Takeaways from Panthers 6-2 win over Coyotes

SUNRISE — In their last home game before the All-Star break, the Florida Panthers left their mark at Amerant Bank Arena, defeating the Arizona Coyotes 6-2. 

 

The Panthers also got back the much needed services of their captain Aleksander Barkov after he missed the past three games with injury. Their top-line defesneman Gustav Forsling also returned after missing the last game due to the birth of his child.

 

Here’s tonight’s takeaways. 

 

Say! He likes scoring goals. He does like them, Sam Reinhart

The Florida Panthers are playing hockey. 

 

What does that mean?

 

Sam Reinhart probably scored.

 

Florida’s leading scorer was at it again on Wednesday — both scoring goals and setting them up.

 

Just one game after setting a new career-high for goals in a season, Reinhart added to that number, scoring his 35th goal of the season 8:44 into the game on the power play. 

 

The goal was Reinhart’s 18th of the season on the powerplay –tying him with Oli Jokinen (07-08) for third all-time in Panthers’ single season power play goals. 

 

Reinhart finished the night with two points — his 19th multi-point game of the season. He also extended his point streak to 11 games.

 

His offensive production is one of the most consistent things the Panthers have had this season and as Matthew Tkachuk put it post game, “that’s pretty much every night,” when speaking about Reinhart’s contributions. 

 

First Panther goal, not first Panther fight for Jonah Gadjovich 

Fans who arrived at the game on time were in for a couple rounds of old-time hockey.

 

These two teams had a little bit of bad blood brewing from their Jan. 2 meeting in Arizona. In that game, Nick Cousins hit Juuso Valiamaki in a vulnerable position. As a result, Jason Zucker got Cousins back with a hit from behind — which has kept Cousins out of the lineup since with a concussion. Zucker received a three-game suspension for the hit.

 

In warmups, a few players on each side were having a chat at the faceoff circle. As for what was said in that conversation , there were  “a lot of not nice words that I probably shouldn’t repeat,” according to Jonah Gadjovich.  

 

When the game started, Ryan Lomberg immediately dropped the gloves with Jack McBain off the draw. On the next faceoff, Gadjovich would fight Liam O’Brien. 

 

Seven seconds into the game,  there was no passing, no scoring, but there were two. 

 

The crowd in Sunrise loved when the guys dropped the gloves — giving them a round off applause on their way back to the bench — but Gadjovich’s night wasn’t done there.

 

Gadjovich would score his first goal as a Panther off a slick forehand-backhand move, extending Florida’s lead to 6-0.

 

“Honestly I was pretty happy,” Gadjovich said. “A little bit of monkey off the back there, but I just try to contribute any way I can. Tonight was nice to get a goal.”

 

Panthers snap home losing-streak 

When Florida hit the road for Monday night’s game in Nashville they were riding a four-game losing streak — all of which came at home.  

 

The Panthers were able to get out of their losing skid with a comfortable win against the Predators, but they still had one funk to break out of — losing at home. 

 

In what was their last home game before the NHL All-Star break, it would be the final time Florida could play in front of their home fans until Feb. 6.

 

The fans in Sunrise left Wednesday night’s game happy customers after the dominating performance their team put on. 

 

Between the two fights off the draw, six goals and 31 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky, the Panthers shook off their previous four home losses with three very good periods of hockey.

 

Florida has two more games before the All-Star break. Jan. 26 against the Penguins and Jan. 27 against the Islanders.

 

Panthers Notes

Carter Verhaeghe had three assists and Gustav Forsling had two

 

Matthew Tkachuk had two goals and three points

 

Anton Lundell had a goal and an assist

 

Sam Bennett scored his 11th goal of the season

 

Head coach Paul Maurice moved into second place on the NHL’s All-Time games coached list with 1,813.