"It can be difficult in a sense that we've been that close, and we could be 5-1-0 or whatever the case may be," Panthers defenseman Mike Matheson said of the team's start after Monday's practice at the Panthers IceDen. But this time last year we were struggling and we weren't getting any points, so you have to look at it in a sense that this year we are getting points.
"And as much as we'd rather be winning the games and coming out with two points, we are still getting points out of these games and we haven't even come close to playing the best hockey we can. That's a positive way of looking at it."
Although their best hockey is yet to come, the Panthers are still doing plenty of good things on the ice. Florida currently boasts the league's most-prolific offense at 5-on-5, scoring 3.41 goals per 60 minutes. According to NaturalStatTrick.com, they're also allowing the 10th-fewest shots on goal, the ninth-fewest scoring chances and the fifth-fewest shot attempts at 5-on-5 play.
Over their last three outings, the Panthers have picked up four out of a possible six points.
"There's some positives that we talked about today," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said of the team's recent stretch. "It could have easily been six out of six, but that's the way it goes. I think every game went into overtime. Good things are happening on the road. We've got to make sure that tomorrow night, not only our start's got to be there, but we've got to be consistent."
In an effort to cultivate that consistency, Boughner switched up the team's top-two defensive pairings before hitting the road. The longtime top-pairing of Keith Yandle and Aaron Ekblad has been split up for the time being, with Yandle now partnered with Alexander Petrovic and Ekblad playing alongside Matheson. However, Boughner said he expects the pairings to be fairly fluid.
"We're just trying different things here," he said. "You see today that I had different lines. As much as we could have four or five wins here… those are fine lines about having our record better than it is. At this point in the season, I'm still looking for that extra level. Protecting leads, obviously. We talked about that, playing a full 60 [minutes]."
If Florida's defense can avoid those costly mistakes, it should have a good night against the Rangers, who boast the league's 26th-ranked offense, which is scoring 2.25 goals per game on average and has tallied just one goals in three of eight games so far this season.
New York (2-5-1) has also lost three of its last four games -- including a 4-1 loss to Calgary on Sunday - but has certainly shown a lot of fight on home ice, where the team has gone 2-3-0.
"They've got some offense, some speed," Boughner said. "It's a team that we've got to match up with in the first 5-10 minutes. That building, you've got to make sure you're ready to play. We're going to get the game plan in place. I think we've been good on the road. Our start to every game on the road has been really good. Again, we've got to just make sure during the middle parts of the game when they're pushing, which they will, that one mistake doesn't compound into two and three."
