Florida Panthers Fall to Tampa Bay in Second Preseason Meeting, 4-2

After beating the Lightning in their previous outing, the Florida Panthers were back at home to face their in-state rival in another preseason showdown.

The game started quite slow for both sides. The Florida Panthers, in particular, were stuck in the neutral zone, unable to get pucks past center half.

As the game progressed, though, so did the Panthers’ play. They began to attack in numbers and started to create more meaningful chances.

They were awarded the game’s first power play after Braydon Coburn hooked Aleksander Barkov on a partial breakaway, but failed to create anything out of their chance while a man up.

The Lightning had a short-lived man advantage of their own when Sergei Bobrovsky tripped up Matthieu Joseph beside the net. However, Pat Maroon was called for a slash and evened up the man count with some 4-on-4 action.

Rushing down the ice on a 2-on-1, forward Frank Vatrano sent a cross-crease pass over to Owen Tippett on the other side, with the former 10th overall pick slotting a shot home to give the Panthers the first lead of the game.

In the second, the Panthers kept afloat, limiting the scoring chances they offered to the Lightning while creating little of their own.

However, that all changed in the last five minutes when Tampa found a way through. After Vincent Trocheck failed to clear the zone, the Lightning picked up the loose puck along the boards, setting up Cedric Paquette out in front to level the scoring at one.

With under a minute to play, things only got worse for the Panthers. Failing to find a way to exit their zone, the Lightning were controlling play in the Panthers’ end, working the puck around to eventually find Kevin Shattenkirk open at the point, who fired a shot past Bobrovsky to give the Lightning their first lead (2-1).

In the third, the Panthers tried to find an equalizer but were unsuccessful in doing so. Every rush down the ice was stopped by Tampa’s defense, with opportunities hard to come by.

Shortly later, Mikhail Sergachev clipped Brett Connolly into the boards awkwardly, knocking the 27-year-old to the ice. Connolly was slow to get up and headed straight to the dressing room immediately after.

Like Barkov – who went down in the first and didn’t return for precautionary reasons – Connolly was treated with the same care.

The Bolts continued to chip away and extended their lead through Nikita Kucherov. Blowing past Yandle with ease, Kucherov went towards goal and lifted a silky backhand over to Bobrovsky’s glove to give Tampa a two-goal cushion (3-1).

From there, everything fell apart for the Panthers as they conceded a fourth shortly after. On the power play, sniper Steven Stamkos received a pass in the wheelhouse and ripped a shot past the sprawling Bobrovsky to triple Tampa’s lead (4-1).

In consolation, the Cats fought back and trimmed the Lightning’s lead in half on a man advantage of their own. Vasilevskiy kicked out Hoffman’s point shot, which redirected right to Evgenii Dadonov, who buried the loose rebound to narrow Florida’s deficit (4-2).

In the end, the Panthers didn’t have enough left in the tank to complete this game the way they would’ve liked. Having Barkov and Connolly exit the game certainly didn’t help by any measures, but the wasted power-play opportunities didn’t serve any justice, either.

Of course, it’s still preseason so there’s nothing at stake with these games. But considering Joel Quenneville’s willingness to play every game like it’s a crucial one, he certainly won’t be happy (or content) with a result like this.

Fortunately, there’s still some time before the season rolls around for Quenneville and his coaching staff to address some issues.

The Panthers are back in action on Saturday, Sept. 28 @ 7 P.M. against their in-state rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning. This game will feature at the Amalie Arena.