Panthers now must hit road
Saturday loss drops team five points back
Suddenly, the Florida Panthers are in peril.
The good vibes of a sixgame homestand sweep are forgotten and the hot streak that carried the team into a playoff race is evaporating. With Saturday afternoon’s 4-2 loss to Edmonton, the Panthers have now lost two of their last three games and fell further behind in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
With their loss, plus wins by Philadelphia, Columbus and New Jersey, the Panthers entered Sunday five points from a playoff spot. Florida (35-27-7, 77 points) trails the Devils (37-26-8, 82 points) for the second wild card spot and the Blue Jackets (39-28-5, 83 points) for the first wild card spot. The Panthers have two games in hand on New Jersey and three on Columbus.
“A lot of important hockey in front of us,” Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo said after Saturday’s game. “Disappointed with tonight, but we got some big games coming up on the road this week so we got to forget about it and just get back to what we do best.”
Saturday’s loss capped a favorable stretch in which the Panthers played 11 of 12 games at home and never left the state of Florida. Now, seven of the team’s next eight games are on the road, beginning with tonight in Montreal. Florida also plays Ottawa on Tuesday and Columbus on Thursday.
The Panthers are still 16-5-1 since the All-Star break, but dropped winnable games this week against struggling teams such as Ottawa and Edmonton.
“I think we should beat that team if we play our game,” Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck said. “It’s just a matter of coming to every game like it’s a playoff
game. Can’t let off the pedal at all.”
Empty power play
The Panthers went 0-for-6 on the power play on Saturday, unable to capitalize on 12 minutes on the man-advantage. It was the first time this season Florida failed to score with at least six power-play opportunities.
“We just couldn’t get into the zone,” Trocheck said. “We weren’t executing enough.”
Panthers coach Bob Boughner said Florida had trouble controlling faceoffs on the power play and thus struggled with possession.
“We spent 30 seconds of every power play chasing it down the ice and trying to get set up,” Boughner said. “Our entries weren’t very good. When we got in the zone, I didn’t think the execution was good. One, two passes and then we lost control of it. We’re chasing the puck down in our own end.”
Since the All-Star break, the Panthers possessed the second-best power play entering Saturday, cashing in on 19 of 64 chances (29.7 percent). They had a power-play goal in five of the previous six games entering Saturday.
Getting physical
For the third straight game, Trocheck took a big hit on Saturday, this one courtesy of a shove from behind by Oilers forward Milan Lucic that sent Trocheck into the goalpost.
Ottawa’s Tom Pyatt hit Trocheck on Monday night in the second period, forcing him to miss Wednesday’s practice. Boston’s David Backes leveled Trocheck with an open-ice hit on Thursday night that Backes was given a match penalty for.
“I feel fine. It’s part of the game, I guess,” Trocheck said. “I don’t know if I’d consider some of them fair or head-on. I’ll be the first to tell somebody they had a nice hit whenever they smoke me and it’s not cheap. I don’t know. It is what it is, I guess.”