5 TAKEAWAYS: Islanders 5, Panthers 1

ELMONT, N.Y. - The Florida Panthers will look to get healthy and hit the rest button during the holiday break after suffering a 5-1 loss to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Friday.
With the loss, Florida fell to 15-16-4 in the standings.
"It's going to be huge," Panthers forward Sam Bennett said of the team's upcoming break. "It hasn't been the first half of the season that we wanted. It's a time to reset and refocus and then come back hungry and get ready to push because it's going to be a grind right until the end."
For a quick recap of the game, click
HERE
.
To read up on five key takeaways for the Cats, continue below.

1. TKACHUK HITS 40

Tkachuk is heading into the holiday break with some impressive numbers.
Holding onto a 12-point cushion atop Florida's scoring leaderboard, the 25-year-old forward upped his point total to 40 (15 goals, 25 assists) with his first-period goal against the Islanders.

Skating in 32 games this season, Tkachuk has reached 40 points faster than any other player in franchise history, besting Hall of Famer Pavel Bure's previous record of 40 points in 33 games.
That being said, Tkachuk is more concerned with wins than personal accolades.
"We have to find a way here for each individual to step up after this break," Tkachuk said. "If we play the way we can, I know we can make the playoffs. I believe in our group."

2. SMITH'S DEBUT

Welcome to the Cats, Givani Smith.
Suiting up in his first game since being acquired in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 19, Smith, who was recalled from the AHL earlier in the morning, made his presence felt right away when he dropped the gloves with Islanders enforcer Matt Martin late in the first period.
"It's always exciting news," Smith said of his fresh start. "Got down here and got my first pre-game skate. I'm feeling good. … Just be yourself, play your game and it'll work out in the end."
Originally selected by Detroit in the second round (46th overall) of the 2016 NHL Draft, Smith, who's also appeared in 148 career AHL games, recorded 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) and 138 penalty minutes over 85 games with the Red Wings prior to joining the Panthers.
Seeing 7:01 of ice time against the Islanders, Smith led the Panthers with four hits.

3. POSSESSION BATTLE

It's not often the Panthers find themselves on the wrong side of the possession battle.
Unable to establish their usual strong forecheck, they trailed the Islanders 81-48 in shot attempts, 43-22 in scoring chances and 21-11 in high-danger shot attempts, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
"We were behind it right from the start and could never catch up," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "Our goalie was really good through the whole game. We didn't give him an opportunity to have a great night by the turnovers we had. We're the best forechecking team in the NHL and we didn't forecheck. We couldn't get a puck in deep and couldn't get it to go. We had absolutely no legs from start to finish."
Due to that lack of possession, the Panthers, who currently lead the NHL with an average of 36.7 shots on goal per game, were held to a season-low 23 shots on goal against the Islanders.
"We deserve what we got tonight," Tkachuk said. "There's been multiple games this year where we definitely have deserved to win, but tonight we didn't. We played not a very good game in front of Bob. He did a hell of a job to keep us in it all night. Individually, lots of mistakes, but probably cheating it is the best way to put it. You can't do that against any team in this league."

4. HOLDING IT DOWN

As Maurice and Tkachuk have both mentioned, Bobrovsky was a bright spot in the loss.
Making his eighth start in the last nine games, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner held down the fort and kept the Panthers in a position to get back into the game as long as he could.
After stopping all 12 shots he faced in the first period to help the Panthers hold onto their 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission, Bobrovsky went on to finish with 38 saves on 42 shots while being pelted with pucks during the second and third periods.
Of those 38 saves, 12 were considered high-danger by NaturalStatTrick.com.
During his run of handling the bulk of the workload in net, Bobrovsky has put the Panthers consistently in position to win while stopping 234 of 255 shots for a .918 save percentage.

5. HITTING THE RESET BUTTON

The holiday break couldn't come at a better time for the Panthers.
With captain Aleksander Barkov (lower body), Radko Gudas (upper body), Patric Hornqvist (upper body), Anthony Duclair (lower body) and Chris Tierney (upper body) and Aaron Ekblad (upper body) all dealing with various injuries, those players now have more time to heal up.
Prior to break, Maurice said that Barkov and Gudas were both tracking toward a return soon after the break, while Ekblad is day to day after being injured in the first period on Long Island.
"We have to find a way to use this break to get healthy," Tkachuk said. "We have a more extended break than most teams, a couple extra days. I haven't been on team where we've had this much bad luck with [injuries], but that's no excuse. At the end of the day there's still 20 guys going out there and we have to find ways to win."
Sitting at 15-16-4, the Panthers are eight points out of a playoff spot, but still have a whopping 47 games left to play to right the ship and claw their way back up the standings. And with both strong underly metrics and a talented roster, they know they're more than capable of going on a run in the second half.
"It's about finding a way," Tkachuk said. "We have the group to rattle off a bunch in a row."