NEWARK — It’s way too soon to be concerned about the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions.

Right?

The Florida Panthers suffered a 3-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils in the latter’s home opener at the Prudential Center on Thursday night, at times looking far from the form that saw them bring home the game’s biggest prize over back-to-back seasons.

A franchise that has dominated the league for the better part of three years — it’s easy to forget they got all the way to the Cup Final in 2023 as well — now sits at .500 in the standings.

No Matthew Tkachuk. No Aleksander Barkov.

The bright side? It’s October. Six games in. And Thursday night’s performance was somewhat explainable given it was the tail end of a back-to-back played entirely on the road.

“The first thing that goes (in that scenario) is your brain,” said Panthers head coach Paul Maurice. “We weren’t very good. I’m going to leave it at that, there’s no point…I think after the penalty kill in the second, I don’t think we had much to offer.”

It is not, however, a justification for the way the evening unfolded. At least not one that players wanted to use after the game.

“It’s never easy on a back-to-back,” said defenseman Aaron Ekblad. “But, no excuse.”

With that said, there were some positives to take away from the night, namely backup goaltender Daniil Tarasov, who was outstanding at times in making 30 saves in something of a tough-luck loss. Fans in the area may remember him as dueling with Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin in a game last season that went without a goal for 65 minutes before Tarasov’s team at the time, the Columbus Blue Jackets, lost in a shootout, with Tarasov making history by becoming the first NHL goaltender ever to lose in his first career shutout.

The 26-year-old Russian netminder was traded to the Panthers in exchange for a fifth-round pick this offseason, and while there’s no questioning that Sergei Bobrovsky is — and should be — firmly entrenched as the team’s starter, there are typically no missing pieces on a Cup-contending team, backup goaltender included. Tarasov showed that on Thursday with several Grade-A saves against a fresh Devils team that pushed hard to come back from Evan Rodrigues’ early goal for Florida just 1:59 into regulation, including a highlight-reel stop on Jack Hughes on a one-timer.

“I felt good, just trying to give (the team) a chance tonight,” Tarasov said. “It just didn’t happen…we’re still trying to find our way back from the home series, but I think we’ll find out way back in the next two road games.”

It’s likely that Bobrovsky will get both of those starts, but Tarasov earned a lot of confidence from his teammates from how he was able to step in on the road against a playoff contender like the Devils.

“He’s been great,” Rodrigues said. “I think we all kind of expected it, seeing him in the preseason and training camp and stuff like that.  He’s given us a chance, but we haven’t supported him too great in his two starts. I don’t think any of us are surprised.”