SUNRISE — After the Florida Panthers blew the doors off the Predators in Nashville a few days before Thanksgiving, it looked like these two teams were heading in opposite directions.
Turns out, that was the case.
Just not the way anyone thought.
Since Florida’s 8-3 win in Nashville on Nov. 23, the Predators have won four of five games — including Thursday’s 2-1 win in overtime against the Panthers.
Florida, meanwhile, has lost four straight; Thursday’s loss to Andrew Brunette & Co. marks the only point the Panthers have picked up during that span.
“It’s tough we couldn’t get the win,” Carter Verhaeghe said. “It was a tight game, we had chances on the power play and they were sharp on the PK. We couldn’t get our luck. We got a point, but it’s not exactly what we wanted. But we’ll take it and hope it leads to something a little better.”
Overall, the numbers do not look too good.
The Panthers have lost five of the past six and their five-game home losing streak (0-4-1) is the longest since Florida came out of the All-Star break in 2020 holding a playoff spot yet simply could not win a game.
That led to the Panthers trading away Vincent Trocheck to try and staunch the bleeding; the collapse ultimately cost GM Dale Tallon his job.
Florida lost eight straight in Sunrise in 2020, ending its home futility with a win on the night the team raised Roberto Luongo’s No. 1 to the rafters before beating the Canadiens on March 7.
Then came the Covid shutdown and, yeah, it was a long time ago.
Quite a bit — almost all of it good — has happened since.
Thursday, Luongo watched Nashville’s come-from-behind win from a front-office suite in clear view of the banner which bears his name and number.
The Panthers are in the midst of the longest homestand of the season and it certainly has not gone the way anyone thought it would.
Florida’s first home loss of this run came to the revenge-minded Edmonton Oilers.
The Panthers then ran Juuse Saros out of the building in Nashville with five goals off 16 shots en route to their 8-3 win which may have been fueled by Florida’s players having their dads in the building rocking sweet cowboy hats and matching vests.
Since that win in Nashville, the Panthers have lost to the Flyers, Flames, Maple Leafs, and Predators by a combined 15-7.
Goals have been hard to come by, especially when needed the most.
“We were right there again,’’ said Niko Mikkola, who saved a certain Steven Stamkos goal in the second by batting a puck out of harms way with Bobrovsky down on the ice.
Stamkos would get his revenge later.
“Just couldn’t quite get it done. Maybe, the whole group lacks a little bit of confidence right now. We couldn’t seal the deal early, and let them come back in the game. It’s a one-goal game again, and we didn’t get that win.’’
Thursday, only Verhaeghe scored, fittingly in his first game back from welcoming his first child into the world.
That 1-0 lead held up until late in the third thanks to some great work by Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Panthers simply needed more.
Going 0-for-6 on the power play, including a 4-minute go in the second when Anton Lundell got cut under the left eye, did not help.
Nashville went 0-for-5 with the advantage, but it kicked off the third with a power play before Mikkola took another not long after that kill.
The shorthanded Panthers looked gassed by the time Ryan O’Reilly scored off a rebound with 6:19 remaining to tie it.
“We come out and we’re in the box for four of the first five minutes,’’ Paul Maurice said of the third, one Nashville outshot Florida 12-3. “At that point in time, we’ve run the top guys so many minutes on the power play there’s not much rest for them. So, they got a little quicker than we did. Most of their action came in a barrage of shots. It wasn’t sustained. It was the shift after the penalty kill that they got one in on us. That’s it.’’
Florida controlled possession for the first 2 minutes of overtime, but the Predators took control for the next couple.
Nashville won it off a rush started deep in the Florida zone, Bobrovsky on the ice after Gus Forsling slid into him on defense dislodging the net and allowing Stamkos, the famed Panther killer, to just throw the puck in the general vicinity to get a win in the final minute of the extra session.
Mikkola and his baseball swing was not there to save this one.
Saros, to his credit, looked nothing like he did against the Panthers in Nashville, making 30 saves for the win in his 21st start of the season.
Brunette, who had quite a few folks waiting for him postgame outside the Nashville locker room, called Saros the “star of the night.’’
No argument here.
Saros and Bobrovsky were terrific.
If the Panthers were not mired in a long losing streak, this game could just be schlepped off as one of 82.
But a point is a point and now the Panthers move on.
They will try and end this disaster of a homestand on a high note against both the improved Blue Jackets and Islanders this weekend.
On a back-to-back, no less.
Then comes a trip out west with a back-to-back in Utah and Colorado as well as games in Dallas and Tampa Bay.
It does not get any easier, folks.
ON DECK: GAME No. 27
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS at FLORIDA PANTHERS
