WASHINGTON, D.C. - Trailing the Capitals 2-1 heading into Game 4 of their best-of-seven playoff series on Monday, the Panthers are confident their best hockey is still ahead of them.
Coming off an incredible regular season in which they set franchise records for both wins (58) and points (122) en route to winning the Presidents' Trophy, Aaron Ekblad believes the team simply needs to get back to doing what made them successful in order to shake up the series.
"I think there's a lot of things that we can do better," the Panthers blueliner said after Sunday's practice at Capital One Arena. "I think, to sum it up simply, is to find the game we had during the regular season and mold it into a playoff game that we can play. I'm confident we can do that."
After cruising to a 5-1 win at FLA Live Arena in Game 2 to even the series, the Panthers opened up the road portion of their postseason with a 6-1 loss at Washington on Saturday. Leading 1-0 on an early goal from Jonathan Huberdeau, they then went on to give up six unanswered goals.
That being said, the Panthers feel that much of the damage was self-inflicted. Whether it was a lost battle along the end boards, an untimely penalty or brief mental lapse, they feel that they've given the Capitals too many opportunities to take advantage of their mistakes during the series.
"I think at times throughout the game, we've really controlled the play," Panthers forward Sam Reinhart said. "It's just the moments when we make mistakes, we have to be on the right side of pucks. That's what they're waiting for. That's how they want to play. They want to expose our mistakes and take advantage of it. … There's been a bunch of swings throughout the series."
Looking at the numbers at NaturalStatTrick.com, the Panthers have actually been the better team at 5-on-5 in the series, leading 150-119 in shot attempts and 8-5 in goals. But on special teams, the Capitals have gone 4-for-12 on the power play, while the Panthers are 0-for-9.
Despite that lack of goals, Florida, which finished fifth in the NHL during the regular season with a 24.4% success rate, has registered 15 scoring chances on the man advantage in the series.
"We've created a few chances where normally we score," Brunette said. "I think a lot of the power play is good, it's just a little bit of that finishing touch right now. I think we can move the puck a little quicker, crisper and cleaner. Probably thinking too much instead of just playing."
Getting back to "just playing" is exactly what the Panthers want to do.
Moving on from Game 3, they held a rather up-tempo practice this afternoon that consisted of multiple battle drills, including a few 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 situations set up in the corner of the rink. As time rolled on, the noise on the ice got louder as players seemed to get back to having fun.
For a team looking for a refresh, the hour-long session seemed to do just that.
"Today was a good practice," Ekblad said. "Obviously we wanted to emphasize our battle level, our intensity, and, like you said, loosen up. We had fun today. We got some work done and we'll coming to the rink ready to play tomorrow."
