No Aleksander Barkov? No Matthew Tkachuk? No Tomas Nosek? And now, no Dmitry Kulikov?
No problem in the early going for the Florida Panthers.
Even without four key players, Florida swept through its season-opening homestand in relatively easy order, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Tuesday, Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 on Thursday and finally the Ottawa Senators 6-2 on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena. This is just the third time in franchise history the Panthers have opened a season with at least three consecutive wins, also done in the 2021-22 season (a franchise-record eight games) and 2020-21 season (three games).
“I think their attention to detail has been really, really good,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “They’ve come in with a focus that we have to be right in the systems part of our game and all of the un-fun things you have to do to win. They’ve worked hard in those areas.”
Here are three takeaways from the Panthers’ season-opening homestand before they begin a five-game road trip on Monday against the Flyers (7 p.m., Scripps Sports).
1.) Contributions have come from up and down the lineup — which is what they’ll need long-term. The Panthers scored 11 goals through their first three games, with nine players finding the back of the net at least once.
Only Brad Marchand and Anton Lundell scored multiple goals. The other seven goal scorers: Carter Verhaghe, Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist, Mackie Samoskevich, A.J. Greer and Aaron Ekblad.
“We always win as a team,” Marchand said. “It doesn’t matter who’s in or out. We win with our depth and we win with our system. That’s what we rely on. We don’t look any further than that.”
Five players are tied for the team lead with three points — defenseman Gustav Forsling has three assists, Marchand and Lundell each have two goals and one assist, and Rodrigues and Samoskevich each have one goal and two assists.
Fourteen of Florida’s 19 skaters who have played at least one game have contributed at least one point, whether it’s a goal or an assist.
“Everyone has stepped up a little bit here to start the season,” said defenseman Seth Jones, who has a pair of assists. “Everyone understands there’s a little more pressure on each individual game to be better with the guys we have out of the lineup, key guys especially.”
2.) The Panthers have excelled on both sides of special teams. The Panthers are 5 for 12 on the power play and a perfect 7 for 7 on the penalty kill through three games.
The Panthers have scored at least one power play goal in each of their first three games for just the third time in franchise history and the first time since the 2002-03 season. The franchise record for most games with a power-play goal to start the season is four, set at the start of the 2000-01 season.
With Barkov and Tkachuk sidelined, the Panthers are rolling out two new power play units. The top group features Sam Bennett, Reinhart, Marchand, Ekblad and Jones. The second unit has Lundell, Samoskevich, Verhaeghe, Rodrigues and defenseman Jeff Petry.
The second unit has four of the team’s five power-play goals.
“We’re just so deep and so close,” Samoskevich said. “The first unit’s gonna do their thing. They’re just such good players. They jell so well. And then I think even our second unit pretty tight knit and know where guys are going to be.”
Meanwhile, this is also just the fourth time in franchise history the Panthers have started the season without allowing a power play goal through at least their first three games. The other instances came in the 2016-17 season (four games), the 2011-12 season (three games) and 2010-11 season (franchise-record five games).
And that success while playing a man down comes without two of Florida’s top penalty killers in Barkov and Nosek, which has forced Maurice to restructure his forward pairings on the PK. Luke Kunin is running with Eetu Luostarinen as the main forward pair, while Lundell, Reinhart, Boqvist, Marchand and Rodrigues are rotating in as well.
3.) Sergei Bobrovsky picked up where he left off — and his defense in front of him made his life easy. The 37-year-old netminder started all three games, stopping 62 of 67 shots he faced for a .925 save percentage and 1.67 goals against average to begin the season. This includes Bobrovsky recording saves on 13 of 15 high-danger shots he faced.
“The structure is here,” Bobrovsky said. “The guys have stepped up. They play hard. They know the structure.”
That structure is sound at suppressing shots. Florida’s 67 total shots on goal allowed through three games — 19 against Chicago, 20 against Philadelphia and 28 against Ottawa — are tied for the fewest through three games in franchise history with the start from the 2000-2001 team.