After putting to rest the season’s worst spell of play last month, the Florida Panthers appear to be back on pace in the Atlantic Division.
The Stanley Cup champions will return to Sunrise, Fla., and conclude their home-and-home series with rival Tampa Bay on Monday after a 4-2 road win in Sunday’s opener.
According to Florida standout Matthew Tkachuk, it all comes down to his squad’s effort level, which can lead to an abrasive, edgy style of defensive play that coach Paul Maurice has drawn up — one that Tkachuk thrives in and was on display in Sunday’s bruising victory.
Are the first-place Panthers – who have won four in a row — pacing themselves?
“No, but it seems like we are,” said a chuckling Tkachuk on TNT earlier this week. “We’ve got to play a little harder and to our identity a little bit more.”
While Aleksander Barkov set the weekend’s tone with his ninth career overtime winner Friday against the St. Louis Blues and triggers the explosive offense, it has been Sam Reinhart doing most of the finishing.
Coming off a career-high 57-goal, 94-point season and netting the Stanley Cup-winning tally for Florida’s first title, Reinhart has 22 goals and 23 assists while leading the NHL with four short-handed scores.
“He’s good at both ends of the ice, really good, but (gosh) is he nice with the puck,” Tkachuk said of the Canadian right wing, who inked an eight-year, $69 million contract extension on July 1. “He makes some unreal plays and is deadly on the power play.”
Reinhart tallied on the power play and into an empty net in Tampa for a club-high 22 markers.
His 31 special-teams goals in a calendar year are the most since 1993 (Dave Andreychuk, 31).
The Panthers’ two short-handed tallies on the same penalty kill put them at an NHL-best 10.
“When you lose special teams 3-0, that’s a hard one to bounce back from,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
With backup goaltender Spencer Knight victorious Sunday, the matchup likely will be Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky against Lightning backup Jonas Johansson unless Cooper opts for another Andrei Vasilevskiy start after he allowed three goals on 25 shots.
A Florida starter for two games in 2021-22, Johansson is 3-0 with a 3.84 GAA and .882 in six appearances.
The Panthers’ beatdown in the first Sunshine Showdown was not only on the scoreboard. It could be measured in ailments and blood, too.
Conor Geekie crashed head-first into the boards and went to the dressing room in the match’s first minute. Nick Paul, who scored the Lightning’s first goal, took a stick to the eye. Zemgus Girgensons hobbled off the ice in the closing minutes.
Reinhart’s empty-netter ended it after Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov crushed Brandon Hagel into the boards, bloodying the winger’s mouth.
Brayden Point stretched his point streak to eight games (six goals, 12 assists) in the loss, scoring his team-best 22nd on a deft move past Knight.
“They’re a pressure team and a skating team. They don’t give you much time and space,” said Point after Florida improved to 14-0-0 when leading after two periods.
Points leader Nikita Kucherov saw his nine-game point streak (three goals, 17 assists) and Tampa Bay’s season-high four-game winning streak come to an end.
–Field Level Media
