Florida Panthers Not Playing Up to Standard, And They are Aware

“There is a defined way that we play and we are not at it right now,” coach Paul Maurice said. “We have to get back to it.”

In the midst of a 1-4-0 slide, the Florida Panthers have not been playing up to their standard.

They are well aware of that.

“There is a defined way that we play and we are not at it right now,” coach Paul Maurice said. “We have to get back to it.”

Save for a 5-0 win against the league-best Winnipeg Jets smack dab in the middle of it, Florida has been outscored 19-7 and has allowed an uncharacteristic 4.75 goals-per-game during that stretch.

Even when factoring in that five of them came on an empty net, the other 14 tell a similar story: The Panthers have been making a litany of mistakes, they have been late on defensive assignments and they have not been forechecking with the same tenacity they trademarked en route to a Stanley Cup.

The latest loss was a 3-1 blunder to the NHL’s worst team coming into the night, the Chicago Blackhawks.

“We are late and behind the puck instead of on top of the puck,” Maurice said. “We had a bunch of chances to score — I really don’t care about those — I don’t think we gave up a whole heck of a lot, but in terms of how we’re supposed to look, we were not there.”

Their mistakes in that game were simple: Early on, they turned the puck over before they could get anything going offensively, they missed assignments multiple times which led to Chicago‘s goals and they could not get things going offensively until late.

“I didn’t like our start and I think we worked our way in,” Gustav Forsling said. “It was not the start we wanted.”

By then Petr Mrazek had found his groove — stopping 28 of Florida’s 30 shots — and a Carter Verhaeghe turnover right in front of an empty net dashed any hopes of finding a tying goal.

“We turned five pucks over in the neutral zone that were not contested turnovers and you can’t forecheck a turnover,” Maurice said. “I think that got us into a bit of trouble and then we were late on a whole bunch of things out there.”

Florida outshot Chicago 15-8 in the third period, generating a slew of chances, but they dug themselves too much of a hole to dig out of.

“They scored on their chances, and I feel like we created a lot, but we weren’t where we can be or needed to be,” Jesper Boqvist said. “We created a lot and we spent a lot of time in their zone, but couldn’t get it in.”

That story was not exclusive to just that game — it’s been the case for the better half of two weeks.

In games where the Panthers found themselves trailing after 40 minutes, they are 0-7-0, and that has happened in all four of their losses during this stretch.

Sprinkle in some sloppy mistakes and uncharacteristically slow play to start and things have started to look nightmarish for Florida.

“It’s not the game,” Maurice said. “We’ve had a five-game block where we’ve only had one that I like and that’s not good enough for us.”

The Panthers need to turn it around, and soon.

MVP-candidate Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche are coming to town on Saturday and things will not be getting much easier for the next few weeks.

Florida will not get another match-up against a non-playoff team until they face the Pittsburgh Penguins to start December, and they still have Sidney Crosby.

“We need to get back to [our game] fast,” Boqvist said. “Get heavy on the forecheck and stuff like that. We just have to come back to our game.”