Lundell battles for the puck against Adam Boqvist. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

The Panthers put together a strong performance against the New York Islanders on Sunday in the second half of their back-to-back. Florida’s third pair of defensemen, Balinskis & Petry, had an exceptional game. Daniil Tarasov put in another outstanding game, and the Cats once again gave him goal support to back it up. This game looked more like the Florida Panthers fans have come to know and love under Paul Maurice. While Luostarinen doesn’t always get recognised for what he does, he’s a huge part of the defensive structure with the forwards, and it can’t be overstated how great it is to have him back in the lineup for Florida. 

Offensive Defense:

The Panthers’ defensemen were all over the scoresheet on Sunday as they contributed to all 4 of Florida’s goals. Uvis Balinskis scored his first goal of the season to break the ice. Samoskevich picked the puck up from where Greer was battling behind the Islanders’ net and made the pass up to Uvis at the blue line. With Greer as a screen, Balinskis took his long-distance shot, and the puck bounced off the post and in behind Rittich. In the second period, Jeff Petry put pressure on the Islanders player in the offensive zone during the 4v4 to force a turnover. Verhaeghe picked up the turnover at the faceoff circle and turned to make a quick shot that beat Rittich. Carter stays hot, scoring 6 goals in 6 games and recording 11 points in his last 6 games. In the third period, Seth Jones restored the two-goal lead after New York cut it to one before the second period ended. Lundell came away from a board battle with the puck and drove up ice with speed and Jones in tow. Anton then made a Barkov-esque pass back to Seth through the two New York defenders, which allowed Jones to toe drag the puck before he shot to score. With less than three minutes to go, Forsling made a big stretch pass up to Reinhart, who put away the empty net goal and sealed the 4-1 victory. 

Steady Presence:

Daniil Tarasov has been excellent for the Panthers all season long, but now they’re giving him the goal support to earn him wins. He had another excellent night with a 1.00 GAA, a .952 SV%, and saved 20 of 21 shots. Like Bob, Daniil likes to give credit to his teammates. When he spoke to the media postgame, he said, “There was not a lot of shots tonight. The guys did an awesome job in front of me. It builds the confidence really well.” For the season, he’s got a 2.47 GAA with a .911 SV%, both numbers well above his career average. His goals against are nearly a whole goal better than his career average. Out of his last 5 starts, the 21 SGO are the fewest he’s seen in a match, so Florida’s defense did a much better job of limiting the Islanders’ chances. He still made a few huge saves, including robbing New York of a goal in the first. Overall, he’s been a very dependable backup goalie for the Cats and at times their best player on the ice. He’s a restricted free agent at the end of the season, but personally, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing him stick around. 

Group Cohesion:

HC Paul Maurice spoke to the media about getting Verhaeghe and Luostarinen back into the lineup, “It makes a huge difference in how we look. Getting those guys back, we’re confident now. We know it’s going to be a really tough road trip, but we’re playing as well as we’ve played in quite a while.” I think this group will only get better as more players come back from injury. In the meantime, they’re keeping themselves in the playoff race and finding ways to win without their best players. Having Verhaeghe find his scoring groove again has been huge and takes some of the offensive pressure off Marchand and Reinhart, who are the only players on the team with double-digit goals. Carter’s actually had a decent season so far in points, where he sits 4th on the team with 21 (8G, 13A). The Bennett line with Verhaeghe and Marchand looked really solid in this match, and HC Paul Maurice is always willing to put Luostarinen-Lundell-Reinhart together, especially when Barkov is out. Those two lines can run as a proper top 6 while Greer builds chemistry with Rodrigues and Samoskevich on the third line. A. J. Greer has been sneaky good for the Cats this season, showing he can play up with players like Bennett and Verhaeghe. This could be a good turning point in their season if they continue to play as well as they have in this game. 

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