Florida Panthers Lost Four Straight, No Reason to Panic

Believe it or not, the Florida Panthers have been here before.

On Saturday, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions lost their fourth straight game in a season that has been nothing but one streak or another.

Florida, of course, started this season with a three-game winning streak.

One week of winning, one week of nothing but losses.

That is a trend that will not continue.

Following Saturday’s 3-0 loss in Buffalo to the Sabres, Sam Reinhart said “I would like to see more urgency, a little more assertiveness. When it’s not going your way, especially early on in a year, you start deferring. You start hoping things are going to work out instead of taking the bull by the horns and doing it yourself.’’

The Panthers, certainly, are not playing their customary hard forechecking style which has brought them so much success over the past couple of seasons.

But guess what?

We said the same thing at times last season as well.

Last year, through the first seven games — playing without Sasha Barkov (injury) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness) — the Panthers were 3-2-1 and had nine points through the first seven as opposed to this year’s six points.

Two years ago, the Panthers opened at 4-3-0.

So, starting a bit slow is nothing new to the Panthers.

The challenge this season is knowing Tkachuk and Barkov are not coming back any time soon.

Florida is also without its fourth line center (Tomas Nosek) and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov for the long haul.

If the Panthers are to figure this thing out and pull themselves out of this early funk, the players who are here are going to be the ones who do it.

“None of our injuries are coming back, so, this is our team,’’ said Maurice, whose team has scored just four goals in its four-game losing streak. “There’s no real point in thinking you’d be better with those guys because this is the hockey team that we have. We have to find a way to be a little tighter in all areas, be a little heavier around the net.’’

That style is hard to play and, let’s face it, the Panthers are not too worried about losing games in October.

Would they rather be winning these early games? Absolutely.

But as the Panthers have seen over the past few years, they are going to get every team’s best when they roll into town.

Like on Saturday in Buffalo.

Now, the Sabres did not play a perfect game on Saturday mainly because they did not need to.

Alex Lyon had a 32-save shutout against the Panthers but Florida only had three high-danger chances per NaturalStatTrick.com on 5-on-5 and four overall.

That isn’t going to win games in the NHL.

Neither is going 0-for-7 on the power play although a couple of those were of the 30 second variety.

Still, the Panthers did not too hot in losses in Philadelphia and Buffalo, but looked OK in Detroit and Newark.

They will figure things out.

They have before, they will again.

“We’ve had one of these, two of these each year,” Maurice said. “It’s part of it. You learn more when you lose than when you win.”

ON DECK: GAME No. 8

FLORIDA PANTHERS at BOSTON BRUINS

• When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Boston Garden
• National TV: ESPN
• Streaming: ESPN+
• Radio: WQAM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• This Season — At Florida: Feb. 4; April 2. At Boston: Tuesday.
• Last Season: Tied 2-2
• All-time Regular Season Series: Boston leads 66-39-7, 6 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Thursday vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, 7