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The view looks nice from the top.
That’s where the Florida Panthers remain, holding a four-point edge over the Toronto Maple Leafs following Thursday night’s 3-2 victory at Scotiabank Arena.
Florida might be missing several key players, but the machine just keeps humming along.
Now with 16 games remaining in the regular season, the Panthers are looking to stay consistent, and healthy, while hoping to be back at full strength when the postseason arrives.
Picking up big wins in hostile buildings against top-tier opponents sure helps.
Let’s get to Thursday’s takeaways:
SHUT DOWN RUSH GAME
Toronto is a high-flying, exciting offensive team with plenty of guys who know how to put the puck in the net.
They are very good at stretching opposing teams out and filling in the holes with fast skaters moving quickly toward the offensive zone.
Florida didn’t allow the Leafs room to do much of anything in the neutral zone, which significantly hindered their ability to build up any speed.
“I don't think our gap changed,” said Panthes Head Coach Paul Maurice. “So they're going to get more pressure on the walls, there'll be more battles along the walls, but I thought our gap in the neutral zone was the key piece to that. They’re really dynamic off the rush. It takes some courage to hard gap a game, and we were pretty good in that.”
WINNING WITHOUT KEY PLAYERS
The Panthers are getting used to playing without several of their biggest impact guys.
Matthew Tkachuk does a little bit of everything for Florida as a forward, both at even strength and on the power play.
Aaron Ekblad is elite in all situations and has proven to be a settling force on Florida’s back line.
Florida is going to be without both of them until the playoffs.
And while he hasn’t played for the Cats yet, you can believe that Brad Marchand is going to have a positive and profound impact when he does join the roster, which is expected to happen sometime late in the regular season.
Thankfully for the Panthers, Maurice has implemented a system that allows Florida to maintain their high-energy, physically demanding style of play that keeps opposing teams uncomfortable and off their game, even with those aforementioned players missing.
To be fair, it does help that Florida General Manager Bill Zito has built one of the deepest and most formidable rosters in the NHL, but Maurice sure does know how to get the most out of them.
“We don't look the same with those guys out, but we play the same,” Maurice said. “Hopefully you have the same effect, but it's just not going (to look the same). We're not as heavy a team, that's fine, but we can still skate, we can still check and do those kind of things. And then there's some people that have to step up. Matthew (Tkachuk) is irreplaceable on your power play, but Sam Bennett is pretty darn good there at finding those holes, so we've had some players step up.”
NOT QUITE PLAYOFF-HEAVY
It’s not quite the heated rivalry that burns between the Panthers and say, Toronto or Boston, but there is no love lost when Florida and Toronto meet on the frozen dance floor.
The heat was there early in Thursday’s game, thanks in no small part to Leafs forward Max Domi.
First, Domi laid out Carter Verhaeghe just inside Florida’s blue line, then later in the shift fighting Nate Schmidt in a bout that Domi will likely replay more than a few times with his family and friends.
Outside of those fireworks in the opening minutes of the game, there wasn’t a ton of physicality in the game, certainly nothing of a playoff or rivalry level.
Is that surprising? Considering the teams are 1-2 in the Atlantic Division and fighting for the top spot, maybe.
“I thought the game was fast,” Maurice said. “It wasn't as physical as I think you'll see in the playoffs, but that's probably smart, because you can't have too many of those playoff hits in the regular season game or you’ll spend the entire night in the box. I thought there was reasonable discipline by both teams and how they played it, but I did it was fast.”
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