The ‘Florida’ Strategy Taking Over The NHL

The ‘Florida’ Strategy Taking Over The NHL

It’s no secret the Florida Panthers are the top dogs in the NHL. Back-to-back champs, three straight Cup finals appearances. Everyone and their mother wants to play there. And on top of that, they were able to keep all their guys this off season for yet another run for the three Pete. It seems like they found the cheat code. But aside from that lovely tax-free advantage that Gary Bentman wants to deny, the Florida Panthers have built a system and strategy so dominant that it has and will continue to be the standard for every NHL team. So if you can’t beat them, join them. Let’s do a full breakdown of Florida’s tactics and strategies going into the season so that you as a fan can know what to look for in other successful teams as well as your own. So can all this change? Absolutely, especially with Barov being out for the season. But given the fact they got the winning formula, I think it’s safe to say that we can likely expect something similar from Florida. Now, going into this year, there are nine new head coaches, and I guarantee all of them are looking to implement some form of Florida’s game into their own. I’ll also be telling you straight up what you should be implementing in your game this season, and that is Segeek. Segeek is the best app for finding deals on tickets by rating them on a scale of 1 to 10 so that you know if you’re getting a good deal. If it’s red, no bueno. Don’t touch that. If it’s green, that’s a gem and you should snatch up those tickets. Guys, the NFL’s back. The NHL’s right here. I use SeatGeek all the time during the season to get some sweet deals on tickets. And you can, too, if you download the app. You know, I have a code for you guys. You can use code hockey 2025 for 10% off your next set of tickets at Segeek. That’s 10% off any tickets with promo code hockey 2025. So, make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so that you can use it later. Big thanks as always to Segeek for supporting the channel. And now we can get into the fun stuff, which is Florida’s offensive tactics. The Panthers are different than some of the other top teams in the world in the sense that they actually begin their offensive attack without the puck. In terms of possession entries and possession entry percentage, Florida ranks in the bottom third of the league. Instead, they start their offensive approach with a dumping. Now, Florida will only look to carry the puck in if there’s a clear weakness to exploit. Sam Bennett is usually the one with the green light to do so because of his skill in these situations, but they aren’t just dumping the puck in blindly every single time. There are decisions to be made. If there’s a neutral zone turnover, they’re carrying that puck into the zone and taking advantage of an odd man situation. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Teams dump and chase all the time and still suck. So, why is Florida so good at it? Well, it all starts with the placement of the puck on the dumpin. In last year’s playoffs, we saw Florida use a lot of these soft chips to put the puck in an area where they have a higher percentage of winning it back. That means dumping the puck to space where they already have a man streaking in with a speed or positional advantage to win that puck. It also means putting it in areas below the goal line where goalies can’t come out to play the puck in that trapezoid area. A quick little tip, a great way to neutralize any forche is to have the tendi come out and play the puck like a third dman. But with these cheeky soft chips in these areas, defenses have to retrieve pucks by themselves, giving Florida time to set up their four checking traps. Now, the other way they initiate their attack with these dumpins is with hard rims. Usually, if they have possession past the red line, the puck carrier will fire a hard rim around the boards while a Panther player meets the puck on the far side. Teams did start to anticipate that. So, Florida sent two players on the other side and overloaded the retrieving player with all kinds of pressure. Now, this is where their signature forch check comes into action. As a defenseman retrieving pucks, you absolutely hate your life playing against the Panthers. If you try to go up the strong side, the F2 and strong side D are taken away the wall. If you your pants and you try to reverse, the weak side F3 and farside D will come across to angle off the play. If you hesitate because you get a brain cramp trying to read the play, that F1 will pick your pocket and make you pay. A lot of teams use this type of forch check, but very few execute it with the fluidity and support the Panthers do. The key for all of it to work so well is the F3. So, when you’re watching your team and you’re losing your mind because you thought the D pinched at the wrong time, what likely happened was there was a miscommunication and timing issue between the F3 and the defenseman. The NHL is such a fast-paced league now, and the teams that do want to be aggressive and want to have a seamless feel to their aggression, the only way that they can do that is to remove any hesitation for defenseman to pinch. So, strong F3s and F3 positioning is essential for teams that will try and execute this system. Florida’s success has come from having four lines that can execute this, but missing Barov for the entire year means that they may not be as effective in this area. Now, once the Panthers get possession in the Ozone, they like to overload one side of the ice and shrink the space they operate in to outman opposing teams and win battles. Where other teams in traditional offensive thinking like to spread out and create space, Florida lives in the trenches. They value on puck support and winning these 50/50 pucks. It’s why they rank third in the NHL when it comes to shots off the cycle and for check. They grind you down, tire you out, and make you hate your life. This type of offense is simply very hard to sustain over an 82 game season, which is why Florida isn’t winning the division. But they know all they need to do is make it into the dance and then it’s go time. Now, the best teams understand that offense and defense are linked. So, when things fall apart on the forche, this is where Florida’s neutral zone strategy comes into play and where they also fall back into this one 122. And when they do get into this one 122 structure, it’s compact, synchronized, and suffocating as they’re one of the best in the league at forcing the play to the wall. Better than any team in the NHL, Florida gaps up on their opponent at each line. There’s so little space to create any kind of offense that the puck carrier is either forced to dump it in or potentially give away the puck for a neutral zone turnover. The numbers speak for itself last year, too. They ranked first in the entire NHL when it came to defending possession entries and rush shooting percentage. There is simply no room for even the best players in the world to make plays in the middle of the ice. Many teams, including your favorite team, probably use the one two in the neutral zone, but very few can gap up and back pressure with the same cohesion that Florida does. And when you have a team that tries to execute this strategy, but everyone is just a tad out of sync or fails to gap up in their role, it is a freeway into the zone. This is the brilliance of Florida’s execution of their game plan because they force teams to play on their terms. This type of suffocation in the neutral zone forces teams to have to play a dump and chase style. And while some teams can play that game, no one can play it better than the Panthers. