Panthers Continue Slump, Drop Five of Last Six Games

SUNRISE, Fla. — November has been a seesaw month for the Florida Panthers. 

It started about as joyous as it could be so early in a season. The team put together two dominant displays overseas, sweeping the Dallas Stars in Tampere, Finland — kicking off what appeared to be another hot run of hockey for the defending Stanley Cup champions.

When they returned home, the success continued with victories over Nashville and then Philadelphia. All of a sudden, Florida was atop the Eastern Conference and riding a season-best seven game win streak.

Then New Jersey came to town…

In a rare two-game homestand against the same team, Florida got outplayed by the Devils — dropping two in a row and slipping out of first place in the East.

But as the Panthers have shown in years past, a bounce back was due, and they delivered, shutting out the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets 5-0 at Amerant Bank Arena.

The mini slump was over, they got back to their game, all was good — at least that’s how it appeared.

Since their impressive win at home over the Jets, Florida lost its past three games — falling to the Jets (home-and-home) and Chicago Blackhawks on the road, then most recently the Colorado Avalanche at home on Saturday night.

“We played into their game more than we played in ours,” Tkachuk said following the 7-4 loss to Colorado. “If we keep playing the way we are right now — we got away with it maybe in some previous games earlier in the season…  now we’re playing playoff teams and they’re kicking our ass right now because we’re not playing our style.”

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Among the seven goals Colorado scored on Saturday, the Avalanche put four straight past Sergei Bobrovsky in the second period.

On the other end of the ice, Florida had just five shots in the middle frame. One of those shots did find the back of the net thanks to Sam Reinhart, who has been one of the lone bright spots over the slump. He leads the NHL with 16 goals and has a 13-game active point streak (19 points over that span).

The players aren’t sugarcoating their recent play, they know it’s been bad and they know it can’t drag on much longer. 

“[We need to] come to the rink with maybe some anger and intensity in our game,” Aaron Ekblad said. “We know how to play hockey, we know how to play our game. We just have to find a way to get to it on a more consistent basis… It’s important again to stick together and find a way out together.”

The Panthers still hold a winning record through 21 games this season (12-8-1), but they’ve slipped behind Toronto to second in the Atlantic over the skid. Over the three-game losing streak, they’ve been outscored 16-8.

“It’s always frustrating when you go through your (bad) stretches, we had four of them last year — one lasted 12 games,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said on Saturday. “This one’s a little different for other reasons but we’ll be able to manage it.”

Florida will have the opportunity to get back to their game at home as they host the Washington Capitals on Monday night in Sunrise before welcoming the current Atlantic Division leading Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.