Energy level needs to stay up
Panthers have 3 back-to-backs last two weeks
The Florida Panthers have been able to shake off some slow starts. But they haven’t been able to eliminate them.
During Saturday night’s 4-2 comeback victory over Arizona, the Panthers fell behind 2-0 after the first two periods before storming back with four third-period goals. Panthers coach Bob Boughner chalked up the slow start to a lack of energy. Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck said it was a preparation issue.
“I feel like we’ve been talking about it the last five games,” Trocheck said. “We haven’t been prepared the way that we had been the previous 15 to 20 [games]. We come to the rink, on the road or at home, I think it’s got to be the same mentality — go out there, play our game, get pucks behind their D, establish a forecheck, play hard and play smart in the d-zone.”
The Panthers can ill afford to suffer from a dearth of energy at this point in the season. They enter today three points behind New Jersey for the second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference with two games in hand on the Devils.
Florida plays nine more games in the next two weeks, including three back-to-backs.
“There’s going to be nights, or periods, where we may not have our best,” Boughner said, “but we got to be able to manage those periods properly and know when to grab the momentum back and push and be smart and manage our game properly.”
The Panthers open a four-game road trip tonight against the New York Islanders. They also visit Toronto, Ottawa and Boston.
Forward Aleksander Barkov plays the most minutes of all NHL forwards. Trocheck plays the fifthmost. Keith Yandle and Aaron Ekblad are two of the 36 defensemen who average at least 23 minutes per games.
Roberto Luongo, the Panthers 38-year-old starting goaltender, has only played 29 games this season and missed Saturday with an upper-body injury.
“It’s tough because we play our big guys a lot,” Boughner said. “We’re coming off a long road trip and we know we’re going out for another one. There’s not a lot of rest when you look at our next two weeks. Our schedule is probably as busy as anybody’s in the NHL.”