Colby Guy
SUNRISE — Anthony Duclair had to go from zero-to-100 when he returned to the Florida Panthers lineup from an offseason Achilles injury which required surgery and months of rehab.
Florida found itself in the heat of the Eastern Conference wild card race when Duclair made his season debut on Feb. 24.
And he was ready for it.
“I knew when I came back that every game is going to be important,” Duclair said.
”Every game is going to be a playoff-type mentality so I try my best to take care of my body and prepare my body for this.”
The early returns on Duclair since his arrival have, so far, been mixed.
He has come in and played a tough-checking, strong defensive game while working to adjust to Paul Maurice’s new system.
But a combination of illnesses and growing pains with all the new stuff thrown his way has held the potent goal scorer to a single empty-net goal and four assists in his first 14 games back in the lineup.
“He came in his first five games, and he had the empty netter, but he had so many good chances in the slot to score and then you start squeezing a little bit,” Maurice said.
”He had two sicknesses that he went through and he wasn’t at his best but he is back to feeling good and he is feeling strong.”
A three-assist performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night helped open up his game even more.
”I think I’m settled in now,” Duclair said.
”It took a month to fit into the system and I feel pretty good and pretty confident in my Achilles and myself and now i’m just trying to find chemistries and plays and I will try to build off that.”
Maurice plugged Duclair back onto a line with Sasha Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe — a line that he played on for a large majority of his Panthers career — and it really seemed to click.
It took a while for the usually fast-paced line to adjust to Maurice’s system but they really seemed to find it in Columbus.
“They made an adjustment to their game,” Maurice said.
”Their first time out, they were kind of stretching their speed a little bit and they were trying to make it work and then the last two, they weren’t more than 15-to-20 feet away from each other almost the whole night.
”They have the hands and when they need the speed, all three guys can accelerate. It’s a funny thing, the fastest guys in your room sometimes stay in motion all the time when they are the last guys that actually need to do that.”
In developing that patience, they were able to pick the right time to break off from the line and start from the other team’s mistakes rather than forcing it off the rush like they often did last season.
And it helped the line become a whole lot more dangerous moving forward.
”As a line, specifically, we were finding each other and making the little plays and I think it starts in the defensive zone,” Duclair said.
”I think in the defensive zone, we come out as three guys together. Especially with our speed, we can create off the rush and if the puck is stopped off the rush we can get our second game going and build our confidence over that. I think in all zones, we have played well together and we can make some plays off that.”
Duclair was on the receiving end of more and more of those plays in Florida’s win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday but he still has not been able to bury one.
But he has gotten close.
He was robbed of a goal on the power play after Ilya Lybushkin batted his shot that was fired toward an open net out of mid-air in the first period and Devon Levi came up with a sprawling save on him on a one-timer from Barkov in the second to keep him off the board.
While he continues to get close to breaking the drought, Maurice continues to trust him in all situations because he has been making all of the right reads off the puck.
Duclair studied Maurice’s system intently during his absence and has since locked in when the team needs him in the defensive zone.
”A 50-goal scorer is probably scoring two in 10 games, that’s half a season where he doesn’t score a goal so he’s got to do something else. It’s just not enough,” Maurice said.
”So he’s been doing the things those guys that your are going to keep playing no matter what do in high-pressure situations because they allow you to run them against the other team’s best even if they are not scoring because they are doing the small things that give you a chance to win the game.
Even after coming off of a 30-goal season, Duclair has been more than OK with embracing that style of play.
“[Points] are always good for confidence but I think as long as my 200-foot game is solid, I am not going to worry about points,” Duclair said.
”The points will come, especially playing with Barky and Vehaeghe. I can’t get frustrated. I just got to focus on playing well and working hard and I think that comes before anything.”
With the Panthers in the heat of a playoff race, that style of game is exactly what they need down the stretch.
“Especially at this time of year, trying to get into a playoff spot and then eventually into the playoffs, you obviously want to be locked into your 200-foot game,” Duclair said.
”You can’t be thinking about [points.] Worrying about the little details that don’t show up on the scoresheet are more important.”