Spencer Knight Exceeding Expectations of Florida Panthers to Start 2024-25
Spencer Knight is 3-0-0 with a .917 save percentage and a 2.41 goals-against average in his last three starts, but most importantly, he is back to being himself.
After a rough return from his nearly two-year absence from the NHL, Spencer Knight has been lights out for the Florida Panthers.
In his three starts since the 5-2 loss the Panthers took to the Buffalo Sabres in his first game back on Oct. 12, Knight is 3-0-0 with a .918 save percentage and a 2.41 goals-against average.
And more importantly, Knight looks more like himself — both on and off the ice — after missing the latter half of the 2022-23 season in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program battling issues with OCD.
“Anytime you look at an individual’s progress, you have to pause and realize from what lens you are examining,” general manager Bill Zito said. “And sometimes, different people progress on different time frames.
“For me, he’s just being Spence, and as with any goalie, you don’t get too high or too low, but he’s doing the things that we thought h would do. And most importantly, i think that he’s really enjoying playing hockey.”
The 23-year-old is mature beyond his years, and that was something that was apparent after he stepped up to a sea of cameras following the Oct. 12 outing which saw him allow four goals on 26 shots.
“That loss starts with me, and ends with me. I think, really, the whole thing is on me. I can’t be making plays like that,” he said that day. “There were some good things done, but you have to take ownership of the good things and the bad. The loss starts with me.”
His actions followed quickly after his words, and since then, he has looked a lot more comfortable in net and he has one up with big save after big save for the Panthers.
That included a standout performance in his last start against the Dallas Stars in Finland where he stopped 23 of the 25 shots he faced in a 4-2 win, including some difficult saves he needed to make to keep Florida in the game.
“I believe he’s grown,” coach Paul Maurice said. “I believe he is a better goaltender now, not just in experience, but he made the split pad save early in that Dallas game and that was explosion across the crease. He looked powerful and strong.
“So, I think we’re having the year where we can run a lot of games and he can work with Robbie [Tallas]. They’re working on things in his game, he looks very mature in the net and certainly looks in a more comfortable place, and the stake doesn’t bother him and he’s added some really high-end saves.”
EDITOR’S NOTE
Hockey has a rather long-standing relationship with the Movember Foundation, where players often shave their beards into mustaches and raise funds to support men’s health — both for mental health and for diseases like testicular cancer.
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(And I also swallowed my pride and shaved my beard into a mustache.)
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