SUNRISE, Fla. – The Florida Panthers finally got a breather.
After playing 15 games in 30 days in November – their busiest month of the 2023-24 campaign – they had two days to recharge a bit before returning to practice Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday.
Prior to enjoying a full day off on Monday, players also devoted some of their time away from the ice to snapping tons of pics and chatting with Territory Members at Pantherfest on Sunday.
“Very refreshing,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said after this morning’s practice. “Good to get away and do some activities outside of the rink to get your mind off it. Tough losing the last game [before the two-day break], but I think all in all it was a solid month for our team.”
Solid might be an understatement.
Despite their jampacked schedule, the Panthers, who currently occupy second place in the Atlantic Division, posted a 10-4-1 record in November and led the entire NHL in points (21).
Especially formidable away from home, they owned a 6-2-1 record on the road in November, with their six wins matching the franchise record for road victories in a single calendar month.
Set to host Dallas on Wednesday in Sunrise, the goal now is to just keep on building.
“They’re a team that made it very far last year – Western Conference Final – and seemed to even get better this year,” Tkachuk said of the Stars. “It should be a very tough team. I know them very well from my days in Calgary. Big team. Fast team. They’re really offensive.”
Second in the Central Division, Dallas sits at 14-6-3.
POLISHING THE POWER PLAY
The first half of this morning’s practice was dedicated to special teams.
Sitting at 17.5% on the power play, the Panthers know they’re due for more goals.
After all, they finished 10th in the NHL at 22.8% last season with similar units.
“We have a lot of zone time,” Tkachuk said. “We’re really good on draws. We seem to get shots. We’ve just got to get more quality chances and better puck recoveries. It seems to all be there. We have all the right pieces. We have the same unit that was really successful last year.”
Taking a look at the deeper numbers, the Panthers have certainly been generating a ton of great looks.
Despite scoring just 14 goals on the power play thus far, they rank fourth in the NHL with 20.54 expected goals, per NaturalStatTrick.com. If all of those expected goals on the man advantage had materialized, their power play would actually be humming along at roughly 25% right now.
They also lead the NHL in high-danger shot attempts on the power play with 71.
During this morning’s practice, Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett and Tkachuk were on the top power-play unit, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Aaron Ekblad, Carter Verhaeghe, Evan Rodrigues and Anton Lundell were operating on the second unit.
With chemistry playing a key role on special teams, it’s also important to note that Montour, Ekblad and Bennett are all still getting back into a groove after injuries kept them out of action at the start of the season.
“The more touches we get, the more familiar back with the same unit we had and the more comfortable with each other, [the better we’ll be],” Montour said of the power play. “Just keep that urgency up, keep creating chances, shooting the puck and getting in front of the goalie.”
Montour also pointed to the team’s three power-play goal outburst during a 5-0 win at Ottawa on Nov. 27 as a good example of the potential that the Panthers have with the extra attacker.
In early November, they also had back-to-back games with two goals on the power play.
“We’re getting an awful lot of chances,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “Then when you have a power play where it doesn’t go and you don’t get chances – because that happens – it looks ugly. You can’t enter or whatever. Then it’s really frustrating. The puck’s gotta go in the net. It doesn’t have to be the best part of your game. As a matter of fact, you’d prefer that your power play isn’t’ driving wins because there are other hard things you’ve got to do to be a good hockey team, but the power play has to take some pressure off your 5-on-5 game.”
Overall, the power play appears poised to break out soon.
MAHURA, GADJOVICH UPDATES
The news on the injury front was good this morning.
Out ever since he suffered an undisclosed injury on Nov. 16 at Los Angeles, defenseman Josh Mahura ran through another full practice with the Panthers and could be cleared very soon.
In 16 games this season, he’s dished out five assists.
“We’ll see how he is tomorrow, but I don’t think he’s very far from being ready,” Maurice said.
After sitting out Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Islanders with a minor upper-body injury, forward Jonah Gadjovich was also a full participant in practice and should be available shortly as well.
“I think he’s ready to roll,” Maurice said.
With Mahura getting back to full health, the Panthers will soon be carrying eight defensemen after Uvis Balinskis was recalled from the AHL on Monday after playing one game in Charlotte.
Already boasting the fourth-ranked defense in the NHL with an average of 2.54 goals allowed per game, the Panthers appear to have an abundance of riches on the back end this season.
The challenge moving forward will just be trying to keep everyone fresh.
“I don’t like pulling defenseman in and out, but I’ve also got two NHL defensemen sitting out that don’t deserve it sit out,” Maurice said. "We’ll consider it a luxury and try to find different ways to maneuver through it.”
TUESDAY’S PRACTICE LINES
Forwards
Evan Rodrigues – Aleksander Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Nick Cousins
Steven Lorentz/Jonah Gadjovich – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg
Defensemen
Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola - Brandon Montour
Oliver-Ekman Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
Josh Mahura – Uvis Balinskis
Goaltenders
Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz
