Florida Panthers Look to Close Out Lightning Without Aaron Ekblad
The Florida Panthers look to eliminate the Tampa Bay Lightning without star defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who is serving a two-game suspension for elbowing Lightning forward Brandon Hagel.
TAMPA — The Florida Panthers are one game away from eliminating the rival Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round for the second season in a row.
Florida took a 3-1 series lead behind goals from Seth Jones and Aaron Ekblad in an 11-second span late in the third period of Game 4. They will have to try to close out the series without Ekblad, who will be serving a two-game suspension for elbowing Lightning forward Brandon Hagel in the head.
The Panthers won — in Tampa — without Ekblad before. They did so in Games 1 and 2 while he was serving the final two games of his 20-game suspension for using performance-enhancing substances, and they will try to do so again on Wednesday night.\
“I think the style we are trying to play is one where it shouldn’t matter what the score is in a series,” Sam Reinhart said. “We are going to try to take the ice away, we are going to try to be aggressive, take their time and space away, and make them play on their toes.
“I thought in this past game at home, we did a better job of that than the previous one. So, we have to play loose, we have to play on our toes and we’re excited for the opportunity and the challenge.”
With the exception of Game 3 — when the Lightning picked the Panthers apart off the rush — Florida has been able to slow this series down defensively as it had hoped.
In Games 1 and 2, specifically, in Ekblad’s absence, the Panthers allowed just two goals and stifled Tampa Bay’s heavy rush game. In Game 3, the Lightning took advantage of some missed reads the Panthers had in the neutral zone and blitzed them off the rush in a 5-1 victory.
That was not the case in Game 4, where they were held to just three high-danger scoring chances and could not generate much offense outside of two of their own goals in an 11-second span in the second period.
With Ekblad out, the Panthers are going to have to try to go back to what worked in Games 1 and 2.
Seth Jones will likely return to the top pair next to Gustav Forsling, Dmitry Kulikov will bump up to the second pairing next to Niko Mikkola while Uvis Balinskis likely draws in next to Nate Schmidt.
“We have to limit their scoring chances,” Dmitry Kulikov said when asked about playing without Ekblad following Game 1. “
They are a good team that can score off the rush, so it’s a five-man defending mentality. Not just the defensive core, the forwards. Everybody helps each other make sure they are not flying through the neutral zone and entering our zone with speed. I think that’s the key.”