Panthers Finding Ways To Win Amid Injuries

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers keep finding ways to win. 

That might sound silly when talking about a defending Stanley Cup champion who’s projected by many to return to the finals. But they’ve already faced their share of adversity in this two-week-old season.

Playing with 17 skaters instead of the usual 18 on Saturday due to injuries to a few key players, the Panthers had to grind out yet another victory. 

The Vegas Golden Knights had three separate leads on Saturday. But a game-tying goal from Eetu Luostarinen with seven minutes left in regulation and a top-shelf wrister from Gustav Forsling in overtime gave the Panthers two huge points.

Panthers Grinding Through Injuries

Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich. Those are the four very important pieces Florida was missing on Saturday night. They’ve been Barkov for a week, Nosek since the beginning of preseason, and Gadjovich since the first period on Thursday against the Vancouver Canucks.

The Panthers dressed 17 skaters instead of 18 on Saturday. 

Somehow, this team has still recorded a point in four consecutive games, going 3-1-1 with both Barkov and Tkachuk out.

“Oh I liked that game tonight an awful lot,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “That’s seven and eleven for us down a guy. (Vegas) is a deep team, and they got a heavy back end. I thought that’s as good a game as we’ve played this year. We had some turnovers. You know what? I don’t even care about them. I mean, Sergei (Bobrovsky) had to make a couple of big saves off it, but the effort was just outstanding.”

The Panthers likely get Tkachuk back on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild. Barkov should follow a couple of days later on their New York roadtrip. Nosek should join the team in Finland at the beginning of November.

Goalies Shine

There weren’t many games last year where the Panthers needed Bobrovsky to be their best player. This season has started off with a similar feeling.

But on Saturday, it felt like the game was going right through Bobrovsky. Or at least, it was trying to. 

Bobrovsky stopped 23 of 26 shots he faced. It sounds modest, but it could’ve been so much worse.

He stopped five high-danger shots, according to Natural State Trick. 

There were a couple of flurries from Vegas that should have easily found the back of the net. After making a save with his chest in the first period, Bobrovsky had to go post-to-post to stop an Alexander Holtz shot that had nothing but open net in front of it. The 36-year-old got his leg pad on the puck to keep it a scoreless game.

“Are you surprised?” is how Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad responded when asked about the two-time Vezina winner.

“He’s unbelievable,” Forsling said. “He’s so humble. He works so hard out there in practice. It’s no surprise he’s so good.”

There was a brick wall at the other end of the rink, as well.

The four goals allowed don’t do justice to how hard it was to get past Ilya Samsonov. The first-year Golden Knight stopped 39 shots in regulation, and another five in overtime. He stopped eight of 11 high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Lundell fights through weird night

Anton Lundell is a very cerebral player. It’s a big reason why he’s earned the right to play on a higher line with Sam Reinhart whenever top center Aleksander Barkov is injured – which he currently is. 

But Saturday night was an odd night for the 23-year-old center. 

He committed two rough turnovers – one of which led directly to a Vegas goal. But he also had two huge assists and played solid defense.

“Anton had a couple turnovers he wouldn’t like and still found a way to play a complete game,” Maurice said, also complimenting the entire line of Lundell, Sam Reinhart, and Eetu Luostarinen. “They’re men. Back when they were playing together two years ago, there was kind of a lament on second year in the league, Luosty’s first year off the bottom line. And they’ve learned so fast, and they’re so much stronger and better now. That can be a number one line.”