Panthers coach on Stanley Cup: ‘We’ve made this series more physical than it needs to be’

Even in a blowout loss, the Florida Panthers delivered the signature moment of Game 2 on Monday when Matthew Tkachuk blew up Jack Eichel with an open-ice body check in the second period, causing tempers to flare and ultimately sending the superstar right wing back to the locker room for the rest of the period with a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

It could have been a tone-shifting moment for the Panthers. Instead, the Vegas Golden Knights only built their lead the rest of the way.

It also put the Panthers’ style of play under the microscope. Although Florida piled up 80 hits in the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights won both to send the Panthers into a virtual must-win situation for Game 3 on Thursday at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise.

“We’ve made this series more physical than it needs to be,” coach Paul Maurice said.

Florida’s 80-53 edge in hits is one of the few statistical advantages it had on Vegas in Games 1 and 2, and most of the Panthers’ other defensive numbers have dipped from the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Their blocked shots, which ballooned from 13.0 per game in the regular season to 17.4 in the postseason, were down to just 11 per game in the first two games of the series. Their takeaways per game have also dipped from more than nine per game in the first three rounds of the Cup playoffs to just eight in the first two games of the Cup Final.

Florida’s penalty numbers are also out of control, which Maurice insists isn’t tied into the Panthers’ overly physical style of play, but three misconduct penalties by Tkachuk in Nevada certainly didn’t help Florida’s cause.

“Physicality and discipline are two different things,” Maurice said. “Discipline is a touchy subject right now for us and we’ll just leave it at that.”

To rally in this series, the Panthers need to strike a better balance of purposeful physicality.

“We know what has made us successful to get us to this point, and we’re definitely not going to shy away from that,” Tkachuk said. “With that being said, we do have to tweak a few things to make sure that we’re able to improve the results of how we’re playing right now.”

Panthers see progress on PP

An 0-for-6 start to the series on the power play isn’t concerning to Florida. The Panthers were happy with the shots their power play generated in Game 2 at T-Mobile Arena, even after going 0 of 3 for the second straight game.

It took time to adjust from the Eastern Conference finals, when the Panthers eventually cracked the Hurricanes’ ultra-aggressive penalty kill for four power-play goals, and Florida now feels it has made the fixes it needs.

“We definitely did a much better job in Game 2,” center Sam Bennett said. “It’s a different PK than we’ve seen. It’s a little more passive and I think we did a better job of controlling the pucks and getting more pucks to the net, more traffic to the net.”

The proof is in the numbers.

In Game 1, the Panthers managed only three shots, five scoring chances and zero high-danger chances in six minutes of power-play time. In Game 2, those numbers jumped to 12, 10 and seven in 5:53.

“We’ve had our looks. We had tons of looks last game on it,” Tkachuk said. “We’re not worried one bit about it. We keep doing that, we’ll get back to how we won in the Carolina series.”

Florida Panthers tweak lineup again

With defenseman Radko Gudas back in the lineup and forward Eetu Luostarinen still out, Florida will tweak its lineup again for Game 3 of the Final.

The Panthers is going back to a more traditional alignment with 12 forwards and six defensemen, as they used in Game 1, rather than the 11-forward, seven-defensemen combination they used in Game 2.

Maurice did not commit to who the 12th forward would be. Forward Zac Dalpe slotted into the lineup for Game 1, only to be replaced by defenseman Casey Fitzgerald for Game 2.

Left wing Givani Smith — who played 34 games for Florida in the regular season, but has not yet appeared in the playoffs — is the other most likely option to join the lineup.