Mission Impossible: Win three games in a row.
Halfway through the season and the Florida Panthers are still a part of the “Haven’t Won Three in a Row” club. It’s an embarrassing stat that no one predicted the reigning President Trophy winners would be a part of at this stage of their season.
By this point last season, the Panthers already had an eight-game win streak, two four-game streaks, and that ever-so-elusive three-game win streak.
This season, the Cats have scraped together only four, two-game winning streaks.
Now highlighting this fact does nothing for the Florida faithful. Calling this season a frustrating one would be the understatement of the year.
Yet, after reeling off two straight wins against the Arizona Coyotes and Detroit Red Wings, new life had been injected into the club and its fanbase.
The Panthers won in style. It was the performance that everyone had been waiting to see from them all year.
But last night, against the Central Division-leading Dallas Stars, the Cats came crashing back to reality.
Panthers Lose Themselves Against the Stars
Now the Stars are a fantastic team. One of the best-built clubs we’ve seen in recent memory.
So, anticipating a win here for Florida and a chance to buck the trend of not winning three in a row, may have been as likely as squeezing water from a stone.
The Stars are just in a different class than these Panthers. In fact, it’s the exact same class the Panthers were in last season.
Queue the frustration.
But there was a turning point in the loss to the Stars that highlighted a massive issue in the way the Panthers play.
And this moment was confirmed by Paul Maurice post-game.
“We really liked our game to 2-1, and then when they made it 3-1 I really didn’t like our game after that,” Maurice said.
“We absolutely stopped skating, and that was the driver for us early through the 3-1 goal. After that, we tried to do it a different way. … I’m not sure what we were trying to do, but we stopped moving our feet. You can’t play the game if you’re not skating.”
The takeaway here isn’t that the Panthers stopped skating. Or taking the “not skating” as a sign the players weren’t trying.
The takeaway is “tried to do it a different way”.
No Faith in Current System
And that’s the issue. The Panthers have no faith in their system once they are down.
And why should they? The Panthers have failed to make a single comeback all season. They are 0-10-1 when trailing after the first period and 0-14-1 when trailing after two.
Maurice admitted it himself.
In his post-game presser, he stated, “we haven’t had comebacks this year, so I don’t know there’s a whole lot of faith that we can. Certainly, there wasn’t enough faith in our game at 3-1…”
Hard to believe this is the state of the Panthers after they had an NHL-best 29 comeback wins last season, including an NHL-record six three-goal comebacks.
Now, they can’t even muster one.
So what’s the deal?
In-Game Adjustments Must Start Being Made
Well, other than the obvious change in talent during the offseason, the Panthers have gone and implemented a system that cannot be successful in winning games when falling behind.
It’s a great system when they have a lead. The Panthers are an almost unbeatable 16-1-2 when bringing a lead into the third period.
The system the Panthers play with is all about high-volume offense. Pucks on net and establish the cycle. It’s something that looks great on paper but high volume doesn’t necessarily equate to high quality.
Maurice stated at the beginning of the season that the “shot is the start of the play.” Meaning, the Panthers hope to create chaos and coverage mismatches by firing the puck on net from anywhere in the offensive zone and then looking to create plays off rebounds and miscues.
The problem is, when you get behind, opponents will clog the middle of the ice and give you nothing in terms of high-quality scoring chances. They will let you skate around the edges of the zone and take low-scoring perimeter shots all day. And then when there’s a loose puck, they’ll collect it and flip it out of the zone.
Take a look at these two shot charts from last season and this season. As you can see, last season’s offense is more focused. It’s clean. There was a purpose to driving into the middle of the ice, where quality scoring chances happen.
(2022-23 Season)
(2021-22 Season)
The Panthers utilized its strength and skill in their roster to get creative and force the play into the middle of the ice instead of “hoping” the play gets there.
Sure, the Panthers may not have the arsenal of skill to play the same way as they did last season, but surely the top six group can. There is plenty of skill in that mix.
Yet, we see no adjustments. And as they say, the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.
Maurice not Delivering Where He Needs to
One of the major reasons Andrew Brunette was reportedly let go last season was a failure to make adjustments. Bringing in Maurice was a hope in rectifying that because as a veteran coach, he could make those in-game adjustments.
But they aren’t there.
Listen to the players talk about their system after the game.
Carter Verhaeghe opened with “It seems like we generate a lot every game and can’t find a way to score. It’s a little frustrating sometimes, but we’ve got to stick with it.”
Captain Aleksander Barkov echoed, “We had a lot of chances. We grind them down in the offensive zone. We did a lot of good things there, but pucks aren’t going in. Just keep working as hard as possible and keep believing.”
Both those answers say nothing about making adjustments.
Change Needs to Happen Now
It’s time for those adjustments. The Panthers are only six points out of a playoff spot. Sure, there are some teams ahead of them with games in hand. But this season doesn’t have to be lost. There is still time.
This group is talented. They’ve proven that. It’s time to play into these players’ skill sets and utilize what they are good at. There is a lot of creativity in guys like Matthew Tkachuk, Barkov, Verhaeghe, and so on.
Stack the lines, double shift, and give them offensive freedom. Just start doing something that is different. You have to try.
The sample size in their failures to win games from behind is large enough.
It may go against the system that Maurice believes can win in the playoffs, but you won’t even make the playoffs if you can’t adjust right now.
The Panthers are exactly halfway through their season. 82 points are up for grabs and you’re only six back. The time is now.
It’s time to hunt
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