Bobrovsky makes a save on Copp. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

The early-season injuries are starting to show for the Panthers. On Wednesday, Florida announced that Kulikov would be out for five months and had surgery to repair a labral tear. Turnovers proved to be costly as one ended up in the back of the Panther net, while the penalty kill finally gave up its first power play goal on a 5-on-3 power play for the Red Wings. Granted, early-season struggles aren’t unusual for the Cats as they started last season 4-3 in their first seven games before going on a seven-game win streak. It’s still early, and the team is still trying to figure itself out without big pieces of their lineup available. However, they don’t want to dig themselves into too big a hole; otherwise, the back half of the season is going to carry significantly more pressure. 

Chemistry Searching:

The Panthers have run a few sets of lines this season and are still searching for the ideal set. The Panthers started this match with a top line of Samoskevich-Bennett-Marchand, a second line of Luostarinen-Lundell-Reinhart, and a third line of Verhaeghe-Rodrigues-Boqvist. At one point, HC Paul Maurice had lines of Verhaeghe-Rodrigues-Reinhart and Samoskevich-Bennett-Boqvist. Unsurprisingly, he eventually put back together the Luostarinen-Lundell-Marchand line, which generated the Panthers’ only goal of the night: a wraparound goal from Marchand. As great as Bennett is, unfortunately, he’s not as defensively strong as Barkov or Lundell. It may be worth running the Luostarinen-Lundell-Marchand line as the top line to see what they can do. Verhaeghe-Rodrigues-Reinhart didn’t look too bad together either. Defensively, Balinskis and Petry struggled against the Red Wings. Florida claimed defenseman Donovan Sebrango off waivers from Ottawa, so we’ll see if he makes it into the lineup. The regular season is going to be much more of a struggle and grind this season, with four players on some form of IR. Maurice said to the media, “We’ve got a couple of areas we’ve got to get a lot better at, but some of it was all right.”

Passing Struggles:

Along with the chemistry, the passing wasn’t crisp for Florida on Wednesday. Whether it was bobbled passes, errant passes, or miscommunications, Florida had long stretches where they struggled to move up the ice. The passing part of the game is probably where it’s most noticeable that Florida is missing Barkov and Tkachuk. Their playmaking ability and sharp passes smooth out the offense and especially help the power play run, although that’s actually been rather good to start the year. It’s going to take some time for the team to find its identity this year, and with essentially no preseason games to work things out, it may take some extra time. Florida hit the same kind of struggle when Barkov went out after Game 2 of last season and didn’t return until almost a month later. I wouldn’t be surprised if Florida made more moves during the season before things get anywhere close to the trade deadline. A waiver claim may not seem like much, but Forsling was famously claimed off waivers and has been outstanding. Until the wheels really fall off the team, there’s no reason to worry, and the team still did some good things in the match. When HC Paul Maurice talked to the media, he also said, “I liked our start tonight better than our last game. A little slow sometimes getting the puck off our stick. We had an awful lot blocked in here tonight.” 

Bobrovsky Standout:

The steady, reliable presence in the net, Bobrovsky was outstanding and kept things close until HC Paul Maurice pulled him for the empty net. Bob was 21/23 on the night and an impressive 19/20 stops at 5v5. He ended the night with a .913 SV% and made some huge stops for Florida at various points in the match. He was probably the biggest reason why the Cats were in the game until the empty net. He kept things scoreless early when the Panthers gave up a breakaway chance to Appleton, and at the end of the first period, when Detroit had a couple of chances late. A turnover from Florida led to the Appleton goal in the second period, and giving Kane too much space during the 5-on-3 power play gave him all he needed to snipe one over Bobrovsky’s glove. Bob certainly did everything in his power to give Florida a fighting chance to get a win or at least a point. Goaltending is probably the steadiest position on the entire roster. Tarasov looked great in his first game for the Cats against Philly on Monday night. 

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