Three Takeaways From The Florida Panthers First Three Preseason Games

It’s unfortunately been an eventful first week of training camp, which now leads to a number of questions going into the season. The vets didn’t join the main training camp group until Thursday, so the first three preseason games were all played by prospects. In addition to Tkachuk and Nosek, Barkov sustained an injury on Thursday during practice, which is expected to keep him out for the entire regular season, at a minimum. Despite the prospects going 1-2 in the first three games, there were positives to take away from their matches against lineups that had NHL players in them. 

Resiliency:

The first game in Nashville was a bit rough as they got shut out 0-5 to the Predators. However, that lineup was composed mostly of players who’ll be down in the minors this season. The second game against Nashville was more competitive, even though the Cats fell 3-5. This lineup had more of the team’s AHL players, with goals from Chorske and two from Benning, one of which was unassisted. This match was the fans’ first look at Daniil Tarasov, where he went 15/18 in roughly 30 minutes of game time. Not the best SV% numbers, but Nashville did have Forsberg, Stamkos, O’Reilly, and Josi in the lineup with Saros in net. The biggest improvement came in game 3 against the Hurricanes, where the AHL-heavy lineup dug in and made an impressive comeback win. Carolina struck first in the opening period with goals from Suzuki and Kotkaniemi, but a big third period from the Panthers brought home the win. Harpur scored roughly four minutes into the final period to cut the lead in half, and then three goals in four minutes to end the game came from Gregor, Benning, and Studnicka. HC Paul Maurice praised the group after the win for their ability to dig in and compete till the final buzzer. 

Daniil Tarasov:

After an ok first match, Tarasov was the star of the Carolina match. He had shown some great flashes in his first game, but he came alive in his second. It was an extremely busy night for Tarasov as he saw 49 SOG and made 47 saves for a .959 SV%. The Panthers got severely outplayed in the first two periods. He had 15 high danger saves through 40 minutes of play and 33 saves on 35 shots. In the first period alone, the Cats were outshot 18-3, and they only had 16 SOG for the entire game. HC Paul Maurice said after the game, “He was fantastic, and that’s a great thing for him, build confidence. All the guys back home will know about the performance he had tonight, so it’s good for him.” When interviewed by the media postgame, Tarasov said, “It’s kind of like a small brick for the building of a season.” Daniil also earned first-star honors. It was a great showing, especially given that Carolina had Ehlers, Aho, Jarvis, and Svechnikov in their lineup. I think Panther fans should feel confident in his ability behind Florida’s full NHL lineup if he can have that kind of game with no NHL vets in front of him. 

Injuries To The Lineup:

The biggest news to come out this week is that Sasha Barkov is expected to miss the entire season. Friday, the team announced that Barkov had surgery on his ACL and MCL, with recovery expected to be 7-9 months. HC Paul Maurice told the media that they will be very transparent with this. He also went on to say, “There’s not a next man for Barky’s skates, so we just got to share it.” Brad Marchand echoed that statement on Saturday when he told the media that collectively the group can all pick up small pieces and try a bit harder. Ekblad told the media that losing Barkov might make their regular season more of a grind, but something to rally around. Verhaeghe said during his media availability that adversity makes the team better and stronger. He also said that there were guys out of the lineup last year that could’ve played and didn’t, so there’s opportunity for them. HC Paul Maurice ran two new lines during Thursday and Friday’s practices: Verhaeghe-Bennett-Reinhart and Boqvist-Rodrigues-Samoskevich. On the newly constructed third line, Maurice said on Friday, “I’m hoping that can be a chemistry line. It’s not going to be the heaviest, but they’re all fast. They can play fast. We started to see it today.” There have already been rumors floating around online about who the Panthers will add with Barkov out. One of the consistent names that’s been speculated on is Malkin from Pittsburgh. While Florida’s going to be missing Barkov, Tkachuk, and Nosek for months, there’s still a good amount of depth on the roster and opportunity for new players to step into larger roles. Lundell especially has a chance to make a bigger impact on the team and take the next step forward in his career. Fans have taken to calling him Baby Barkov, and he’s now had experience playing with both Reinhart and Marchand on his right wing, which allows him to play either first or second line minutes. For the time being, Maurice is leaving the Luostarinen-Lundell-Marchand line intact, but he did say we’ll probably see Bennett and Marchand play together at some point this season. Gadjovich had been dealing with a minor injury and was back skating with the group on Saturday. It’s been an injury fest to start the season, and that’s one of the only things that can hinder the Panthers from the three-peat. We’ll see how the team looks come January/February when they hopefully have Tkachuk and Nosek back.