek was hurt during Florida's preseason-opening doubleheader against Nashville and, like Barkov, returned during the Panthers' NHL Global Series games in Tampere last weekend.
Florida was able to lean on players like A.J. Greer and Uvis Balinskis, who filled in at forward when the Panthers were forced to dress seven defensemen and, for a couple games, only 10 forwards due to salary cap constraints.
"We found a way to survive with two centermen out," Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said. "Whether the guy's on your fourth one or not, it doesn't matter. There's two centermen out of our lineup. We got incredible contributions, I think Uvis Balinskis is probably the person that had a bigger impact on us surviving, when nobody would mention his name. He played left wing, right wing and defense all in one game, and excelled. Then when he went back to the blue line, I thought he was very strong in his last two games. So we got some nice contributions from new people – while Uvis played for us last year, we'll consider him a new player for us in some ways – he's had a big impact on us being able to survive a pretty difficult stretch."
Health in hockey can be a fickle thing.
Florida stayed healthy much of last season, and particularly when it counted between April and June, and they won a Stanley Cup.
A year prior, they did not get lucky in the health department and came up three wins shy of their goal.
When at full strength, or close to it, the Panthers are a very formidable group.
They come at you in waves, and Maurice has the luxury of being able to roll any of his four lines in any situation due to the reliability and intelligence on the roster, from top to bottom.
A perfect example came during Florida's win over Dallas on Saturday.
"The difference (in being healthy) is last game, the game-winning goal is a fourth line faceoff in the offensive zone, and you want them on the ice," Maurice said. "It's only been two games, and we like (that fourth line). There is chemistry between (A.J.) Greer and Nosek because they've played together before, and that's evident, so even two games in they're moving off each other the right way."
Here are how the Panthers lines and pairings will likely look for now:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Mackie Samoskevich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt – Uvis Balinskis
Scratches: Jonah Gadjovich, Adam Boqvist
Maurice has said that he has liked what he's seen from Adam Boqvist – who at one point was running Florida's top power play unit – but for now, Schmidt has earned his spot in the roster, and we know how Mo feels about Balinskis.
"He was a healthy scratch at the start of the year, so it's not that long ago," Maurice said of Schmidt. "We had the injuries, and Nate's been pretty good too. We are certainly mindful of mindful of Adam and what we think of him as a player, we want to get him in to play, but those two guys in the 5-6, Uvis and Nate, were really good this trip so they're not going to be easy to take out of the lineup."
Bottom line, it's a great situation for Maurice and his staff to find themselves.
We don't know how long the injury bug will stay away, but regardless of if and when it shows up again, the Panthers should be ready.
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