The Florida Panthers are in hassle, and it’s loopy to suppose they aren’t after Wednesday evening. It’s the form of hassle they’ve gotten out of in a approach that makes their previous couple of playoff springs so memorable.
It’s hassle nonetheless to be down 2-0 after shedding Sport 2 in Toronto 4-3. That’s two one-goal video games in opposition to Toronto, the type the Panthers like to play. And so they misplaced the each video games in a fashion that’s both a lesson for them and a credit score to Toronto.
Right here’s the bigger drawback in these two video games: The Panthers haven’t regarded just like the Panthers. Not likely. The always-disciplined Panthers had three first-period penalties in Sport 2, the ultimate one letting Toronto tie it 1-1.
The defense-first Panthers gave up extra odd-man rushes once more in Sport 2. You’ll be able to rely the objectives in opposition to, although. 9 Toronto objectives in two video games isn’t the Panthers Manner. Credit score Toronto’s William Nylander, who has three of these objectives.
“It’s a must to know your recreation,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice stated. “We discuss that loads. There’s a whole lot of stuff with our recreation that we expect we are able to enhance on and do extra with. We’ll have a look at it and get higher.”
Possibly most worrisome of all for the Panthers is Matthew Tkachuk doesn’t seem like Matthew Tkachuk. You’ll be able to repair the self-discipline and protection. However is Tkachuk wholesome?
He’s been the spirit of the Panthers’ skillfully nasty type the earlier two springs. He’s trying like a man who was out for 2 months with an obvious groin damage and, after a pair good moments in opposition to Tampa Bay, hasn’t been his impactfully ornery self.
“I assumed he was good tonight,” Maurice stated. “He was producing. That’s what I prefer to see.”
Is Toronto enjoying properly? Positive, it overcame the lack of beginning goalie Anthony Stolarz in Sport 2 and opened this Florida protection up with all of the odd-man rushes.
Has Toronto’s house ice meant that a lot? No likelihood. The Panthers simply gained all three video games in Tampa.
Have three lengthy seasons caught as much as the Panthers? That may be at work right here, too. They’ve performed extra hockey than anybody between two journeys to the Stanley Cup Remaining and eight gamers within the 4-Nations Faceoff match in February.
“I don’t know what to say,” Maurice stated. “Seventh recreation in about three weeks. It’s half the schedule we’re used to have coming into the playoffs . That’s not a problem for us.”
Nonetheless, there’s a tax on all three years of expended emotion and bodily pushing, and possibly it’s coming due within the micro-differences to date this collection. The puck battles. The profitable blueprints. And, in fact, getting some puck luck with a bounce or rebound.
When Aaron Ekblad fed Anton Lundell early within the third interval to tie the sport at 3-3, it was a second for the Panthers to take the evening and even the collection. You’ve seen them do it sufficient the previous couple of years it appeared like a pure inflection level.
Seventeen seconds later, Toronto’s Mitch Marner threw a shot from the purpose that Sergei Bobrovsky couldn’t see and in some way hit the web. Toronto regained its footing in addition to the lead.
Typically a playoff collection is about who will get most to their recreation. Toronto has finished that the primary two video games.
Sport 2 was an evening you anticipated the Panthers to take, too. They’d stewed over the Sport 1 to feed their urgency. They’d heard a pair days’ speak of how they performed soiled after the Stolarz damage.
They confronted backup goalie Joseph Woll, too. Hockey is stuffed with tales of back-up goalies turning into playoff folks heroes. Nonetheless, Stolarz led the league in save share. Woll was made the backup for a motive this season.
But there was Woll making the save of Toronto’s evening. Some tic-tac-toe passing from Tkachuk to Bennett to Mackie Samoskevich had the Panthers ahead along side an open internet. But it surely took a cut up second to corral the puck on his stick and that was sufficient for Woll to stay his leg out for the save. On such performs nights are gained. And misplaced.
Bobrovsky had his moments. He stopped breakaways of McMann and Nylander. He caught on his proper leg to cease a mis-directed shot when down 4-3 to maintain the evening alive. However that solely underscores all the probabilities Toronto had, lots of them off the form of odd-man rushes the Panthers often stop.
None of this implies they will’t come again on this collection. After they got here again from down 3-1 in opposition to a powerhouse Boston two years in the past, nothing is an excessive amount of. Coming house can’t damage. Down 2-0 will make them focus.
They’re in hassle. It’s the form of hassle they will get out of. However to try this the Panthers should look extra just like the Panthers once more beginning Friday evening in Dawn.
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