A finish line of sorts is in sight for the Florida Panthers.
After battling through a treacherous travel schedule and dealing with injuries and illnesses to several players, a nice long break is on the horizon for most of Florida’s players.
Despite all the obstacles, Florida continues to lead the Atlantic Division and they are starting to play some very strong, consistent hockey.
The latest example of that came on Thursday night in St. Louis, when the Panthers were by far the better team from start to finish.
Those pesky hockey gods must have been in agreement because it was the Cats who picked up a very late goal to earn two points and head home happy.
Here are the takeaways form Florida’s big win:
STRONG ROAD FINISH
Ending their latest road trip on a positive was the goal heading into Thursday night’s game in St. Louis.
Defensively, the Panthers did almost everything they wanted, limiting the Blues’ shot attempts and keeping them out of the danger areas of the ice.
Generating those same high-end looks wasn’t as easy for Florida either, but fortunately they kept at it and were rewarded in the final seconds.
“We gave up two shots in the third period, or I think we’re pretty close to it, so that’s right for us,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “I don’t think we generated a ton, but that’s all right. This is kind of like an extended road trip. We played back-to-back games at home and then leave after the game to go out on this road, so it feels like a long road trip, and we found a way. Sometimes you loosen up in the third periods of those games, you’re just trying to get the win, and you just trade (chances), and I didn’t think we did that at all, so that’s the good part.”
TKACHUK ROLLING
Currently, several of Florida’s top forwards are putting up some impressive numbers.
Sasha Barkov, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett have all caught fire and have the eye-popping numbers to back it up, but these days, nobody is putting the puck in the net like Matthew Tkachuk.
He’s now scored in each of Florida’s past five games after lighting the lamp twice in his hometown of St. Louis on Thursday.
During his goal streak, Tkachuk has logged 10 points. He’s got 13 points over his past seven games.
It’s a pretty amazing stretch from a guy who we’ve seen go on runs like this before. Now it seems the only question is how long he’ll keep it going.
“He had a double tonight, so he’s on a roll” Maurice said with a grin. “If he can keep that going for a while it would be good for us.”
ONE GAME LEFT BEFORE BREAK
Florida has now played six of their past nine games on the road.
They have been living out of suitcases almost exclusively for the past month while trying to maneuver several of the aforementioned hindrances mentioned toward the top of the story.
After meandering around the .500 mark for a while, the Panthers are starting to string some victories together.
It’s a trend that should continue as the season progresses, assuming the team stays healthy.
“Everybody has the exact same feel, kind of a light at the end of the tunnel,” Maurice said. “Maybe for 12 of our guys, the other guys have to go play some hockey. This break has been on…this is the last almost aberration to our season. We’ve had lots of well-earned, unusual things that we had to do this year, which were great, but when we come out of that break, it’s back to normal. It’s a regular NHL year for us then.”
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