Florida Panthers Get Back to Identity in 5-1 Win Over Toronto

The Florida Panthers looked like themselves again in a 5-1 stomping of the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs.

SUNRISE, Fla — The Florida Panthers roared their way out of their rut, blitzing the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1, to draw back within a point of the Atlantic Division lead.

Florida came into the night 1-6-0 in its past seven games with some uncharacteristic losses, but sturdied its defenses, hardened its forecheck and got back to its identity.

“We’ve been kind of trying to find our identity back,” captain Aleksander Barkov said. “I think it all comes from hard work, being simple, being hard and physical—that’s our game. I think we did that pretty well, especially in the first period. We kept doing that and finished strong.”

After their loss to the Washington Capitals on Monday, Panthers coach Paul Maurice put his team through some heavy drills attempting to do that — telling them to get bodies to the net, be hard on the puck, and sprinkling some profanities in there where it was appropriate.

It seemed to work.

“We had our priorities right with what we were trying to accomplish on the ice,” Maurice said. “The leaders on our team, I thought they were really strong tonight. You can’t be all things at all times, and I think we tried to be over the last little while, so we got our priorities right.”

All of Florida’s stars stepped up in a winning effort.

Barkov led the way with a goal and an assist, Sam Reinhart picked up a shorthanded goal, Aaron Ekblad got two assists while playing 26:40 of shutdown defense, Carter Verhaeghe had a three-point night and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced.

“Everybody in this room stepped up,” Barkov said. “I think, starting yesterday, we knew we had to start playing better. We had to start competing better. We had to find our identity. Every single guy knows the one thing he needs to do during the game, and I think every single guy in this room came with the right mindset to the game and did what needed to be done.”

The Panthers flew out of the gate, with Barkov scoring with a blast on the power play 4:46 into the game to put them ahead. 22-year-old rookie Mackie Samoskevich slipped a wrist shot high glove side on Anthony Stolarz less than a minute later to make it a two-goal game.

But the more important piece of those five minutes?

The Panthers were relentless on the forecheck, swarming the Maple Leafs in their own end and not giving them much of anything to work with offensively.

They were back to playing their style of hockey.

“I think we played fast from the get-go,“ Reinhart said. “We were quick on our reads and that limits the time and space for [the Maple Leafs]. They’ve got some good players over there, so as much as we can do that, it’s going to advance us.”

The Panthers continued to play the game on their terms in the second period, slowing it down and not giving Toronto’s stars much room to operate offensively.

Florida then broke the game open with 2:56 to go in the second, when Barkov sent a drop pass to Reinhart while on a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush with Ekblad, and he wired it past Stolarz to make it a 3-1 game.

His 13-game point streak may have ended on Monday, but Reinhart got right back to work, tacking on his 17th goal and fourth shorthanded goals, which both lead the league.

“We know it on the other end,” Reinhart said. “Sometimes the last thing you want to do is defend when you’re out there on the power play. I think it’s a matter of picking your spots. When you have a bit of energy, when you’re kind of fresh in your shift. [Ekblad] has been doing a good job of jumping up and our [defensemen] have been good at jumping up and finding those plays.”

Mitch Marner brought the Maple Leafs back within two goals on that same power play, but the hole they dug for themselves was still too deep.

And this was a Panthers team that notoriously held onto their leads going into the third period.

They did just that, improving their record when leading after 40 minutes to 10-0-0 this season and 77-2-6 since Maurice took over as head coach in 2022.

Verhaeghe zipped a wrist shot past Stolarz on the power play with 5:33 to go, then picked up an assist on an empty netter less than four minutes later.

He had a wide-open look at an empty net, but passed the puck over to Sam Bennett, who is covering the adoption fee of a pet at Broward Humane Society for each of his goals.

He buried it, scoring his 10th of the year.

“I enjoy dogs and cats, so I thought I would dish it over there,” Verhaeghe said. “It was nice.”

Florida pulled within a point of Toronto for the Atlantic Division lead with the victory.

They will look to keep things going in a home-and-home with the Eastern Conference-leading Carolina Hurricanes this weekend.

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