Paul Maurice may have drawn a few side looks from Florida Panthers fans when he said that he liked how his team played last Thursday night in Montreal.
The Panthers, after all, lost 6-2 to the scorching-hot Canadiens.
“I think we gave up 12 even-strength shots tonight, and six went in,’’ Maurice said. “I haven’t seen that before. It’s frustrating because we’re fighting for our lives here but, that’s what we’re going to go through and what teams in the same situation are going to go through.
“There was enough good in that game to have something to build on.’’
Shockingly enough, Maurice was not wrong.
The Panthers, after all, had limited Montreal’s scoring chances and outplayed the Canadiens for long stretches of the game.
But when you talk ‘puck luck,’ that all went in favor of the Canadiens.
Since that game in Montreal, a lot has been going the way of the Panthers.
Monday in Buffalo was more of the same with the Panthers winning their second straight.
Florida took an early lead on Sam Reinhart’s power-play deflection in front and leaving town with a 4-3 win over a Sabres team which had won 13 of 14 games.
Tied going into the third period, Florida limited Buffalo to just two shots on goal in the first 13:55 of the final period.
By then, Anton Lundell had given Florida a 3-2 lead — and A.J. Greer’s second of the night with 1:14 left pretty much ended things.
Buffalo got a late goal on a batted-down puck down low with 14 seconds left, but the damage was done and the Panthers get to come home for a few days before finishing up this six-game road trip with a back-to-back set against the host Hurricanes and Capitals starting Friday night in Raleigh.
Sergei Bobrovsky got his second straight win with 20 saves.
“I love the way we played,” Maurice said afterward. “I felt the same way in Ottawa, and in the last two periods in Montreal. With guys out, I get that. But the guys who are in there, they played hard, were on the puck, and were frustrating to play against. We just played fast, and that’s a great place to be at this time of the year to understand that’s the way we have to play.’’
Florida started the road trip in a bad way, losing in Toronto on Tuesday in a lackluster performance with the Canadiens loss to follow.
The Panthers trailed the Canadiens 2-1 in the second period before Montreal got a pair of goals to open things up off a deflection in front and then a blocked shot by Donovan Sebrango ends right back on the stick of Alexandre Texier for a 4-1 lead.
It really was one of those nights where everything went Montreal’s way.
But for a Florida team out of the playoff picture, every loss feels like a dagger.
Or, as Reinhart said Monday night, “you lose a couple and the world is ending, and you win a couple and you are a few points out. Everything matters at this time of year. It seems like the fight started a little earlier than usual.’’
Florida followed Thursday’s loss in Montreal with a nice win Saturday in Ottawa and are now 2-2 going into Wednesday’s practice at the IcePlex.
“Huge. Gives us a lot of confidence,” said Greer. “This is a tough road trip, we are playing good teams, fast, transitional teams. We lost the first two, but going in against this team and get two points … I thought everyone did a good job from Bobby giving us big saves to the D closing the gaps and playing really fast. It was a great win.”
ON DECK: GAME No. 46
FLORIDA PANTHERS at CAROLINA HURRICANES
