Panthers Suffer Frustrating Loss After Controlling Most Of Game

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers would have won Saturday’s game against the Boston Bruins nine out of ten times. Unfortunately for Florida, Saturday was the “one” in question. It was a frustrating loss, as they largely controlled most of the game. Alas, they handed Boston their first win of the season series between the two teams. 

The Bruins limped into Sunrise looking as lost as they’ve been since firing head coach Jim Montgomery on Nov. 19. Under the leadership of interim head coach Joe Sacco, the Bruins kept themselves alive in the playoff race, but had lost their last six before their matchup against the Florida Panthers, getting outscored 24-11 in that span.

Boston had also not scored on the power play in eight games, until Morgan Geekie buried a backhand on the first man-advantage of the game about six minutes in. 

Swing of emotions

The Florida Panthers were centimeters away from losing in regulation.

Down 3-2 and an empty net with 18.2 seconds left in the third, the Panthers allowed the Bruins to throw the puck down the ice for a shot at the empty net and the win. Instead, the puck glanced off the post, and the Bruins were called for icing. 

Aleksander Barkov won the draw in the Bruins’ end, which set up for a Panthers possession that saw a flurry of shots get sent at Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman. 

The shot that finally got through came off Sam Reinhart’s stick in front of the crease with 1.8 seconds remaining. 

The building went berserk, the press box was vibrating, and it felt like the Panthers had momentum. 

They had a few good chances early in overtime, but Sam Bennett was sent to the box for high-sticking with 1:42 left, forcing the Panthers to go on a four-on-three penalty kill. 

They staved off the Bruins for as long as they could. But with 1.2 seconds left in the extra frame, David Pastrnak fired a shot towards the net that deflected off Reinhart’s stick and fluttered into the net. 

Tough luck

It’s tough to pick apart too many things the Panthers did wrong on Saturday, especially at even-strength. They allowed two five-on-five goals, and largely controlled possession throughout the game. They outshot the Bruins 43 to 18, with 23 high-danger scoring chances to Boston’s six. Two of Boston’s chances came on their power play.

Even then, the Panthers allowed a grand total of one shot on Boston’s four power plays in regulation

Swayman, who had come into Saturday with a career-worst 2.92 GAA and .893 save percentage, made 40 saves and allowed three goals, with one of them coming on the power play.

While the Panthers got a lot of shots off around the net, they did not get a lot of bodies in front of Swayman, which is one of the keys in getting past him.

“He’s a good goalie,” Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said. “When he sees (the puck), he’s gonna make the save. So I think that’s an area we could have done better in the first two (periods), but I thought in the third we did a great job getting there and getting those second chances because of it. It collapses their D, and then we’re on loose pucks.” 

Panthers Defense Holds Up Without Ekblad

The Panthers held down the fort without one of their top defensemen in Aaron Ekblad, who was out with an undisclosed but “nothing sinister” injury according to head coach Paul Maurice.

Dmitry Kulikov moved up to the top pair with Gustav Forsling, and Tobias Bjornfot slotted in for his second game of the year next to Uvis Balinskis on the bottom pairing.

The Panthers didn’t allow any goals with Balinskis and Bjornfot on the ice.

The two five-on-five goals scored by Boston came against Kulikov and Forsling in the second period, and then Nate Schmidt and Niko Mikkola in the third. 

It’s not easy playing with a different partner on defense. That’s why teams are much more hesitant to put the defensive pairings in a blender compared to the forward lines, unless necessitated by injury. It’s especially challenging when you’re missing a top-two defender.

Still, the group played well, given the circumstances. The forwards also played very complimentary with the defenseman to provide support.

“You’re going to miss one of your ‘A’ defenseman, but I thought those guys came in and did a really good job,” Maurice said. “Our forwards did an incredible job staying tight to those defensemen and giving them some good battle outs. I don’t really have a critique that I dislike. We’ll find something around the net where we may have gotten out of it a little bit early, but we were right. Played the right end of the rink, played a hell of a game.”