Panthers fall to Flyers in first game back after All-Star Break. Takeaways from the loss
After the first period Tuesday, the Florida Panthers looked like they were going to pick up where they left off before the All-Star Break.
And then…
“We looked like we haven’t been on the ice in about a week,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.
The Panthers let their first-period lead slip away in a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Amerant Bank Arena, their first game in 10 days following the All-Star Break and their bye week.
The loss snaps Florida’s four-game win streak and drops them to 31-15-4. The Flyers improve to 26-19-6.
“Execution wasn’t our best,” said Florida forward Carter Verhaeghe, who scored the Panthers’ only goal on the power play midway through the first period.
It was the type of performance Florida was hoping to avoid after a week-and-a-half away from game action. They wanted to keep their game simple, not force too much and limit mistakes.
They did that for 20 minutes.
And then Philadelphia, which entered on a five-game losing streak, shifted the momentum in its favor the rest of the way.
The Flyers’ Travis Konecny tied the game with 6:27 left in the second period with a wrist shot from up close against Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky on a partial breakaway. Philadelphia then took the lead for good 2:36 into the third period when Noah Cates intercepted a pass from Florida’s Gustav Forsling and beat Stolarz one-on-one with a wrist shot.
Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson and Philadelphia’s defense took care of everything else from there. Ersson stopped all 19 shots he faced at even strength. The Flyers also blocked 22 Panthers shot attempts and limited Florida to just three shots on goal in the third period.
“I didn’t like our game,” Maurice said. “We weren’t where we need to be. I’m not particularly worried about it. I’m just not in a good mood. I didn’t like the way we played. I don’t feel like we were very well prepared.”
The Panthers continue their three-game homestand Thursday against the Washington Capitals before playing the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Anthony Stolarz was sharp in defeat
While it came in a losing effort, Stolarz had another strong showing in net on Tuesday, stopping 23 of 25 shots that came his way. That included the first 14 he faced before Konecny’s game-tying goal.
Stolarz has now held opponents to two goals or fewer in seven of his past eight starts.
25 for Carter Verhaeghe
Verhaeghe’s first-period goal was his 25th of the season.
The Panthers are now the fourth team this season to have multiple players with at least 25 goals — All-Star forward Sam Reinhart has 37, the second-most in the league.
The other three teams to have multiple players with 25 goals: The Colorado Avalanche (Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen), the Tampa Bay Lightning (Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point) and Vancouver Canucks (Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson).
Sam Reinhart’s point streak ends
Reinhart saw his career-long 13-game point streak end on Tuesday when he was held off the scoresheet for the first time since Dec. 30. Over those 13 games, Reinhart scored 14 points and added four assists.
The 13-game point streak was tied for the second-longest in franchise history along with a run by Jonathan Huberdeau in the 2021-22 season and Pavel Bure in the 1999-2000 season. Mike Hoffman holds the franchise record with 17 consecutive games with a point, done in the 2018-19 season.