TORONTO — The Florida Panthers have been hard to beat at Amerant Bank Arena.
After losing Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on the road, the defending Stanley Cup champions will need that advantage when the series against the Toronto Maple Leafs shifts to Florida for Game 3 on Friday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
“It’s going to be awesome to get in front of our home fans, get all the energy, get the energy from the fans and push hard,” forward Anton Lundell said. “It’s going to be awesome to get home.”
Since the start of the 2022-23 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Panthers are 15-9 at home, the most wins by any team in that span. This season, they were 27-12-2 in the regular season, the 10th best points percentage in the League (.683 percent). Only six teams had more wins on home ice.
Though the Panthers insist they remain confident in their ability to come back in the series, a little positive reinforcement from the home crowd is never a bad thing.
“Well, we’ve been a good home team this year for sure,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said Thursday. “And you get the positive feedback of good things that you do. We had a 2-on-1 with Matthew Tkachuk early in (Game 2) and he almost finds a hole, so you get a completely different review. You start feeling better about yourself and better about your game just on that, so it will be good to get home.”
The Panthers are 0-5 when trailing 2-0 in a series. Their biggest issues through two games against the Maple Leafs have come defensively, already allowing nine goals. In five games against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, they surrendered 12 goals including an empty-net goal.
Most concerning for Florida has been the Maple Leafs’ ability to generate speed through the neutral zone and attack off the rush, a style of game that favors Toronto, but Maurice said Thursday prior to the Panthers travelling back to Florida the problems have only exacerbated in the neutral zone, not begun.
“It’s not starting in the neutral zone, it starts in the far end (offensive zone),” he said. “We put pucks to the net that we couldn’t get a handle on and they’ve got a fast team, a quick team. But it’s not off transition from the neutral zone, it’s off offensive zone to the other end, which is consistent with the way they play and the way they generated offense in their last series and in this one.”
To his point, the Maple Leafs scored once in Game 2 like this. It was the goal to make it 2-2 at 4:18 of the second period, just 4:03 after Florida had taken its second lead of the game. Tkachuk attempted a backhand pass from deep in the left wing corner into the slot, which was deflected into the neutral zone by Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. With four Florida players caught below the puck, it led to a 2-on-1 that William Nylander converted for his sixth goal of the playoffs.
In Game 1, a backhand pass from A.J. Greer behind Toronto’s net to nobody in the slot led directly to Nylander’s goal at 12:51 of the first period to make it 2-0 for the Maple Leafs. Later in the period at 17:16, Brad Marchand put a pass out of reach towards Eetu Luostarinen in the slot, leading to a 2-on-1 where Morgan Rielly made it 3-1.
Is there anything else that needs to be said to avoid such mistakes?
“If there was, we would have said it two games ago, so we’re not holding back any gems and that’s probably the most important thing you realize,” Maurice said. “We went on the road and lost two one-goal games, our game is not perfect, neither is theirs so you are looking for an adjustment to foundation rather than an adjustment to something unusual.
“A little bit of composure and patience with the puck, I think we’ve forced some pucks to the net we didn’t need to when we had full possession.”
Forward Sam Reinhart had six points (two goals, four assists) in five games against the Lightning but has been held without a point and is minus-3 in two games against Toronto. He said if the Panthers can get a win in Game 3, it could change the outlook of the series.
“You win one game or you lose one game and it can kind of change anything,” Reinhart said. “A lot of success in the playoffs is how you control your losses and how you learn from it. A couple tight games and we’re sitting there looking at a lot of things we can do better and build on.”
Asked what specifically the Panthers can do better to prevent the Maple Leafs from showcasing their skill, he was in more of a show-than-tell mood.
“Hopefully you see it tomorrow and we don’t have to lay it out for you,” Reinhart said.
