Panthers Look to Snap Out of Funk, Avoid ‘Hangover Loss’
Before training camp even began, coach Paul Maurice identified the Nov. 21 game against Chicago as one people would call a “Stanley Cup hangover loss.” It’s here now. Can they avoid it?
Before training camp even began, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice identified one particular game that could sneak up on the Florida Panthers and become the game where talking heads say they are going through a “Stanley Cup hangover.”
In a stretch where they lost three of their past four games, they are dangerously close to that being a reality.
“We are going get beat in November, and I am going to end up answering this to you people and I understand that, but that game against the Western Conference team that didn’t make the playoffs last year, that probably won’t make the playoffs in this year, we will be assigned a ‘hangover loss,’” Maurice said back in August.
“It won’t be true to us. We lost the exact same game the last two years. It’ll just be a perspective of the why.”
The team he was talking about? The Chicago Blackhawks. And that game will be happening tonight, streamed live nationally exclusively on ESPN+ and Hulu, in a building the Panthers have not won in since February of 2022.
In Maurice’s two years as head coach of the Panthers, Florida fell 4-2 to a Blackhawks team that finished at the bottom of the league in 2023 before losing again, 5-2, with Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek stonewalling them with 38 saves on 40 shots, Philipp Kurashev having a three-goal night and 2023 first-overall pick Bedard netting a goal.
Bedard has seemed to have Florida’s number in both meetings he had with them, scoring another two goals in a 4-3 Chicago loss in Sunrise.
Even with Bedard currently going through a 10-game goal drought, the United Center has proven to be a house of horrors for the Panthers. And they need to right the ship before they head into one of their most important stretches of games of the season.
After this game, Florida will not play another team that currently finds itself out of the playoff race until December rolls around.
The Panthers will have a three-game homestand where they host the red-hot Washington Capitals, the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs and a Colorado Avalanche team that has found its groove behind MVP-esque play from Nathan MacKinnon before playing a home-and home with the Eastern Conference-leading Carolina Hurricanes.
Florida will have their work cut out for them for the next five games after this, and it’s crucial that they get things in order before then — and also do not overlook the task at hand before getting into that stretch this weekend.
THE NEWS
Per Doug Plagens, Spencer Knight will start in net for the Panthers against the Blackhawks.
Additionally, Mackie Samoskevich will draw back into the lineup for Jonah Gadjovich.
Today’s game will air at 8:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted exclusively via ESPN+ and Hulu.
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 — Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer — Tomas Nosek — Mackie Samoskevich
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis
Spencer Knight
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Adam Boqvist, Jonah Gadjovich
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS PROJECTED LINEUP
Connor Bedard — Jason Dickinson — Joey Anderson
Tyler Bertuzzi —Nick Foligno — Ilya Mikheyev
Taylor Hall — Ryan Donato — Teuvo Teravainen
Pat Maroon — Lukas Reichel —Craig Smith
Alex Vlasic — Connor Murphy
Nolan Allan — Alec Martinez
Wyatt Kaiser — T.J. Brodie
Petr Mrazek
Arvid Soderblom
(Lines via DailyFaceoff.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.