Panthers penalty kill will be key during round one

Sunrise, FL – Last year was the Florida Panthers’ first season under head coach Paul Maurice and his hard-nosed, defense-first philosophy. The Panthers succeeded at half the equation last year: being physical. However, when the Panthers inevitably spent more time in the box than every team in the league aside from the Ottawa Senators, their penalty kill wasn’t able to save them.

Prior to game one of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, Maurice said the penalty kill was the team’s “biggest weakness” last year.

Year-Over-Year Improvement

That unit improved greatly from last year to this year. In the regular season, their 82.5 percent kill percentage was sixth-best in the league compared to last year’s 76 percent that put them in the bottom-ten of the league, despite getting charged with a league-high 1,116 penalty minutes.

Maurice credited newcomer defensemen Kevin Stenlund, Niko Mikkola, and Dmitry Kulikov in helping shore up the special teams defense, especially when top defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour missed the first six weeks of the season with injuries sustained during the 2022-23 postseason.

“We were able to hold water with the two defensemen that went down,” Maurice said. “And then we had to re-live it again when Aaron went down again. So management brought in some really good defenders. And that’s what allowed us to survive.”

Now, the penalty kill will get thrown into the fire immediately with their first round matchup against Tampa Bay. The Lightning boast the best power play in the league, scoring at a 28.6 percent clip. 

“Don’t take many (penalties) would be my advice,” Maurice said. “I mean, they’re just so dynamic. It’s a function of incredible players, but they’ve played together for so long. They’re just reacting, not just on what they see, but they’re reacting on their history of things they’ve done and they’ve had success with.”

Hugeeeee Penalty Kill for @FlaPanthers #TimeToHunt 🚨1-1 #Gobolts
HITS:
Panthers 34
Lighting 34 pic.twitter.com/yw9SHFSOK3

— Mac Black 🧟‍♂️ (@MacLeeAnderson) April 21, 2024

Tampa’s Power Play

Tampa Bay’s power play unit is lead by Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Brayden Point. Stamkos, mostly playing on the flank across from Kucherov, with Point at the middle bumper, had 19 power play goals. Meanwhile, his linemate in Kucherov led the league with 40 powerplay assists and 144 points overall this year.

“They have a lot of threats anywhere you look on the ice,” Kulikov said after the game one victory. “They have a 144-point guy, you have Stamkos that scores one-timers every time he shoots basically. So we’re just thinking, you know, not trying to let him set up in the first place. Don’t give him time and space to do the plays that they have. Hopefully (goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky) makes the save. Which he does.”

The Lightning were 1-for-2 on the power play in Saturday’s series opener. The one goal was scored by Stamkos on a 6-on-4 power play with 10 seconds left in the game. Tampa Bay goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy, had left the net for an extra attacker in a 3-1 game.

No Opportunities

Nevertheless, the Panthers’ penalty kill was buzzing during the only conventional 5-on-4 Tampa advantage. The two kill lines – consisting of Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, Gustav Forsling, and Aaron Ekblad on one line and Kevin Stenlund, Eetu Luostarinen, Niko Mikkola, and Dmitry Kulikov on the other – barely allowed the Lightning to set up in their offensive zone. 

With four takeaways, two clears, and two shorthanded rush attempts, the Panthers only let the Lightning have true possession in the offensive zone for about 45 seconds during the Tampa power play. The Panthers only allowed one shot on goal during the two-minute disadvantage.

“I think we just didn’t let them set up in our zone,” Kulikov said. “The more time they spend trying to break out and getting in our zone, that’s time ticking on the clock. That’s the most important thing. That’s what we do well.”