George Richards, FHN Publisher
COLUMBUS, Ohio — In his postgame meeting with the press Sunday night, Jonathan Huberdeau said his Florida Panthers just “need to forget about this one” and move on.
He certainly is not wrong.
Although Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the host Hurricanes was both disappointing and perhaps a little enlightening in how they’ll have to play against Carolina down the road, the Panthers have done too much good this season to get down over one game.
Not with every game meaning so much to their very promising playoff hopes.
“(Carolina) is a good team, they play fast and can play physical too,” Huberdeau said.
“They were on us and we didn’t have much time to make some plays. That’s probably why we didn’t get many shots on goal.
“They’re a well-structured team and it’s always tough to play against them. This is one of those games. We need to forget about this one and be more ready when they come to our building the next time. We’ll focus on the next one.”
The Panthers are 2-1-0 on this five-game road trip and solidly entrenched in a playoff spot in what has become a top-heavy Central Division.
Next up is a two-game set against a Blue Jackets team licking their collective wounds following a humbling 5-0 loss in Dallas on Saturday night.
Columbus is dealing with a lot of stuff right now — including its standing within the division.
Florida has a chance to continue to separate itself from the Blue Jackets, which comes into the week six points behind Chicago for fourth place and the final playoff spot.
Good teams, of which the Panthers are one, should not allow the disappointment of Sunday’s outcome in Carolina affect them Tuesday night in Columbus.
The Jackets have plenty of games to make up ground against Chicago but the Panthers, who lead Columbus by nine points, should not help them out.
Joel Quenneville said after Sunday’s game that he was not making any excuses.
But the fact is Florida had to play Saturday then fly to Raleigh and play Carolina less than 24 hours later — while the Canes had not played since beating Detroit on Thursday.
These things tend to happen in the NHL whether it is a pandemic schedule crunch or normal times.
Florida did show signs of life on Sunday but for the course of the game, Carolina was the better team.
And, the Hurricanes have looked it a lot of times against the Panthers although Florida has gotten points out of the previous two games.
The Panthers may indeed see this Carolina team more than the four times remaining on the 2021 schedule.
If Tampa Bay were to win the division as many expect, then Florida and Carolina appear destined for a first-round playoff matchup.
Sunday, former Florida goalie James Reimer kept the Panthers at bay. In previous games, Alex Nedeljkovic has as well.
Those two aren’t even Carolina’s starting goalie. Florida will likely see Petr Mrazek in the coming weeks and months.
They’ll need to be better getting through the Carolina defense if they want to challenge him. There is plenty of time to worry about that.
Right now, the Panthers just need to focus on what is in front of them and that’s two games against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Have some success there, something they have not had much of against John Tortorella’s team over the past few years, and move on to the weekend series against the fourth-place Blackhawks.
The standings say the Panthers are one of the best teams in the league this season.
They have looked it at times.
The best thing they can do right now is forget all about those pesky Hurricanes and get back to what they were doing before.
We’re four games away from the halfway point in the season and the Panthers are sitting in a good spot.
They just need to keep it going.
“We have been pretty pleased with the compete level and the battle level,’’ Quenneville said Sunday, “and tonight we weren’t great in that area.”
They can help themselves out a lot by getting back to what has worked starting Tuesday.
UP NEXT: PANTHERS AT BLUE JACKETS
When: Tuesday, 7
Where: Nationwide Arena, Columbus
TV/Radio: FSF/560-AM