Two games into the new NHL season, the Florida Panthers have to be pleased with the early results.
While they haven’t come easy, the Cats have clawed out a pair of tight wins on home ice as they adjust to life without several key players.
On Thursday, Florida welcomed a young and hungry Philadelphia Flyers squad with a new coach behind the bench and a new goaltender between the pipes.
As was the case with the youthful Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, the Flyers, thanks in large part to a strong game from their goaltender, kept the game tight until the very end, but ultimately came up short against the veteran Panthers.
We’ll have to see if that’s a trend that continues when the Cats start playing some of the stronger teams on their upcoming schedule.
For now, let’s get to the takeaways from Florida’s win over Philly:
SHORTHANDED DEFENSE STEPS UP
Almost exactly halfway through the game, Florida lost defenseman Dmitry Kulokov to an upper-body injury.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice didn’t have much of an update afterward, other than that Kulikov would get looked at the following day and there would be more information after that.
Despite playing down a D-man for the remainder of the game, Florida’s blueliners did not flinch.
They allowed the Flyers only 11 shots from that point on, including just five during the entire third period.
“(They were) really good, especially in the last 20 (minutes),” said Maurice. “I thought they were real clean with what they were trying to do. All those guys can play big minutes, they have in playoff games, and they’ve played deep into overtime games, so going to five (defenseman) for those guys isn’t a big concern.”
WINNING TIGHT GAMES
Two games, two one-goal victories for the Panthers.
A veteran team that’s earned themselves a ton of postseason experience in recent years should be extremely comfortable in situations like that, which is exactly what we’ve seen from Florida.
It’s nothing new to use of us who have been following this team for the past several years, but for the newcomers, it’s a cool thing to be a part of.
“It’s the second (game), but you can feel it, and even last game I said that you have that feeling of, there’s no panic in the room,” said defenseman Jeff Petry. “And knowing that, we don’t need to get away from our game just because pucks aren’t going in the net. In both games we had a lot of chances, and those are going to go. To not open it up, to try to create more, I think it showed we were getting plenty of chances based on the way we were playing, so just to stick to that and we were going to find a way.”
STILL GENERATING OFFENSE
The Panthers may have only scored five goals over their first two games, but it’s not for a lack of trying.
They’ve racked up 71 shots on goal off of 132 attempts while holding their opponents to 39 shots on 88 attempts.
As for scoring chances, Florida holds an impressive 62-38 edge, so despite the relatively lower goal total, the vibes are just fine regarding the Cats’ offensive output because at the end of the day, they’re not sacrificing anything on the defensive end while trying to keep things rolling in their opponents’ end of the ice.
“I think we’re generating enough, and that’s kind of the expectation, that we will probably score a little less right now,” said Maurice. “Hopefully, we don’t have to give up less. That’s the bigger ask from our blue line especially, and our goalie, because you take a Selke (winner) out of your lineup, you should give up more, but our penalty kill was really good again tonight, so that’s a real positive. There was enough generated, certainly in the last game, that we would expect to score a little bit more, but we’re fine with that, in that 2-1 is a game you have to learn how to win. You’re not getting a lot of looks, there’s not a lot of clean offense, so we don’t want to open the game up to try to find it, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
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Photo caption: Oct 9, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Flyers right wing Owen Tippett (74) moves the puck against Florida Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling (42) during the third period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
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