The Florida Panthers, coming off back-to-back comfortable wins this weekend, have another demanding stretch of games this week as they try to hold down their current position.
The Florida Panthers‘ season so far has been a particularly odd one. Go back to October and tell any Panthers fan their team will be second in the Atlantic Division through the first week of December, and people will be pretty happy.
The thing with being second in the Atlantic Division this year is that it comes with more of an asterisk than an exclamation point. This season, the Atlantic has been particularly weaker than in years past, with Tampa Bay and Toronto struggling out of the gates and Montreal on a torrid 2-6-2 stretch in their last ten after a very good month of October.
Put the Panthers in any other division, and they would not be top three. If the Panthers were in the West, they would at least be in a playoff spot. In fact, if the playoff format was still the old way, where it was the three division winners took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeds, and the rest was filled out by records, the Florida Panthers would be the 7th seed in the East.
While some people might think Joel Quenneville‘s men should be counting their blessings with the shortcomings of a lot of strong division teams playing far worse than expected, I think it’s a good responsibility to have. The Panthers, who have two games in hand on Buffalo and Toronto, plus a game in hand on Montreal, currently control their own destiny.
Yes, that’s a big phrase to use this early in a season, because the Florida Panthers will inevitably lose two more games this year. But, it gives Joel Quenneville a big chance to implement his culture of winning into the team.
In year’s past, some coaches might’ve seen the Panthers had games in hand, and used it as a scapegoat when the team was unprepared. Even fans, including myself, would say “it doesn’t matter we lost a home game to an inferior team, the Cats have games in hand, they’ll catch up.” The mindset behind that is not only wrong but a foolish one to take.
In fact, Quenneville made sure not to allow these games in hand to distract how the Panthers were training last week. Towards the end of last week, the Panthers had two practices before their back-to-back with Columbus and San Jose, priming fundamentals and the system Joel Quenneville wants the team to play in.
Sure enough, the Panthers focused on limiting giveaways and taking their chances, something that had been costing them points in recent games. With the Panthers averaging under two and a half goals per game in the last five before this weekend, something had to change. That, combined with the fact Florida had 40+ shots on goal in three of those games (all defeats) showed that something was not working.
Whatever Quenneville did worked, with the Panthers scoring four, then five goals in the two games this weekend. Aleksander Barkov had four points after just three points in his last five, Brett Connolly bagged another two goals, and Keith Yandle kept his red-hot season afloat with four points in two games.
The other thing Florida worked on was giving confidence to goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. No matter how much money a player is making or how much he has played in the NHL, lack of confidence can lead to a serious dip in play. While his struggles to begin the season have been more of an issue than just confidence, Coach Q still wanted to make sure Bob was good to go, starting him in both games this weekend.
Usually, that isn’t common for the Panthers. Florida, with Roberto Luongo‘s lack of durability and James Reimer‘s lack of consistency, haven’t exactly been used to starting goalies back-to-back nights. Yet, despite his struggles to begin the year, Quenneville’s faith in Bobrovsky paid dividends.
Bob put together his most consistent two starts of the season, recording 63 saves on a combined 65 shots against Columbus and San Jose, giving up one goal in each game, meaning Florida had plenty of room to work with on offense. While he may not play this Tuesday against Tampa Bay, having this kind of Bobrovsky in this stretch of games would be a massive plus for the Panthers.
So, sure, if you want to worry about how the Florida Panthers are relative to the rest of the NHL, go ahead. Right now, the Florida Panthers and Joel Quenneville have a lot of responsibility on their hands, to keep pace with where they are in the standings. The only way to do that is to keep winning, and if the Panthers play like they did this weekend and Q’s culture continues to grow, I don’t see why the winning won’t continue.
The Cats will have a great chance to prove it this week, with the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders, and Boston Bruins all coming to Sunrise. All three should prove harder challenges than Columbus and San Jose, but that should excite the Panthers to show who’s boss.