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Is there any way to actually beat Florida’s forch check and neutral zone play? Well, yes and no. There are three potential ways to beat Florida’s pressure, but it’s a lot easier said than done. First is quick chips to beat pressure and get off the wall. Going back to the playoff series at last year against Toronto and even Carolina, opportunities opened up if the team could pull off a quick bump play by pressure. With Florida being eager to press the play up against the wall, a potential play to the middle or even far side of the ice could catch Florida by surprise. Second is with stretch passes. Usually working best off of a retrieval, the opposing team can send a winger to the far blue line, and if the stretch pass is made before the pressure closes in, they can catch Florida with three guys deep. The third method is the high flip method and isn’t really a solution. It’s more so a survival tactic that just gets the problem out of the zone. Florida uses this quite a lot in their own end as we’ll see later, but other teams don’t have the neutral zone play that the Panthers do to regain possession. Just by these solutions, you can kind of see how Florida imposes their game on the other team and takes away from their strengths. Now, if you’re able to get Florida defending in their own end, they use what we call a hybrid style of defense. is where the coverage changes depending on where the puck is. If it’s down low, the Panthers either play a zone or five tight coverage to protect the house. So, every player almost has a quadrant of responsibility in this structure. This is pretty standard for all NHL teams as it’s usually the most common way to protect the front of the net. However, in this system, when the puck swings up high, Florida attaches to the nearest man and it almost turns into a man-on-man style defense. This type of system gained a lot of popularity over the last few years because it protects the main area in the middle of the ice and then contracts the space opposing teams have to work with when there’s man-to-man or puckside pressure up high in the zone. The best modern offenses in the world have teams that like to have players work up high to try and create these odd man situations and then attack downhill with speed. But with this man coverage up high and Florida’s ability to check, space is very limited. Now, an important part of defense is breakouts. And the Panthers are a team that once again keep it simple and they rely on their support. Typically, they prefer to break out on the strong side and then have close support slashing across or in the middle to provide options for the puck carrier. If a team is taken away the middle lane, Florida has numbers heading towards the strong side to make sure that they can bump it forward to advance the puck. If the team seal the wall, they have a deactivate through the middle to provide an option on the breakout. They also have the green light for these high flip plays when they face other strong forcheing teams. Florida’s okay airmailing the puck if they don’t have a clean support option. It may be a turnover, but they’re content punting the danger away from their end and relying on their incredible neutral zone play to eventually get back possession. Combine that structure with a Sergey Babski, you’re going to have a difficult time scoring goals, which is why they ranked seventh in overall goals against during the season and first during the playoffs. Now, the final piece to the formula is special teams. Yes, Florida’s special teams weren’t all that special in the regular season, but came up huge in the playoffs, having the first ranked PK and the sixth ranked power play. A great penalty kill is one that denies power plays before they even set up to begin with. As teams wind up to gain the zone, the Panthers like to play this one- at the line to force oncoming puckers to have to make a pass at the blue line. Once the F1 forces a pass to the wall, the far defender at the line steps right up to pressure and force the puck carrier to have to make a really quick play. Usually, it doesn’t work out. And Florida gets a solid short-handed chance. They’re really good at jumping off the line, too, and getting puck carriers before they can even make that pass. And that usually catches power plays by surprise as well. In zone, Florida’s also flexible in almost this box or diamond style PK depending on the power play setup and where threats may lie. But again, the difference is their execution and commitment on 50/50 pucks. They are cohesive as a unit and they communicate when getting aggressive on plays where the puck carrier is on the wall. They’re also really good at staying patient in their structure and as a result, power plays are trying to force plays through the middle and it leaves them largely searching for answers at the end of the game. Shifting over to the fun stuff on the power play, the Panthers use a 131, but its effectiveness is largely based on the opposite side flank and the bumper. For Florida, the bumper shot is the most dangerous threat and their go-to play, but they add a layer of deception by having the far side flank be mobile and flexible in their attack. Here, watch Ecklad stay out of the traditional flank spot in the 131, which is right over here, and instead stay higher on the point to provide a pass option on the wall. Now, as this play develops and Eklad sees the puck go down low to set up the eventual bumper play, he sneaks down the flank unmarked and has a wideopen cage when that puck reaches the bumper spot. Now, the next time he does it, we see a more traditional 1-1 look with him diving in. The PK notices him, gets all scared, the attention goes all over to him, and the bumper slot opens up for a goal. Now, as you’ve seen, what becomes apparent when looking at all these tactics is execution. There are only so many different schemes a team can run, but the difference is how they are applied. The Panthers know their system and deliver better than any other team in the most important time of the year. It’s why they’re back-to-back champs. Many teams this season will try and copy and emulate their game to beat them. And if done right, it’s possible they may. But until then, the Panthers have solved the formula for success. And going into the 2026 NHL season, they are the gold standard of the league. If you like that breakdown, make sure you drop a like and subscribe. We got tons more content coming with the NHL season that include weekly recaps, more team and player breakdowns just like this video. So, if you want to stay in tune with the NHL season, make sure you subscribe and stick around on the

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We break down how the Florida Panthers have become the juggernaut of the NHL by taking a deep dive into their tactics in every area of the ice.