Offensive surge continues
Dadonov’s hat trick is team’s third of season
After Evgenii Dadonov answered the question, he flashed a wry smile and a quick chuckle, the way the soft-spoken, dry-witted Florida Panthers forward is wont to do.
“Do you remember your last hat trick?” a reporter asked after Dadonov scored three times to lift the Panthers to a 6-5 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
“I think I had a few last year,” Dadonov answered.
For Dadonov, the 28-year-old Russian topline winger, his hat trick on Saturday night was his first in the NHL. Of course, this season is his first back in the NHL after spending five seasons in the KHL. Last season, as part of one of the league’s best lines with SKA St. Petersburg, Dadonov had two hat tricks plus a four-goal game.
With his offensive explosion Saturday night, Dadonov is one of the hottest players in the league. In his past seven games, Dadonov has seven goals, more than any other NHL player since Feb. 12. Teammate Vincent Trocheck is tied for second league-wide in the same span with six goals of his own.
Dadonov has been a streaky scorer this season. In October, he scored five goals in a five-game span. From mid-December to mid-January, Dadonov suffered through a 19-game goalless drought that also included a shoulder injury that kept him out for eight games. It looks like he’s heating up just in time for a playoff push for the Panthers.
“He’s an elite goal-scorer in this league and in this world,” Panthers center Aleksander Barkov said. “He was scoring a lot of goals in Russia. It was just a matter of time when the pucks start going in because he’s been a dangerous player the whole year. Now, he just had those good chances, he put them in.”
Dadonov signed a threeyear, $12-million deal in the summer to replace the departed Jaromir Jagr on the top line in Florida. He brought the youth and speed that Jagr didn’t as the game moves more towards faster players. This season, he’s provided support behind the star core of Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Vincent Trocheck.
With 18 goals and 23 assists in 51 games, he would be on pace for 29 goals and 37 assists across a healthy 82-game campaign.
On Saturday night, his three goals came in a variety of ways. His first came after he beat Pittsburgh defenseman Brian Dumoulin oneon-one and wristed a shot past Tristan Jarry. His second was on a one-timer. The third was as he waited out Matt Murray and picked his spot to win the game.
“That old saying: the best players got to be the best players in games like this,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “He definitely was. He looked like he had it early. Obviously, he has great patience with the puck. The move on the first goal, cutting outside, inside and the shot he made, you could tell he was on early. It was a big goal at the end of the game, and he delivered.”
Dadonov’s resurgence puts the Panthers on the cusp of having four 20-goal scorers this season. Trocheck has 24. Barkov has 20. Huberdeau and Dadonov both have 18. Florida has had at least four players with at least 20 goals three times in franchise history. The most recent was in 2015-16, when Barkov, Jaromir Jagr, Trocheck, Reilly Smith and Huberdeau led the Panthers to a division title.
Dadonov’s hat trick was also Florida’s third of the season, following efforts from Radim Vrbata (against Anaheim on Oct. 26) and Trocheck (at Edmonton on Feb. 12).
Since Feb. 12, only Pittsburgh (30) and Winnipeg (29) have more goals than the Panthers’ 28.
“It doesn’t matter if we win 12-11, we still get two points,” Barkov said. “That’s all that matters right now.”