Florida Panthers Look to Stop Playing ‘Passive’ as Old Friends, Division Rivals Come to Town
The Florida Panthers look to snap out of a 1-6-0 rut as the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs come to town.
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers enter an important Atlantic Divison clash with the Toronto Maple Leafs on one of the worst stretches they have been on in years.
At 1-6-0 in their past seven games, the Panthers went from well atop of the division to three points behind Toronto for first after dropping their fourth consecutive game on Monday night to the Washington Capitals.
The defending Stanley Cup champions have fallen into a lull — one that coach Paul Maurice blamed himself for yesterday — and Wednesday night would be as good of an opportunity as any for them to pull themselves out of it and gain some ground in the divisional playoff race.
Maurice’s words following Tuesday night’s practice gave his team a bit of a boost, but they certainly don’t think he should take the blame for what has been happening to his team.
“He’s a great coach and he knows what to do, but generally, it comes down to us,” Carter Verhaeghe said. “It’s not on him. We go out there every night, we put the pads on and get after it, so I don’t think too much blame should be on him. It’s mostly on us going out there and performing every night. There have been some struggles early, it happens, but hopefully we can get through it and come out stronger.”
So, what has been going wrong with the Panthers?
“Honestly, I think we haven’t been able to get to our forecheck as much,” Verhaeghe said. “We are playing a little too passive.
“I think when the emotion gets a little ramped up, then we’re back to our game. I think when it’s a low-emotion game, we’re not playing as well as we could be and we play a passive kind of game. We just have to get back to our forecheck and be aggressive.”
Emotions will be ramped up for the Panthers tonight for a handful of reasons laying far beyond their recent skid.
The Panthers are playing a Leafs team they have faced in the playoffs before — one that has been gunning for them ever since they knocked them out of Round 2 of the playoffs in 2023 and has given them some of their most heated games since.
That will still be the case even with star Auston Matthews out for yet another game. Toronto does have the best record in the league 7-1-0 (.875 point percentage) since he got hurt on Nov. 3.
They will also get a chance to catch up with three old friends from the Stanley Cup-winning team: Steven Lorentz, Anthony Stolarz and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
In between their morning skate and Toronto’s morning skate on Wednesday morning, the returning players from Florida’s Stanley Cup victory last season and general manager Bill Zito greeted the three players making their return and took a trip back memory lane.
Those memories will be with them as they take the ice at 7:30 p.m. tonight.
“I hope what they do is that it brings back some memories, they keep them and they enjoy them,” coach Paul Maurice said. “I’m not looking for the three guys from Toronto to get my room fixed, that‘s my job. But they might have better luck than I have.”
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in goal for the Panthers against the Maple Leafs tonight.
Anton Lundell will be a game-time decision after taking a puck to the face in Monday night’s loss to the Washington Capitals. He wore a bubble during the team’s morning skate on Monday and his status for Wednesday’s lineup (and his linemates) depends on whether or not he feels comfortable with the fish bowl on his mask.
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Today’s game will air at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted on Scripps Sports and the Panthers Plus app. It will also be available on ESPN+ for out-of-market viewers.
For more information on how to catch Panthers games this season, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Mackie Samoskevich
A.J. Greer — Tomas Nosek — Jesper Boqvist
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis
Spencer Knight
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Adam Boqvist
Injured: Jonah Gadjovich (day-to-day, LBI)
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS PROJECTED LINEUP
Bobby McMann — John Tavares — Mitch Marner
Nicholas Robertson — Pontus Holmberg — William Nylander
Nikita Grebenkin — Fraser Minten — Alex Nylander
Alexander Steeves — Connor Dewar — Steven Lorentz
Jake McCabe — Chris Tanev
Morgan Reilly — Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Simon Benoit — Conor Timmins
Anthony Stolarz
Joseph Woll
(Lines via Mark Masters, TSN)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.