The Florida Panthers continue to show why they’re the defending Eastern Conference champions. They currently sit in third place in the Atlantic Division, seven points behind the Boston Bruins for first in the division.
One of the main reasons Florida has padded their spot near the top is due to their strong defense. Despite allowing four goals against the New York Islanders on Saturday night, the statistics show that this is a small outlier. And with defensemen Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad returning to the lineup just a few weeks ago, this is perfect timing for an electric effort from the defensive corps.
Defense Has Been Clamping It Down
The Panthers have been incredible at reducing chances for the opposition. Currently, they are the third-best team in the league at allowing shots per game, with 27.6 shots allowed a game. In goals per game, they’re the fourth best, only allowing 2.54 goals against a game.
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When it comes to stealing the puck, the Panthers are ninth across the NHL, with 138 takeaways from opponents. In high-danger shots, they’ve only allowed 43 this season, which is the 11th-best in the league. Among the team, captain Aleksander Barkov has the most takeaways with 23. This shows why he is one of the best two-way centers in the game today. Among defensemen on the team, Gustav Forsling leads in that department with 12.
Panthers’ Penalty Kill Is Killing It
After a rough start to the season, the penalty kill for Florida has managed to find its groove and become a strong force. Among all 32 teams, the Cats rank 12th on the kill with an 81.7 percent success rate. Among their last 28 times on the kill, they’ve managed to fend off a power-play goal 27 times, with the most recent one allowed being against the Islanders on Dec. 2.
Through the last two weeks in November, they did not allow a power play goal against their opponents. This includes strong teams such as the Bruins, the Winnipeg Jets, the Edmonton Oilers and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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One of the pieces of success for the kill has been the team’s willingness to be aggressive toward the puck carrier. It’s easy to do when you have good two-way centers like Barkov and Anton Lundell on the team. It has yet to score, but it’s generated very good chances shorthanded. That shorty will come sooner rather than later.
While it is great to see the team is performing well down a man, they need to be more disciplined, as they currently have the fourth most penalties taken this season in the NHL with 111 and the eighth most penalties taken per game with 4.63 a game. This means they should avoid situations such as the incident against the Ottawa Senators in which an entire line and defensive pair was given a ten-minute misconduct.
Will Panthers’ Defense Continue to Be a Great Force?
One of the biggest sayings around the sports world is “defense wins championships.” The defense’s performance, as of late, is a sign that head coach Paul Maurice is a firm believer in that statement, especially considering how fired up he was about the team’s poor effort a couple of weeks ago.
But with how well the team performed in their Stanley Cup Final run this past postseason, it’s to be expected that they can perform at a high level defensively. They continue to claw their way through the season and look to get back into the postseason for another shot at glory. However, there is still a long road ahead, and we’re almost at the new year of 2024. They need to keep that high gear rolling until playoff time.
