Florida Panthers Have to Play Their Way Out of the Cold

For the second straight year, the Florida Panthers have gone west and watched their offense disappear.

Florida opened this five-game road trip with a shootout win in Seattle — and scored the only goal of the trip to date.

The Panthers beat the Kraken 2-1 in a shootout on Tuesday night, but after losing 3-0 to the Calgary Flames on Saturday, Florida has been shutout in two straight games going into its Stanley Cup Final rematch with the Oilers on Monday night.

In both losses, the Panthers were playing a team which had its share of troubles on home ice.

Yet both the Canucks and Flames pulled out comfortable wins against a Florida team which cannot find the back of the net.

So, how do they fix it?

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“We’re getting looks and we feel like we’re making plays, and we’re getting like 30 shots per night,” Evan Rodrigues said after Saturday’s loss. “But we’re making it pretty easy. Goalies see a lot. When goalies see it, they make the saves.’’

Added Anton Lundell: “We could get in front of the goalie a little more, get back to the net and have more guys there. We’re not in the right spots. But we know how to change that. It is going back to basics, trusting that will work.’’

The Panthers did go to the net quite a bit against the Canucks, but that part of their game did seem to be missing Saturday.

Florida had very few second chances against Calgary’s Dustin Wolf, who stopped 31 shots to get his second shutout of the season.

Paul Maurice repeatedly said he did not care about Florida’s offense nor did he much of a concern that his team forgot how to score.

He blamed his team’s rush defense — one that led to three goals in Vancouver and two on Saturday night.

Maurice did not sugarcoat things, either.

“Our rush defense is AWOL,” he said. “It’s not a bad thing to be frustrated between games. I don’t care about the offense. If they’re frustrated because they’re not scoring, that has nothing to do with us winning games or being a good team. Everyone goes through stretches. …

“Our rush defense sucks. We have to get that fixed. Other than that, I’m not worried about anything else we got going.”

The Panthers will have today off before returning to Edmonton for the first time since Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The Oilers, you can bet, will be ready for the Panthers.

Florida will be geared up to play the Oilers as well.

Maurice said if the Panthers do not straighten out their defense coming off the rush, well, Monday could be over quick.

“We do that against Edmonton,” he said, “and they’re going to put 15 on us.’’

ON DECK: GAME 32

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT EDMONTON OILERS 

• When: Monday, 8:30 p.m.
• Where: Rogers Place; Edmonton, Alberta
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• This Season — At Florida: Feb. 27. At Edmonton: Monday.
• Last Regular Season: Florida Won 2-0
• Last Postseason: Florida Won Stanley Cup Final 4-3
• All-time Regular Season Series: Oilers lead 23-16-0, 3 ties
• Postseason History: First Meeting
• Up Next for the Panthers: Wednesday at Minnesota Wild, 9:30 p.m. (TNT)