The Florida Panthers will enter the NHL’s holiday break in a good spot in the standings.
They just aren’t going in off a win.
Florida’s cross-state rivals from Tampa Bay made sure of that on Monday night, taking down the Panthers 4-0 at Amerant Bank Arena.
Things went south for the Cats pretty quickly as Tampa skated out to a quick 2-0 lead on a pair of rush plays.
Both goals, one by Nikita Kucherov and the other by Jake Guentzel, came on plays in which Tampa players appeared to be purposely jostling with Panthers behind the play, which then hindered Florida’s ability to backcheck.
Late in the period, Mitchell Chaffee picked up a rebound after a nice kick save by Sergei Bobrovsky and put it over Bob’s glove to give the Bolts a commanding 3-0 lead.
On the game’s next shift, Panthers star forward Matthew Tkachuk was on the receiving end of a knee-on-knee hit by Kucherov.
Tkachuk needed help off the ice and into the Panthers locker room while Kucherov was issued a five-minute major for kneeing and a game misconduct, which was upheld after an automatic review.
Florida went into the first intermission trailing by three and missing one of the most important players.
Fortunately for Tkachuk and the Cats, the injury wasn’t as serious as it initially appeared.
Early in the second period, with Florida on the power play, Tkachuk emerged from the Panthers locker room and took the ice.
He played the rest of the game and did not appear to have any lingering issues from the hit.
Florida struggled finding any offensive footing, and when they did, Jonas Johansson had the answers.
The Lightning goaltender made 36 saves while earning the fourth shutout of his NHL career.
Next game is Saturday afternoon against Montreal.
Happy holidays all!
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