A frustrating start to the season continued on Tuesday for the Florida Panthers.
Despite coming off some of their best periods of hockey in their previous two outings, the Panthers failed to ride that momentum into a matchup with the Anaheim Ducks.
Florida made a valiant attempt at a comeback after trailing 2-0 entering the third period but ultimately lost in a shootout to the feisty Ducks in Sunrise.
Challenges and frustrations continue to be a theme early in this season, which isn’t terribly surprising considering the injury issues that the team is and will continue to navigate as the weeks and months go by.
Here are Tuesday’s takeaways:
TWO QUICK GOALS
As the Panthers have proven over the past several seasons, falling behind in a game isn’t anything that causes them to panic.
The Comeback Cats have become a known part of the team, and it appeared we were heading into the direction of another fun come from behind victory on Monday.
Unfortunately, Florida allowing two quick goals during the second period, one shorthanded and one coming on a 5-on-3 power play less than three minutes later, really seemed to take the wind out of the Panthers’ sails for a while.
“If you give a team with skill a 5-on-3, the chances are they’re going to score on those. They don’t need a whole lot five on five. I’m not sure what they ended up with, but it wouldn’t be a whole lot. They had some chances they didn’t get to the net. They didn’t finish on the plays, we had some pretty good sticks around the net.”
PART OF THE PROCESS?
Nobody expected the Panthers to simply pick up where they’ve left off in recent seasons due to the absence of superstar forwards Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk.
Last season, the two combined for 42 goals and 86 points despite playing just 67 games (Barkov) and 52 (Tkachuk) and they have each consistently been at least point-per-game producers during their time together in South Florida.
Now, after 11 games, the Panthers find themselves near the bottom of the league in scoring, averaging just 2.45 goals per game. That’s third-worst, behind only the Calgary Flames and New York Rangers.
“I think it’s a necessary pain that we’ve got to go through,” Maurice said. “When you struggle with your offensive game, and you start talking about it, you see offense like tonight. I think there’s a bunch of areas that we can be quite a bit better in the offensive game, but that’s the first reaction. We’ll be trying to create more when there’s not a lot to be created, in some of the turnovers or just some of the broken plays, plays that didn’t get completed that might have. But it’s something we got to go through here. There were parts of our offensive game that was right, the analytics will be good, but there’s other parts that we’ve got to get better.”
TARASOV STRONG AGAIN
It’s been a strong start to the season for new Panthers backup goaltender Daniil Tarasov, even if his numbers don’t necessarily indicate it.
Through three starts, Tarasov holds an 0-2-1 record with a 2.64 goals against average and .886 save percentage.
Certainly nothing to write home about.
It doesn’t help that the Panthers have scored only five goals of support for Tarasov in those three games.
In terms of the eye test, Tarasov has looked quite good, and if/when the time comes where Florida begins playing a more consistent brand of Panthers hockey, his statistics should begin to mimic that as well.
“That’s the pressure that we’ve put a lot on (him) because we haven’t given him any run support, that’s for sure,” Maurice said. “But it’s a good thing to go through at the start. He has to stay focused on every shot straight through the entire game. Those stretches that Sergei (Bobrovsky) goes through, that there’s just not a puck that comes to him (for long stretches), I didn’t think they had one get to him early in that second period for quite some time. We were on the power play for a bit, and then, bang, it’s a 2-on-1 crossing play. And that’s challenge. He’s made some of those saves for us. He was really good in the Jersey game. We’re all learning together.”
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Photo caption: Oct 28, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett (9) skates toward the bench during a break in play during the second period against the Anaheim Ducks at Amerant Bank Arena. (Jim Rassol-Imagn Images)
