Florida Panthers Need Vincent Trocheck’s A-Game in 2019

With a goal and an assist already in this young season, Florida Panthers center Vincent Trocheck has gotten off to a relatively good start, but needs to focus on keeping his form consistent.

For the Florida Panthers, a huge issue at the start of this season has been taking their chances. The Cats have scored just eight goals this season, and only four have come at even-strength.

This was a problem that was really masked up last season because of how porous the Panthers were in defense. Florida’s even-strength goalscoring was really near the bottom due to their efficiency on the power play, and one of the main issues was that was the inconsistency of Vincent Trocheck.

Trocheck, who suffered a major injury at the beginning of last season, logged his worst ever professional season. His 34 points in just 55 games was an extremely underwhelming haul, and with a full off-season of recovery, Trocheck started this season with a bang.

While he has struggled since the first game, which he logged a goal and an assist, Florida have been mixing around their talent, which means Trocheck has still been in and out of playing with who he’s used to working with.

For example, Trocheck’s goal and assist came from working with Mike Hoffman, who now has five goals on the season. In the last two games, Hoffman has been flipped to the first line to try for more goals, which means head coach Joel Quenneville isn’t satisfied with how the pair have worked together.

Another problem with his lack of points to start has been Trocheck’s lack of inclusion on the man advantage. The Panthers’ first power play unit features the first line forwards with Mike Hoffman and Keith Yandle, and that unit usually plays for a majority of the 2:00 advantage.

Trocheck is usually a serious threat on the man advantage, with Trocheck recording 67 of his 249 career points on the power play.

Overall, the Panthers’ scoring issues can be fixed with an elite Vincent Trocheck. If he can return to his 75 points in 82 games form that he had in 2017-18, including a dominant faceoff winning percentage of 54.1%, the Florida Panthers will not only have an elite depth scorer but a true leader in the center of the ice.

Trocheck’s play this season already looks an improvement on last year’s. Trocheck has looked more active this season, skating swifter and sharper than he did last season. It comes with the off-season recovery, but it also comes with the playstyle of a Joel Quenneville-led team.

Trocheck has been calm, composed, and energized on each and every shift this season. What’s next? Finding his efficiency and consistency, and getting Vinny back to his best, because when he does get back to his A-game, Florida will be a team to be reckoned with.