Florida Panthers Get Outplayed by the Worst Team in the League

After dropping their third straight to the Hurricanes, the Florida Panthers added to their misery with another poor performance against the Ottawa Senators.

The Florida Panthers actually started the game on the forefront, taking the play to the opposition early on. But Ottawa matched that intensity and took advantage of the Panthers’ slopping defending.

In the opening five minutes, Zack Smith put the visitors on the board first. After the puck rebounded off Luongo’s pad, Smith jumped on the juicy rebound and slotted the puck into the empty side of the cage which took a friendly bounce off Josh Brown’s stick.

From there, the Senators took complete control of the game and dictated the play. The Panthers couldn’t exit their zone, nor could they generate anything meaningful up front.

Although, thanks to the captain, the Panthers were leveled again. A few minutes after Smith’s goal, Barkov redirected Pysyk’s point shot to take back the game for his side.

The Cats started to gain momentum back and added to their tally late in the first period. Fourth-liner Troy Brouwer recorded his ninth of the season, which was beautifully set up by Riley Sheahan (2-1 FLA).

In the second period, though, is where the Panthers let their foot off the pedal, which only went downhill for them in a matter of minutes.

Again, the Sens scored in the opening five minutes and this time evened the hockey game. Brian Gibbons was left all alone in the slot, given the time of day to snap a shot past Roberto Luongo.

The Senators continued pushing and were rewarded for their efforts late in the second when Ruldofs Balcers took back the lead.

On the power play, Balcers tipped Dylan DeMelo’s point shot, changing the entire course of the game (3-2 Sens).

The Panthers tried coming back in the third and even upped their tempo, but it was too little too late as Ottawa closed the door for the remainder of the period. The Cats would end up falling victim to the worst team in the league by a scoreline of 3-2.

No matter how you try to spin it, the Panthers simply had no business winning this hockey game and ultimately deserved their fate. In other words, they made their bed and they’ll now have to lie in it.

What’s simply astonishing is how they managed to allow Ottawa (out of all teams) to simply dictate the majority of the game.

In all fairness, we’re talking about a team that just had their fire sale at the trade deadline the other week and they’re currently short on real roster players to make up their team.

Of course, for the Senators, this win is what they wanted: they don’t own their first-round pick this year. For the Panthers? Well, this just means that any hope for the playoffs (which there wasn’t any) is officially gone and we can now start focusing on the draft and draft lottery.

To say the least, this game has to be one of the most disappointing games I’ve seen from this group all season. And that really doesn’t say much, either.

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