George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers’ 2019-20 season — for all its promise, hope, disappointment and overall weirdness — may have just one game left.
Win on Wednesday and the Panthers have new life.
Lose to the Islanders in Game 3 and it is another long offseason — one with plenty of questions as usual.
The Panthers go into Wednesday down 2-0 in their best-of-five Stanley Cup qualifier against the New York Islanders and, just looking at the stats, their odds do not look promising.
Florida, after all, has lost its past six games to the Islanders dating back to last season. Sure, all of the games have been close.
The truth is, the Islanders have won ‘em all.
And they have done so by keeping the Panthers’ usually fiery offense in complete check.
In the six games against the Islanders this season, the Panthers — who were sixth in the league averaging 3.3 goals per contest — have yet to put more than two in the net.
Florida is also not putting up as many shots against the Islanders’ suffocating defense as it is used to.
The Panthers are going to have to find some offense and fast.
As Keith Yandle noted in his postgame comments on Tuesday, the Panthers did not have much time to wallow in self pity after losing Game 2 on Tuesday.
That 4-2 score got wiped off the board soon after the two teams left the ice at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday afternoon and will not be there Wednesday morning when they hit the ice for warmups.
“We’re just thinking about (Wednesday),” team captain Sasha Barkov said. “This game is over. It wasn’t our best, we didn’t bring our best (Tuesday). Tomorrow is another chance and we have to win that game.
“We have to have that mindset that we have to play our best game of the series, play smarter than we have the past two games.”
Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to get his third consecutive start, and the feeling out of Long Island is that Semyon Varlamov will return to the New York net.
If the Panthers play the way they did in the first period on Tuesday for the entire game, they should be fine.
If they play the entirety of Game 3 like they did in the second half of Game 1, they should be fine.
Can this team put it all together, for an entire game?
We will find out soon enough.
“I defintiely think this group has the talent to do it,” said Mike Hoffman, who gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead midway through the first Tuesday.
“Bob has been playing well for us so we know that’s going to be there for us. It is up to us guys up front to put the puck in the net and we have a ton of guys who are able to do so.
“It’s defintiely a challenge, and a great opportunity.”
Challenge? You bet it is.
If this was a normal series, a best-of-seven variety, the Panthers would be in trouble but would have the games to dig out of it.
Here, in a best-of-five, they are about out of time.
To advance to the playoffs, Florida has to rally from a 0-2 hole with three consecutive wins.
In the old days, when the NHL used to have best-of-five series and teams which went down 0-2 were usually done.
Of the 56 teams to go down 0-2, only one (the Islanders in the 1985 Patrick Division semifinals) took the next three to move on.
This task is not going to come easy.
The Panthers would do themselves a favor by just looking at Wednesday’s game and not what it will take to come all the way back.
”You have to play (Wednesday) and not look ahead. That’s the bottom line,” coach Joel Quenneville said.
“Obviously we should all feel disappointed and accepting it is not what we’re all about. We want to make sure we’re able to do something about it.
“Let’s make sure we’re ready to play from the start — like we did that first period (Tuesday). And, we’re going to need to play like that, too.”
— Not long after Tuesday’s game, the NHL announced Mike Matheson was fined $2,500 for his high-stick on Brock Nelson in the first period of Game 2.
Matheson was given a double-minor for the infraction.
Stanley Cup qualifier (best-of-5)
No. 10 Florida Panthers (0-2) vs. No. 7 New York Islanders (2-0)
Game 3
When, where: Wednesday, noon; Scotiabank Arena, Toronto
TV/Radio: FS Florida, NBCSN (national); 560-AM, 640-AM (WPB), 100.3-FM (Keys).
Regular season records: Florida 35-26-8; Islanders 35-23-10
Season series: Islanders won 3-0
NHL regular season rankings — Goals for: Panthers 228 (6th); Islanders 189 (24th). Goals against: Panthers 224 (tie-5th); Islanders 190 (tie-25th). Power play: Panthers 21.3% (tie-10th); Islanders 17.3% (tie-24th). Penalty kill: Panthers 78.5% (20th); Islanders 80.7% (15th).
Postseason history: Islanders d. Panthers 4-2 in 2016 quarterfinals.
Game 1: Islanders 2, Panthers 1; Game 2: Islanders 4, Panthers 2.
Goals: Islanders (Jordan Eberle 2; Matt Martin, Ryan Pulock, J-G Pageau, Anthony Beauvillier); Panthers (Jonathan Huberdeau, Mike Hoffman, Sasha Barkov).
Assists: Islanders (Derick Brassard, Josh Bailey 2; Pulock, Mathew Barzal, Beauvillier, Tom Kuhnhackl, Andy Greene, Devon Toews); Panthers (Sasha Barkov, MacKenzie Weegar).
Power play: Islanders 3-10; Panthers 1-4.
Goalies — Islanders: Semyon Varlamov (48-51, .941); Panthers: Sergei Bobrovsky (49-55, .891).
Schedule — Game 4*: Friday, TBD; Game 5*: Sunday, Aug. 9, TBD.
GAME 3 PROJECTED LINEUPS
Florida Panthers
11 Jonathan Huberdeau- 16 Sasha Barkov- 68 Evgenii Dadonov
28 Aleksi Saarela — 56 Erik Haula — 68 Mike Hoffman
77 Frank Vatrano — 9 Brian Boyle — 10 Brett Connolly
13 Mark Pysyk — 55 Noel Acciari — 7 Colton Sceviour
52 MacKenzie Weegar — 5 Aaron Ekblad
61 Riley Stillman — 6 Anton Stralman
3 Keith Yandle — 19 Mike Matheson
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
60 Chris Driedger
New York Islanders
27 Anders Lee — 13 Mat Barzal — 7 Jordan Eberle
18 Anthony Beauvillier — 29 Brock Nelson — 12 Josh Bailey
32 Ross Johnston — 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau — 10 Derick Brassard
17 Matt Martin — 53 Casey Cizikas — 15 Cal Clutterbuck
3 Adam Pelech — 6 Ryan Pulock
25 Devon Toews — 24 Scott Mayfield
2 Nick Leddy — 55 Johnny Boychuk
40 Semyon Varlamov
1 Thomas Greiss