Among Panthers’ ‘23 resolutions: improve, win more, make playoffs
The Florida Panthers are heading into 2023 with their playoff hopes already in serious jeopardy.
After a 4-0 loss Friday to the Carolina Hurricanes — their first regular-season shutout loss since April 8, 2021 — the Panthers are 16-17-4, sitting in sixth place in the Atlantic Division and eight points out of a wildcard spot. It’s the first time Florida has a sub.500 points percentage heading into the new year since the 2013-14 season, when they were 15-20-6 when 2013 turned to 2014.
“We’re very aware of our situation,” first-year Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, “and have a very narrow focus on what we’re doing.”
Here are five New Year’s resolutions for the Panthers as they try to make a late push to get back into playoff contention.
TURN EFFORT INTO A WINNING STREAK
The Panthers, at least based on analytics, have been one of the better chance-generating teams in the league this season.
According to the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick, Florida leads the league in high-danger chances per game (15.2) and ranks second in scoring chances (25.19) and expected goals for per game (3.65).
Despite that, Florida has yet to consistently turn that into wins. They have yet to string together three wins in a row and have won back-to-back games just three times this season.
“We haven’t gotten enough wins,” captain and star center Aleksander Barkov said.
The Panthers desperately need a winning streak soon if they want to keep any semblance of playoff life alive.
It won’t be easy over this next stretch. Nine of their 15 games in January are against teams in the playoff field. They play no more than two games in a row on home ice and have a four-game road trip in which each game is played in a different time zone.
And they’re doing this under the pressure of knowing one more losing streak could effectively end their season.
KEEP THEIR TOP PLAYERS ON THE ICE
Barkov has missed 10 games this season, first due to illness and then a lower-body injury. Florida went 2-6-2 in his absence.
Defenseman Aaron Ekblad missed 11 games early in the season with a lower-body injury and hasn’t looked like the Norris Trophy contender he usually is since his return. Fellow defenseman Radko Gudas missed 10 games with a concussion, and veteran winger Patric Hornqvist is still out with a concussion of his own.
The Panthers have shown they need their star players in the lineup and producing at a high level to compete this season. They’ll need more from Barkov and Ekblad (in addition to Matthew Tkachuk continuing to rack up points).
GET MORE CONSISTENCY IN NET
Sergei Bobrovsky has helped on this front a bit after a strong December — he posted a .919 save percentage in 10 games — but the Panthers overall are still giving up 3.38 goals per game, the 11thmost in the league.
It’s nearly a half-goal more per game than they allowed last season (2.95) and Florida doesn’t have the high-flying offense that it did last season to cover for defensive and goaltending breakdowns this year.
That means they’ll need Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight to both be on their game, especially since the team has three sets of backto-backs in January.
IMPROVE ON SPECIAL TEAMS
The Panthers are converting on just 19.1 percent of their power play opportunities, the seventh-lowest rate in the league.
Their penalty kill isn’t much better, with just a 75.5 percent conversion rate that ranks tied for 20th in the league.
While Florida has shown it can be dominant in five-onfive play, special teams has been a difference-maker in many of their games this season. Friday was the latest example, with three of the four goals they gave up to Carolina coming on the power play and the fourth coming shortly after a Hurricanes man advantage opportunity expired.
Jordan McPherson: 305-376-2129, @J_McPherson1126