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Florida Panthers See Winning Streak End to Devils with a Fight

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4 weeks ago

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New Jersey Devils defenseman Brenden Dillon and Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich get after it during the second period on Tuesday night in Sunrise. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

SUNRISE — On Monday, a player on the Florida Panthers asked one member of the media how long he thought the team would be wearing bath robes to the arena.

The answer was, well, probably just a day — maybe two.

“It is hard to beat a team twice in a row,’’ was the response.

The Panthers have been wearing custom blue terrycloth robes to games since Nov. 1 when they walked through the lobby of their hotel to their locker room at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland.

Florida beat the Dallas Stars that day — so they kept wearing them.

The Panthers won four straight games in those gifted robes, part of a seven-game winning streak it seemed they knew would come to an end soon.

The players wore the robes to the arena once more on Tuesday night, but will not do so again.

Florida’s winning ways came to an end with a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

The good news is, the Panthers will get another shot at New Jersey.

After all, the two teams play again in Sunrise on Thursday night.

And it is hard to beat a team twice in a row.

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We should see the Panthers return to the arena on Thursday back in their customary fancy threads — and not their sauna look.

“Anytime you can win games, you’re happy about that,” Jonah Gadjovich said after Tuesday’s loss. “Obviously, it is about playing the right way. What we’re building for is about the end of the year.’’

The Panthers have been pushing themselves to the limits the past few weeks. The defending Stanley Cup champions have shown little ill-effect from the short offseason and have the second-best record in the entire NHL behind a historic start by the Winnipeg Jets.

Tuesday night, the Devils came to town with an elite goalie ready to stop everything he could in order to get his team a win.

Jacob Markstrom was terrific on Tuesday night, stopping 33 shots in New Jersey’s win.

Spencer Knight was strong as well, but the Panthers never could recover from a turnover in the neutral zone late in the second that made it 2-1.

It was that kind of night for the Panthers.

A few mistakes here and there were enough to let the Devils get a win — and get to enjoy their off day in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday.

“It’s a big win down here,” Markstrom said.

One of the highlights of the night was a brawl between Gadjovich and Brenden Dillon.

With the score tied at 1, the two went at it.

The battle was as good a donnybrook as you will see in this modern NHL, the two throwing one haymaker after another.

Gadjovich even had his jersey pulled up over his head, but that did not keep him from landing a couple of big pops.

“I saw nothing. I just buried my head and tried to keep throwing,’’ Gadjovich said. “Sometimes that happens.’’

The fight energized the crowd and both benches.

“We have a lot of respect for him for doing that,” New Jersey’s Paul Cotter said.

Said Sam Reinhart, who got his 12th goal of the season which tied the score at 1: “Probably one of the best fights we have all seen, that we have all been up close to witness. A couple of tough guys going at it.”

Ultimately, Timo Meier scored on a breakaway following the turnover late in the second to give New Jersey the lead it would never give back.

Down 2-1 in the third, Florida could not get anything past Markstrom — Florida’s former ‘Goalie of the Future’ who played for the team for parts of four seasons before being traded to Vancouver as part of the Roberto Luongo deal in 2014 — and the winning streak was over.

Life, for the Panthers, goes on.

They will simply put the robes on a hook and keep on moving forward.

Game 2 against the Devils is Thursday night.

“I like the back-to-back a lot more. It’s got more of a playoff feel in that you’ll make adjustments off your game,’’ Paul Maurice said.

“Those are really important things; you learn faster because you don’t have to change style for the next game. So, the things you want to correct, you’ll have an opportunity to do that. Both teams will try to be better in the areas that they were good and read what the other team did well.”

ON DECK: GAME 17
NEW JERSEY DEVILS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

 

 

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