Colby Guy
FORT LAUDERDALE — For the past three games, the Florida Panthers have strayed from their staunch style of play.
After nearly two months without giving up four or more goals, the Panthers have trailed by three (or four) goals in their past three games.
Coach Paul Maurice said the onus has been on the forwards, not the defenseman, as the reason for the lapses.
“We were playing on the outside and trying to score goals when we shouldn’t have been,” Maurice said. “The key to our game is our reaction on the change of possession, which I think is elite. And we haven’t been.
“So, the pucks changed possession and we were late, so we’ve put our defense in a very difficult position because I kind of demand a hard gap game from them. And you cannot hard gap the game if your forwards are behind it, so our forwards have been behind it and our defensemen have been doing what I’ve asked and they look foolish because of it. We will rectify it.”
That much was apparent from the first goal the Panthers gave up in that stretch.
All three of Sasha Barkov, Sam Reinhart, and Vladimir Tarasenko were pressed fighting for a puck they lost in a quick puck battle in the corner.
Dmitry Kulikov decided to pinch up and support the puck, while Josh Mahura was right where he needed to control the gap.
Kulikov lost the puck battle, Jason Robertson burst right past Mahura, and it sprouted an easy 2-on-0 breakaway, which Wyatt Johnston capitalized on.
The play started with Reinhart dumping the puck in and going 3-on-1 with a slew of Dallas defenders, and it could have stopped if there was more support waiting on the back end.
Issues like that continued to perpetuate themselves at 5-on-5 after the Panthers rallied back to defeat the Stars 4-3 after trailing 3-0 via a comeback fueled by success on the power play.
Most of the goals they gave up in their 4-0 loss to Carolina and 5-3 loss to Tampa Bay to follow came off making the wrong reads following a change in possession, shifting from the offensive zone to the defensive zone.
Each of the first three goals the Lightning scored against the Panthers on Saturday came off a breakdown in the offensive zone, resulting in a rush coming the other way.
Once Florida slowed its game down and returned to its usual style, they rallied within a goal before Nikita Kucherov put the nail in the coffin with the empty-netter.
But as Maurice often says, it is fairly easy to fix when something is going wrong.
“We’ve been really good at learning from these kinds of things, going on runs and playing our best hockey,” Maurice said. “When I say I’m fine with it, don’t get me wrong, you’re not in a good mood. You don’t like losing games, but if you’re gonna lose, you better learn.
“So, if we can learn, we will be alright. We’re more comfortable with where we are tonight then after the Dallas game.”
It wasn’t all bad for the Panthers, either.
Kevin Stenlund was arguably one of Florida’s best forwards in that stretch when it came to being in the correct position to support the defensemen in transition.
His line, with Ryan Lomberg and Nick Cousins on the wing for the games against Dallas and Tampa Bay, always had a forward back to snuff out chances on the opposite end.
Their play in Dallas played a significant role in Maurice opting to leave that line together when forwards Sam Bennett and Evan Rodrigues returned to the lineup following the Carolina game.
After the Panthers shifted their lines at 5-on-5 in the third period of the Tampa Bay game — with Rodrigues playing with Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk for the first time all season and Tarasenko sliding in next to Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen — the Panthers controlled play in a dominant fashion.
Once the Panthers make the finishing touches to adjust to their mistakes from the past three games, they should look close to their usual selves when they take on the Nashville Predators on Thursday.