Florida Panthers
No Fooling: Florida Panthers Try to Break Canadiens Spell
SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers and Canadiens are back at it again tonight.
This time, the game is in Montreal.
Looking at the season stats between the two teams — Montreal has won all three games this season — one might easily mistake their relative positions.
It is the Panthers who are the defending Stanley Cup Champions, fighting for first place in their division; the Canadiens are a team desperately fighting for the final wild-card slot.
The Canadiens 4-2 win over the Panthers in Sunrise on Sunday afternoon temporarily vaulted them over the Rangers for the coveted final spot.
At least five teams are in the running for that last postseason slot and the honor of meeting the Washington Capitals, the likely President’s Trophy winner.
Coming into Florida Sunday, the Canadiens had lost five straight and seemed to be rapidly failing.
The Panthers became their lifeline.
Show Off to Your Friends and Family:
Become a Florida Panthers Insider!
Subscribe to Florida Hockey Now Today
“We got killed by them the last three years, so we learned how they play,’’ said Nick Suzuki, who scored the game-winner and added two assists.
“It’s always going to be a grind. They play a really deep game with heavy forechecking. The special teams were kind of key today for us.”
Montreal’s power play was two for three; the Canadiens killed off both of Florida’s chances with the advantage.
Montreal coach Martin St. Louis claims he always had faith in his team despite the losing streak.
“I felt we were ready to win tonight, after some of the stuff we did in Carolina [a 4-1 loss],’’ St. Louis said.
“I didn’t know if we were going to win tonight, but I think we were ready to go the other way with results like we have shown in the past. I was hoping it was today. … I feel like this kind of behavior as a team, if we keep that it would have been a matter of time to flip it and I felt like today the players looked like themselves and that’s encouraging.”
After Monday’s sparsely attended practice, coach Paul Maurice said that in anticipation of today’s rematch that the coaching staff’s review of the last game would be no different because of this year’s history with Montreal.
“They’re going to take a piece of the game that we didn’t like and some things that we think we did well and we go through them,’’ Maurice said. “So, we find an area of our game – at least in general terms – how we controlled the rush defense I guess would be the idea – I think we were a little over seven minutes of O-zone time so I think that would be something that we would want to hang on to.”
The Canadiens have not made the playoffs since the realigned post-covid year playoffs of 2021.
For the past three seasons they finished last in the Atlantic Division. This season. their rebuilding is taking shape.
They have one of the brightest young stars in Suzuki, who is enroute to his top point producing year.
Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky are two youngsters with a bright future. Slafkovsky, at 6-3 and 225 pounds, shares the team lead in hits at 176 with Arber Xhekaj.
Rookie defenseman Lane Hutson has an astounding 59 points this season and will be getting plenty of Calder Trophy votes.
Sunday, he assisted on three of Montreal’s four goals.
The enigmatic Patrik Laine is having a resurgence of sorts since the offseason trade to Montreal following an injury-riddled final year in Columbus.
Fifteen of his 19 goals this season have come on the power play.
For Florida, there is no real timeline for the return of Matthew Tkachuk and Dmitry Kulikov. The suspended Aaron Ekblad won’t be back until Game 3 of the playoffs.
Brad Marchand getting into the lineup is a plus.
Both the Canadiens and the Panthers are teetering in their quest for positioning in the playoffs.
This is a pretty big game for both teams with just a couple weeks remaining in the regular season.
ON DECK: GAME No. 74
FLORIDA PANTHERS at MONTREAL CANADIENS
- When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
- Where: Bell Centre, Montreal
- 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: Florida won 3-1
- This Season (Canadiens Lead 3-0) — At Montreal: Canadiens 3, Panthers 1 (March 15); Tuesday. At Florida: Canadiens 4, Panthers 0 (Dec. 28); Canadiens 4, Panthers 2 (March 30).
- All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 58-42-11, 6 ties
- Up Next for the Panthers: Wednesday at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7:30 p.m.
