1 – CAT SCRATCHES: There are some long faces around Amerant Bank Arena these days, and perhaps even some short tempers too. The Florida Panthers’ 4-1 home loss to the Washington Capitals on Monday was the team’s fourth loss in a row, and sixth defeat in their past seven games. The recent dip has dropped Florida’s record to 12-9-1, and out of first place in the NHL’s Atlantic Division. “There’s a piece of our game that’s missing and we’re going to have to find it,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice flatly told reporters after Monday’s game. They’re going to have to find it in a hurry; the division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs visit Sunrise on Wednesday in a 7:30 pm start.
2 – NOT DONE YET: God bless the armchair coaches and GMs, whom are blaming everything from goaltending, to the defense, to individual players, to mascots Stanley C. Panther and Victor E. Rat! You know what I see? A team which is experiencing a delayed Stanley Cup hangover, and has momentarily forgotten what it took to win the Stanley Cup last season; 60 minutes of hard, in-your-face effort every game. Take Saturday’s 7-4 home loss to Colorado for example. Florida pounced out to a 1-0 lead just 52 seconds into the game when winger Carter Verhaeghe floated a harmless wristshot from the right wing boards over Colorado goalie Alexandar Georgiev’s shoulder. A great start right? Yes. But then the Panthers coasted the rest of the way and gave up the most goals in a regular season game that they have all season. I may be wrong, but I doubt it. This slump is nothing more than a blip.
3 – TOO MUCH SALMON SOUP?: One grizzled NHL observer pointed out in the press box the other night that the Panthers haven’t been the same since they returned from the NHL’s Global Series games in Finland, where they swept the Dallas Stars in a pair of contests. The Panthers are 3-6-0 since, so you do the math. Everybody has an opinion.
4 – AVALANCHE WARNING: At the time of this writing, the 2022 Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche sit 14th overall in the NHL at 12-10-0 (aka the middle of the pack) but have survived a pile of injuries. It struck us while watching Saturday’s game live in Sunrise that this might be the most top-end talented team we’ve seen come through here in awhile. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar lead a team that seems to always be a contender, and a real pain to play against. It’s a treat to watch greatness!
5 – LIGHTNING STRIKES: Last week in this space we pointed out the Tampa Bay Lightning have been streaky, and their 2024-25 results prove that to be true. At least being streaky is also being predictable. This week, we’d say that the Bolts are explosive. On Saturday the Lightning returned from a mini-two game road trip (3-2 OT win at Pittsburgh and a 7-6 OT loss at Columbus) to host the Dallas Stars at Amalie Arena. But they lost 4-2. Two nights later, also at Amalie, the Lightning erupted for an 8-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in a game highlighted by a five-assist effort from Bolts forward Brandon Hagel. That tied a franchise record, and with four assists in the first period alone, Hagel tied an NHL record held by eight others including Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux! The Lightning host Washington on Wednesday, visit Steven Stamkos and the Nashville Predators on Friday, and then return home to host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
6 – COACH FIRINGS: We waited until last week for the first head coach firing in the NHL and wound up having two! On Tuesday the Boston Bruins fired Jim Montgomery, but he wasn’t out of work long. Five days later St. Louis fired head coach Drew Bannister and replaced him with none other than Montgomery. The Blues were just five points out of playoff spot at the time but St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong explained he never would’ve made the move if “Monty” hadn’t become available. Montgomery was an assistant coach in St. Louis prior to taking over the Boston Bruins job so he’s very familiar with the organization and its people. Interestingly neither Montgomery nor Bannister appeared at the top of any of the betting sites’ list of coach firing odds all season.
7 – OVIE-LESS: The Capitals are making a Florida swing this week minus the services of captain Alexander Ovechkin. The Russia superstar is out for another 4-6 weeks with a leg injury suffered in Utah, which has stalled his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL goals record of 894. At the time of his injury, Ovechkin was on fire having scored five goals in two games, and 15 goals in 18 games this season. He’s 26 goals away from tying #99. … It’s a shame Florida hockey fans won’t be able to see Ovechkin this week but they’re getting to see Boca Raton product Jakob Chychrun star on the Washington blue line. The former Coyote & Senator – and hopefully one day Panther 🙂 – had a goal and two assists for the Caps Monday night in Sunrise.
8 – SO LONG JOE: Joe Thornton’s 35 games with the Florida Panthers during the 2021-22 season will be nothing more than a footnote at the end of his Hall of Fame career. And the London, ON product got choked up Saturday night when the San Jose Sharks officially retired his #19 during a lengthy, but emotional, ceremony at the SAP Center. The Boston Bruins dealt the former #1 overall pick to San Jose in 2006 and he immediately became a franchise great. Thornton amassed 1,714 career games played in the NHL, and 1,272 points. A sure fire Hall of Famer.
9 – POWER RANKINGS/OUTAGE: Here are our weekly NHL Top 5/Bottom Rankings courtesy of the South Florida Tribune: 1) Winnipeg, 2) Carolina, 3) New Jersey, 4) Vegas, 5) Minnesota. And 28) Utah, 29) Pittsburgh, 30) Montreal, 31) Nashville, and 32) Chicago.
10 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY: On Tuesday the NHL celebrated its 107th birthday and these types of milestones should cause us to reflect. We offered a poll on The Rod Pedersen Show asking what shape the NHL is in on this monumental birthday – A) Better than ever, B) Same as always, or C) Could be better. Can you believe “Could Be Better” won by quite a majority? I’m not sure what the fans could ask more for. The league’s bigger than ever (32 teams), coming off its all-time best revenue year ($6.2-billion) and the skill level has never been better, with a wealth of stars (Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor Bedard et al). Meh, people just like to complain.
See you at the rink!
(Rod Pedersen covers the NHL for the South Florida Tribune. He also hosts the award-winning Cats N Bolts Podcast and the daily Rod Pedersen Show on Game+ TV and YouTube Live. Follow him on X at @rodpedersen)
