On the surface, everything looks good. The game of the Florida Panthers in Tasakenti continues to produce. The team has the most shots per game in the entire NHL, and even without a goal, it still hurts at the top of the league.
In general, based on the statistics, it is hard to believe that last season’s regular season winner Panthers are in great danger of missing the playoffs.
Similar collapses are rarely seen in the NHL. Boston last experienced this fate in the 2014–15 season. The Bruins won the regular season the previous season, but then took a vacation before the playoffs.
Colorado 2021-22 (2020–21 regular season winner): 2nd in the regular season and champion in the playoffs
Boston 2020–21: 10th in the regular season and in the 2nd round in the playoffs
Tampa Bay 2019–20: 3rd in the regular season and champion in the playoffs
Nashville 2018–19: 8th in the regular season and 1st round in the playoffs
Washington 2017–18: 6th in the regular season and champion in the playoffs
Washington 2016–17: in the regular season in the 1st round and in the playoffs in the 2nd round
New York Rangers 2015–16: 9th in the regular season and 1st round in the playoffs
Boston 2014–15: 17th in the regular season and out of the playoffs
Now the middle of the regular season is approaching and the Panthers are about ten points away from the big line. The team will soon need a decent winning streak so that the goal doesn’t slip too far.
We broke down the backgrounds of Panthers plowing.
Maurice imposed a speed limit
Last season, the Panthers were an extremely fast team. It hunted voraciously and effectively turned exploits into goal posts. Florida used the puck brilliantly in all areas of the court. At its sharpest, it manacled its opponent to the end plank already in the opening set and gained a 3–4 goal lead. In its slow evenings, it stormed with the same recipe from the back of several goals to the side at the end and past.
However, in the most important moments of the season, the group began to hesitate.
The 0-4 loss to Tampa Bay in the playoffs led to a tough laundry and the head coach Andrew Brunette was allowed to leave. Replaced Paul Maurice charmed the Panthers club management by drawing the game’s usual stepping stones to success in the playoffs as well. Luotsi is known for his gift of speech, which is at the level of ice for Eskimos.
Maurice pointed out that Florida needs to be smarter, and not press the gas at the bottom all the time.
The fouls have led to the fact that the Panthers’ greatest strength, i.e. the speed of the game, has fallen. The team’s DNA has changed, and it is not able to cause its opponents the same rush as before.
This can also be seen in the goal average. Last season, the Panthers scored 4.11 goals per game (1st in the NHL), now the average is only 3.24 goals (13th).
Escaping behind injuries
The Panthers’ infancy has been explained by injuries and turnover. The mantra is lame, especially when it comes to injuries.
From the core of the group Aaron Ekblad and Alexander Barkov have both been on the sidelines for ten games, but they were like that last season as well. Ekblad played 61 regular season games and Barkov 67.
This season, the Panthers haven’t been in the actual injury zone either, and Colorado, for example, has clearly scored more points with a much thinner lineup.
The Panthers have just 36 points from 38 games. Having played two games less, the Avalanche have collected 41 points.
The NHL’s most sensational player trade in recent years between Florida and Calgary changed the dynamics of the Panthers’ group. Transferred to the Flames MacKenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau were in key roles in Florida. Although moved in the other direction Matthew Tkachuk has been successful in terms of results, because of the trade, a big piece of soul left the ranks of the Panthers.
Weegar was quick on his feet and defended forward. Huberdeau’s greatest asset was his speed of thought. The duo’s departure is directly reflected in the Panthers’ slowed game speed.
Expiring contracts and salary cap issues were behind the deal. That’s why GM Bill Zito can’t fully judge – something had to be done. You can give him towels for that, that slow players have been brought into the group, such as Konkaripakki Marc Staal. He doesn’t defend much forward.
Staalin and Radko Gudasen gambling as a pair can be considered a crime against the hockey community. Both have played more than 18 minutes per game this season, which seems like an unreasonable amount of playing time considering the contribution.
When the Bruins were eliminated from the playoffs as the defending regular season champions in 2015, the club’s GM Peter Chiarelli got fired. Zito is unlikely to be in the same danger, but Midas’s reputation has fallen quickly.
Special situations occur
A good special situation team’s combined percentage of overpower and underpower should be over 100. Last season, the Panthers were able to do this in the regular season (103.9). Ylivoima ran at 24.4 and Alivoima at almost 79.5 percent power. Now the total reading is only 94.1 (19.3+74.8).
Last season, with 38 points, Huberdeau was the third most effective yv player in the entire series. He broke many underdogs with his skill, but now there is no spinner like him.
After the recent Rangers game, Maurice stated to the media that the second team will start to dominate in the next match.
The total meltdown of the playoffs is still knocking in the background. Of the 16 playoff teams last season, the Panthers were clearly the worst in dominance, when the percentage fell to 3.2. The power of Colorado, who advanced to the championship, was more than 32 percent in the playoffs.
This season, the Panthers have played the second most underdogs of any team behind Calgary. When a weak understrength is combined with ice propensity, the end result can only be bad for Florida.
The oozing Alivoima can be seen especially from the goalkeepers Sergei Bobrovsky in percentages. by Spencer Knight overall stats are slightly better, but he hasn’t played a single good match in a month. Both need better support from the field players than so far this season.
The two are not full of talent, even if Bobrovsky is paid too much.
Recently against Carolina, Florida was underpowered five times and allowed three goals. In addition, the Hurricanes scored one goal just when by Anton Lundell the freeze had ended. With the upper hand, the Panthers missed all six of their opportunities in a 0–4 loss.
– Nights passed. We have to fight h-vet much harder, Maurice would say after the defeat.
Time for conclusions
Florida is not out of the playoffs yet, but the course should turn in the next month. Experienced Maurice would be able to draw the right conclusions based on the early season.
Maurice should a) clean the slowest players out of the line-up, b) free up the grappling and exploitation game and c) fix the special situations.
With these measures, it would still be possible to stop the shameful slide.
will show two NHL games live this weekend. Saturday 7.1. there will be Colorado–Carolina at 11 pm and on Sunday 8.1. Dallas–Florida at 10:30 p.m.