Seth Jones battles against Kempe during the Kings’ home opener. (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)

After getting the overtime win against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Panthers headed out to the West Coast to take on the three California teams. Each match was a tight game decided by just a goal, with two out of the three going to overtime. The Cats are the only team in the East that has yet to lose in regulation as they collected 6 out of 8 points on this long road trip to start the year. Despite the strong start, fans are feeling uneasy as both Barkov and Marchand went back down with injuries after just coming back from injury. Special teams is also a cause for concern at the moment, with the Panthers getting into penalty trouble, something that’s persisted since the preseason. However, not everything is doom and gloom. The questions around Florida’s goaltending have quieted down, and their 5v5 play has been excellent.

Happening Again?

Paul Maurice said it best when he went on the Territory Talk Podcast over the summer, that fans’ reactions to injuries would be ‘oh no it’s happening again’. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a bit of that myself, having watched Barkov and Marchand go down within two games of each other. Barkov went down with what looked like a knee injury but not to the one that he tore his ACL & MCL on, so that’s the first bit of good news. The second bit of good news is that on Tuesday the team finally gave an update on Sasha’s timeline of return, which is 6-8 weeks. Of course, Paul said that it could be a little shorter or a little longer. So it’s not ideal that the captain’s gone out with an injury so soon after returning, but it’s not catastrophic like some fans online thought it would. Paul said that Marchand would get looked at on Thursday, so as of right now there’s no update on him. Marchand going out puts the Panthers in an interesting position. There’s been rumors for weeks that there’s mutual interest between Tarasenko and Florida about him returning to the team. He’s still a free agent at the moment, and the Cats know he works within their system. If Marchand is going to be out a substantial amount of time, something may materialize from those rumors.

In Need Of Help:

For all the talent that Florida’s power play units sport, it’s struggled to get going through four games with just 1 power play goal. It makes about as much sense as the Avalanche power play being bad last year. The game against the Hurricanes I can let go; they’re one of the best defensive teams in the country it makes sense that the power play wouldn’t do a whole lot against them. But they had ample opportunity against Anaheim and LA to get the man advantage going, and they couldn’t. Their lone power play goal came from Eetu Luostarinen against the Sharks. On the other side of special teams, the penalty kill, which looked so good against Carolina, really struggled against the Sharks and the Ducks. All of Anaheim’s goals came on the power play, and the Panthers gave up a power play goal and a shorthanded goal to San Jose. Special teams has been the difference between the 2-0-2 start they’ve had and a possible 3-0-1 or 4-0 start. It’s still early in the year, so I don’t think it’s worth panicking over special teams struggles quite yet, but if it’s still like this in a month or so, then I’d be concerned.

Calling Card:

The biggest strength of Florida’s game since Paul Maurice came in hasn’t been their power play or even their penalty kill; it’s been their 5v5 play. In that aspect of the game, the team has been excellent. Defensive excellence has been core to their success, with the backbone of that being good to great goaltending. The questions around how Markstrom would do have quieted down quite a lot after his first three starts. He’s gone 2-0-1 with a .927 SV%, 1.27 GAA, and 1 shutout. Now, granted, it’s still early in the year, but Jacob has looked very solid in net behind this Panthers team so far. He has a .964 SV% and allowed just 1 goal at even strength in three games. Schmid is still a younger goalie with room to grow, and I don’t think Florida played particularly well in front of him during the Sharks game, so I’m willing to reserve judgment on his play until there’s a bigger pool to draw from. Even when there are players not getting on the scoresheet, they’ve been impactful on the defensive side of things.

A nice surprise is that Lars Eller has been a great fit; so far, through four games, he’s already tallied three assists and been great on the penalty kill. Brady’s had some good looks that haven’t gone his way as he adjusts to Florida’s style. Seth Jones has looked like one of Florida’s best players to start the year. He’s been playing more minutes than the Cats would like because the team missed Forsling for a game and Ekblad for the last two. But Jones has been up to the task and scored the tying goal against LA. The early season adversity is already calling on the Panthers to flex their resiliency muscles as they look to stick to their game regardless of which names are in the lineup. After the LA game, HC Paul Maurice told the media, “I like our 5-on-5 game an awful lot. I think we gave up eleven even-strength shots tonight. They were battling, and they’re dialed in. They’re not cheating the game. I’m very pleased with the road trip.” Despite the special teams struggles, the most important part of the Panthers’ game is already in a strong place, which is great news. The rest has room to grow over the course of the season.