The Florida Panthers proved last week that they support one another, if nothing else.
If the Panthers believe you have harmed one of their teammates, they will come after you in a heartbeat.
Furthermore, they have the ability to recover from a mistake and play a winning kind of hockey.
After a contentious Friday night in Pittsburgh, coach Paul Maurice remarked, “It’s too bad you couldn’t be down on the bench to hear them because it’s intense and supportive.”
We would rather have a wild, heated, and emotional night than attempt to force men to play hard in the game of hockey. I know you have to be careful not to let your emotions get the better of you.
“You’re not required to finish these guys off. The game is wired into them.
The Panthers proved they could win even though they occasionally went a bit too far that evening in Pittsburgh.
Against the Penguins, Florida was forced to use the penalty kill eight times after repeatedly hitting defenseman Kris Letang for a hit on Sasha Barkov outside of the play and along the boards.
Some noticed how the Panthers have been playing, even if Penguins coach Mike Sullivan claimed the Panthers overreacted, saying, “I don’t know what everybody was upset about.”
The Panthers began their game Wednesday with two fights to make up for something they believed had been done to them the last time they played Arizona, and that was two nights before the Penguins game.
The NHL could make a tonne of money more if it had four more clubs that played like the Panthers. This season, I haven’t watched a single dull segment of any of them. Line fights, pandemonium, scoring, hitting, chirping, passing the saucer, fighting and cheap shots
With the help of one of the league’s top PK teams and a brilliant display from Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida defeated Pittsburgh 3-2 in a shootout.
Bobrovsky was unfazed even after forcing a tying goal in the closing seconds and making 17 stops on man-advantage.
The penaltykillers cleared the front of the net to provide him with an unobstructed view of those shots after he witnessed his colleagues defend one another.
It clearly showed, as only six of those eight penalty kills resulted in high-danger opportunities.
“It strengthens the bond and fosters trust, and that is really significant.”
The Panthers are on a four-game winning streak going into the All-Star break.
They lead the Atlantic Division with a 31-14-4 record and have demonstrated that this might be another exceptional year.
The same approach and feel that got them to the Stanley Cup Final the previous year is being used again.
Following the Penguins’ victory, Oliver Ekman-Larsson remarked, “We’re winning in different ways.”
That is our team’s strength.
We allowed them to get one in, but we managed to escape with two points, which speaks volumes about the players in this room and about our squad. It’s something we construct together and continue to work on each day. They returned and knotted it, even though we had a chance to end the game with an empty-netter.
“This room is full of character, and that’s how we won tonight.”
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