A Tough Knight In Florida

The Florida Panthers this season are an offensive juggernaut, especially at home. They average over 4 goals almost every game and have the best home record in the entire NHL at 22-3-0. They’ve scored 53
more goals than they’ve given up in 44 games.

So to say the VGK had their work cut out for them last night is in no way shape or form an embellishment. But when your power play goes 0-3 and on one of your power plays you give up a shorthanded goal, you’re doomed against this team. And that’s exactly what happened in Florida’s 4-1 win over the VGK. The score is somewhat deceiving on 2 counts, and I will get into that in a bit.

You should give credit to the VGK for keeping the game close, considering what and who they were facing. They even held a 1-0 lead at one point. Zach Whitecloud scored his 6th goal of the season when he snapped a shot over the blocker of Panther backup goaltender Spencer Knight filling in for Sergi Bobrovsky. But that was the VGK’s only goal.

It’s almost impossible to beat Florida especially at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise Florida when you score just one goal. Even though they were just one goal behind with 54 seconds left in the game, they never really mounted any threat and seemed out of sync, even with Max Pacioretty back in the lineup following wrist surgery that had him out since the Dec 28th game vs. the Kings. Reilly Smith, who missed the last 2 games (COVID protocol) was also back in the lineup.

But Vegas could not generate any offense from any of their forwards who had a rough night. The line of Stone, Pacioretty, and Stephenson were a combined -8, while the misfit line of Karlsson, Marchessault, and Smith were -5. The back breaker for Vegas was the shorthanded goal that Florida scored with just 29 seconds left in the first period. Late goals in periods are momentum changers and Vegas was on the power play and headed into the locker room with at least a 1-0 lead, maybe even 2-0 if they could convert. But it was more like a Chinese fire drill, everyone running around with no clear breakout plan.

First Lehner had to come way out of his crease to retrieve a loose puck that Alexsander Barkov was headed toward. Lehner’s clearing pass to Shea Theodore was not on target; when Shea had trouble handling the pass, the puck was chipped away by Barkov and wound up on Reilly Smith’s stick in the neutral zone. Barkov stole the puck from Smith and headed back into the zone. He passed the puck to Anton Lundell with Stone coming back to help out Shea, who hesitated in picking up Barkov as he drifted to Lehner’s left, creating time and space for Lundell. The defenseman on a play like this is supposed to let the goaltender have the shooter and prevent the cross-ice pass.

Then Stone hesitated on who to pick up. He initially headed toward Barkov, even though Theodore was supposed to prevent the pass. That slight hesitation by Stone allowed Lundell to make a perfect pass across to Barkov, as for some reason Shea started to drift back toward Lundell, which left Barkov all alone. He didn’t miss beating Lehner, who was not set, making Lehner look totally lost. He fell back on his butt as the puck beat him over his blocker. Vegas went into the locker tied at 1-1 instead of the 1-0 lead.

An early goal is just as crushing as a late goal and that happened when Sam Bennett took the puck deep in his end, skated nearly 180 feet, and handcuffed Robin Lehner with a wrist shot. Lehner might have been screened by Nic Hague as he was in between Bennett and Lehner. The Bennett goal was all that Florida needed, as Vegas offered very little offensive pressure on Florida’s backup goaltender Knight.

So as you can see, even though Vegas was only 1 goal behind with less than a minute to go in the game, it was a deceiving score.

Florida added 2 empty-net goals in the final 54 seconds to leave Vegas with a disappointing performance in a game that Florida scored just 2 goals with the net occupied when they usually score 4.

Other game notes and quotes.

Aleksander Barkov’s shorthanded goal was his 200th NHL goal and 500th point.

Florida tied the NHL record for the most victories through 25 home games, which had been done four times, most recently by the 2011-12 Detroit Red Wings (22-2-1).

The other teams to win 22 of their first 25 at home were the 1943-44 Montreal Canadiens (22-0-3), the 1970-71 Boston Bruins (22-2-1), and the 2008-09 San Jose Sharks (22-1-2).

“I saw a lot of effort and a little bit of a lack of execution,” Coach Pete DeBoer said. “We were just off a little bit.” He added, “We had a couple guys just coming back, so you expect some of that.”

My 3 stars of the game: Sam Bennett (2G on just 3 shots and the game winning goal), Alexsander Barkov (1 shorthanded goal, 1A, and 5 SOG), Spencer Knight (24 saves on 25 shots and a .960 save percentage)

Next game closes out this tough 4 game road trip tomorrow vs Tampa Bay at 4 p.m. Pacific Time

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The only goal Vegas scored
Bennett goes coast to coast for the GWG
Barkov’s shorthanded goal