George Richards, FHN Publisher
With Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brandon Montour leaving over the summer, the Florida Panthers were expected to lose some scoring punch from their defensemen.
Yet, coming into Saturday, the Panthers were tied for third in the NHL with 21 goals from their defensemen.
Last season, the Panthers were tied for 14th in that category with 36.
“We lost two offensive guys,’’ coach Paul Maurice said. “So to be near the top of the league in scoring from your backend, that’s not easy to do.”
It has been a scoring boost the Panthers have appreciated.
Florida was tied for fourth in scoring after Friday night, averaging 3.53 goals per game.
With Florida getting increased scoring from its defensemen, it has not been from them cheating up a little.
On Friday, it sort of was.
Uvis Balinskis tied the score at 1 against the St. Louis Blues midway through the second as he read the coverage and pinched up.
Sasha Barkov saw Balinskis all alone in the right circle and sent a pass onto the tape of his stick, and Balinskis fired it home.
However, most of the Panthers’ goals from their blueline have come, fittingly, from just inside the blueline.
Heavy shots from Gus Forsling, Aaron Ekblad, and Nate Schmidt have found their way through traffic in front of the net and in.
“During the regular season, you need your defensemen to bring some scoring because it is not easy to score every game,” said Forsling, who leads Florida’s defensemen with five.
“I think that has been huge. One thing we try to do is get our shots through, and those are not going in if we don’t have any net front. That’s the biggest key. We want to establish our offense by having net front, then go from there.’’
One of the big surprises for the Panthers this season has been Niko Mikkola’s scoring.
It is not Ekblad, Schmidt, or Dmitry Kulikov who is second in goal-scoring among Florida’s defensemen this season, but Mikkola.
His four goals this year are already a career-high, surpassing the three he scored last season and in 2021-22 with the St. Louis Blues.
Coming into the season, Mikkola had eight goals in 252 games (.03 per game). This year, he’s got four in 34 (.12).
He scored consecutive games to end the road trip last week.
“He scored some important goals for us in the playoffs last year,’’ Maurice said, noting two postseason goals by Mikkola in games against Tampa Bay and Edmonton.
“The confidence is there. We encourage him to get up the ice. It’s an all-around game and not just the defensive shutdown game. He is an important part of what we do.’’
Mikkola is not the only defenseman scoring.
The Panthers have indeed spread things out.
All of Florida’s seven defensemen have at least a goal after Balinskis got his first of the season Friday night.
Ekblad has two goals — but has probably hit a dozen posts this season. His total almost certainly will go up once those start going in.
“We feel it’s starting to blossom here recently,’’ Maurice said. “With the work our forwards are doing controlling pucks and getting a bit more zone time, those kind of go hand in hand.’’