Adding speed, sense of urgency has jump-started Panthers’ power-play unit
The Florida Panthers knew it was only a matter of time before their power play would finally start producing. The team was adamant it had too much firepower, too much talent.
But through the first three months of the season, that didn’t translate into results on the man advantage.
What wasn’t working? Forward Sam Reinhart, a mainstay on the Panthers’ top power-play unit, offered a concise assessment.
“We were a little too slow,” Reinhart said earlier this month. “We have to speed up and play with a little more urgency. Jump the holes as opposed to moving the puck and waiting for something to happen. If we have a little bit more urgency on our power play, we’re going to have a little bit more success.”
It turns out the Panthers have had more than just “a little bit more” success.
In 12 games since returning from the league’s Christmas break, the Panthers have scored on 37 percent of their power plays — 17 goals in their past 46 opportunities — entering Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild. That’s both the most goals with the man advantage in that span and the highest conversion rate.
This was bolstered by the team’s four secondperiod power-play goals against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday — just the second time in franchise history the Panthers have scored four power-play goals in a single period.
Compare that to their first 35 games of the season: Florida converted on just 18.6 percent of its power plays in that stretch, the seventh-worst mark in the league. The Panthers’ 23 total powerplay goals was tied for 17th in the league despite Florida having 124 total power-play opportunities
— more than all but three teams in that stretch.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” Panthers captain and star center Aleksander Barkov said. “We’ve had the same units pretty much all season, so it helps a little bit when you know where everyone’s going to be on the ice, what the release points are and where to put the puck if we’re under pressure. Of course, it comes down to work ethic and execution and we have great players everywhere on the ice, so we know what to do and what’s going to work.”
The production has primarily come from the Panthers’ top unit of Barkov, Reinhart, All-Star Matthew Tkachuk and defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour.
Of Florida’s 17 powerplay goals over the past 12 games, 14 have come from that top group — six for Tkachuk (the most in the NHL in this span), three each from Barkov and Ekblad, and two from
Reinhart.
Reinhart and Barkov have seven power-play assists in this stretch, while Montour has six.
GOALTENDING UPDATE
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Saturday that Sergei Bobrovsky is going to miss at least the team’s next three games — Saturday against Minnesota and the road back-to-back against the Rangers on Monday and Penguins on Tuesday — with his lowerbody injury sustained in the opening minutes Thursday against Montreal.
Spencer Knight, who hasn’t played since Jan. 8 while dealing with an undisclosed injury, is with AHL Charlotte for conditioning and could rejoin the team as early as Monday.
Alex Lyon, who stopped 23 of 25 shots in relief for Bobrovsky on Thursday, was in net Saturday against Minnesota, with Mack Guzda the backup.
Jordan McPherson: 305-376-2129, @J_McPherson1126
Victor Olofsson and Peyton Krebs each scored two goals to lead the host Buffalo Sabres to a 6-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday afternoon.
Olofsson gave the Sabres a 4-3 lead at 2:12 of the third period when he finished off a 2-on-1 break with defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin. His second goal of the game made it 5-3 at 8:07 and he set a career high with 21 goals.
Dylan Cozens and Jeff Skinner also scored and Lyubushkin had three assists. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 34 saves for Buffalo.
Trevor Zegras had two goals and Simon Benoit also scored for Anaheim. John Gibson made 33 saves for Anaheim, which is 1-5-1 in its past seven games.
Flames 6, Lightning 3: Rasmus Andersson had a goal and two assists to lead host Calgary over Tampa Bay. Nazem Kadri, Tyler Toffoli, Dillon Dube, Jonathan Huberdeau and Blake Coleman also scored for Calgary (22-16-9).
Steven Stamkos, Vladislav Namestikov and Anthony Cirelli scored for Tampa Bay (29-15-1), which dropped both games in Alberta to finish 3-2-0 on the longest trip of the season.
Dan Vladar got the start for Calgary and finished with 21 saves to improve to 8-0-3 in his past 11 appearances. His last regulation loss was Nov. 26, and he is 9-4-4 this season.
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots and slipped to 2012-1 on the season.
Down 2-1 in the second period, Tampa Bay got goals 48 seconds apart
Afrom Stamkos and Namestikov to take a shortlived lead.
The Lightning lost Pat Maroon to an injury in the third when he was involved in a collision in front of the Flames net. He went off the ice appearing to be favor his arm.