Florida Panthers
Florida Panthers Win a Strange One, Keep Moving Forward

SUNRISE — One of the cool things about following the NHL is that you never know what to expect, including what happened in the Florida Panthers’ dominating 5-1 win against the Blackhawks on Saturday.
Florida’s win on national TV may have been the dominating narrative, but the day was chock full of stories within the story.
Many of which were the feel-good variety.
The Panthers, certainly, didn’t feel good when Chicago’s Landon Slaggart — playing in only his third game of the year after being called up from the AHL Rockford IceHogs — picked up a loose puck at the opening faceoff and skated in alone on Sergei Bobrovsky.
Slaggart deposited the puck behind Bobrovsky just seven seconds into the game for a Chicago franchise record for the fastest goal to start a game.
The goal beat Brent Sutter’s previous record by one whole second, set just shy of 30 years ago.
It was the fastest goal allowed to start a game in Florida history, three seconds quicker than Mike Knuble’s score for Boston against Jani Hurme — remember him? No? — in 2003.
Slaggart had no idea he set a record until after the game.
“Not until I just heard it,” he said postgame.
After that, Bobrovsky was aces for the next 59:53.
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“The guys work hard and play tight defensively and give us a good opportunity offensively as well,” said Bobrovsky, who has allowed a single goal in his past two starts after shutting out the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 on Wednesday.
“It’s fun to be there, fun to play with this team.”
Not to be outdone in the feel-good department, Jonah Gadjovich, who hadn’t played in the previous 18 games due to an upper-body issue, chopped in a loose puck out of a goalmouth scramble at 5:28 of the first period.
It was his first shift of the game.
He had been on ice for all of 14 seconds.
Of course, Gadjovich had already been working.
Not thinking he would play Saturday, he had been skated into the ground in a pregame workout.
When the Panthers found out Mackie Samoskevich could not go because of illness hours before the puck dropped, Gadjovich went in.
His teammates were delighted that Gadjovich got rewarded for all of his hard work.
“You love to skate by and see all the smiles,” Gadjovich said. “I think that’s just the group that we have here. It’s just a lot of laughs, a lot of smiles. We have a good time when we come to the rink.”
That’s what a winning team can do for you.
Not to be outdone in the speed department, at the 10 second mark of the third period, Evan Rodrigues scored, converting on a neat pass by Anton Lundell from behind the net.
No record here.
The fastest goal from the start of a period by a Florida player came from Derick Brassard in the third period against Washington’s Braden Holtby on February 9, 2019.
It was the only goal of Brassard’s brief 10-game career with the Panthers.
Paul Maurice, however, had his own milestone.
Maurice turned 58 on Thursday, a day after he coached in his 1,900th NHL game.
Saturday, Maurice got his 900th win, putting him in fourth place behind Scotty Bowman, Joel Quenneville, and Barry Trotz.
“That’s a lot of wins,” Bobrovsky said. “900 wins is a crazy amount. He has been around and has big experience. We are very lucky to have him.”
Said Carter Verhaeghe: “He leads the group so well. He always knows what we need at certain times and when to push us, when to push certain guys. The results kind of speak for themselves. He’s a seasoned veteran. He got us to two Stanley Cup finals and won one in two years. He’s such a great coach and I’m really happy for him to get the milestone.”
Maurice said he is not thinking of numbers or records.
“I would like to win the next one,” said Maurice, whose team plays the Islanders in Sunrise today at 6.
“That would be good. I’m sure there will come a time when you sit back and … By that time, you’re so damn old you can’t even remember.”
What surprises and oddities will Sunday bring against the red-hot Islanders?
Let’s find out.
ON DECK: GAME No. 54
NEW YORK ISLANDERS at FLORIDA PANTHERS
- When: Sunday, 6 p.m.
- Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
- 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
- Last Season: Islanders Won 2-1
- This Season (Panthers Lead 1-0) — At Islanders: Panthers 6, Islanders 3 (Oct. 26); March 16. At Florida: Sunday.
- All-time Regular Season Series: Panthers lead 58-34-11, 8 ties
- Next Up for the Panthers: Tuesday at Washington Capitals, 7 p.m.

Great game to have on national TV. Totally dominating performance, there first goal not withstanding. I feel the need to address something, I was one of the voices, maybe the loudest, calling for us to move on from Arron Ekblad, who’s contract expires at the end of the year. The long list of injuries have taken thier toll. He is not the player he was 5 or 6 years ago, but he is still far better than anyone else currently on the roster and his absence, before the last few games, was noticeable. He consistently gets the puck through traffic… Read more »
I have been saying this at the games when people are constantly talking trash about him. Not what he was before, but certainly a lot better than during the back to back years of multiple injuries. I say all the time to people, if you’re going to harp on how bad he was when he was playing hurt, then you have to also acknowledge what he has meant to the D core the last 2 years. Usually its my wife complaining in my ear about him the whole game, I just read her your post!!
With the recently announced large increase in the cap over the next 3 years, I hope we have a better shot at Bennett and Ekblad. I agree on the 3 years x 7 for Ek, but he will want a little more term at 28 yo, hopefully at a lower AAV. Can’t stress enough how brilliant locking in our core at the reduced cap levels will help this team long term. We will have space to go after some real help in the next few years.
Agreed, actually knowing what the yearly raises to the cap will be Is a huge help, for everyone, agents and management alike. Guys see what’s going on here. Guys want to play on a winning team. They see other players come here and either revive there careers or are given maybe thier first legitimate chance to succeed, then subsequently they get paid either here or elsewhere. So you have the on ice hockey aspect that’s about as good as it gets around the league right now, then on the off ice stuff, you have an annual average temperature of 75… Read more »