The Florida Panthers were hoping to storm out of the gates when they opened their post-4 Nations schedule on Saturday.
Instead, the Cats stumbled and ultimately came up short in a 2-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.
There are several factors that you can chalk the loss up to.
Whether Florida ran into a hot goalie, needed more practice time or just more puck luck, there were too many things that didn’t go the Panthers way for them to pick up two points against Seattle.
Let’s get to Saturday’s takeaways:
A MIXED BAG
After not playing for nearly two weeks and holding only a pair of shorthanded practices, it seemed the Panthers were a little disjoined at times on Saturday against Seattle.
Compare that to the Kraken, who played a strong road game in a tough building against the defending Stanley Cup champs.
Did it make a difference that Seattle had been in South Florida for several days and had a full team to skate together ahead of the game?
It sure didn’t hurt.
“I don’t think that we gave up a whole heck of a lot,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “They got one on the power play, we don’t, and then some missed opportunities. We never really like talking about that. We’ll be above the bar on chances for and against. There’s some plays…sloppiness, we just couldn’t get a handle on some pretty basic things. So that would make sense to you, we haven’t had a practice, like a team practice, yet. It was just okay. There’s not a trend there that I’m worried about.”
TURNING POINT
Florida was playing from behind after allowing the Kraken to get on the board first during the opening period, but they appeared to be building some momentum as the game moved into the middle frame.
Eetu Luostarinen’s goal felt like the start of something for the Panthers, and they continued to push for the lead in the following minutes.
A goal by Mackie Samoskevich that came off a great play by Sam Bennett was challenged for goalie interference and ultimately disallowed.
Referee TJ Luxmore announced that Evan Rodrigues had skated into the goal crease on his own, causing the interference and leading to the no-goal decision, but the replay seemed to dispute those facts.
Not that it mattered because the call was final, but that really seemed to take the wind out of Florida’s sails.
Asked about it after the game, Maurice kept his cool and gave a thoughtful answer.
“We were going pretty good there, but rules are rules,” he said. “We can’t touch a goalie in the blue paint, and I guess we did. I was not sure I would have challenged it, so (Seattle Coach Dan Bylsma is) right and I’m wrong.”
NOT THE NORMAL PANTHERS PUSH
Florida has been one of the best teams in the NHL when it comes to clawing their way back into games that they fall behind.
Whether its early or late in a game, the Panthers pride themselves on always keeping an even temperament and not chasing the game, regardless of the score.
That’s why it was so surprising to see Florida only put up five shots during the third period despite being down a goal.
It was indicative of their entire game, which wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was far from what we have come to expect from Maurice and the Panthers.
“I especially didn’t like the first five minutes of our third period,” Maurice said. “That was really the piece of the game I didn’t like. I thought the first period was flat and even in terms of chances. I liked our second period, I thought that was right, but we did not, in the first five minutes (of the third period) start well. That’s where the sloppiness came in, we stopped transitioning the puck particularly well.”
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