Panthers focused on restoring structure in Game 2 against Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- Aaron Ekblad's return could not come at a better time for the Florida Panthers.

The defenseman will be eligible to play Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Second Round against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN). He served the second of a two-game suspension Monday for his hit on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel in Game 4 of the first round.

The Panthers trail the best-of-7 series 1-0 after a 5-4 loss that featured an uncharacteristic lack of structure from a normally airtight defensive team.

"His last game, Game 4, was possibly the best game I've seen him play for us," Florida coach Paul Maurice said of Ekblad. "Just closing gaps, up the ice on the rush and he puts the rest of our defense corps into a different structure of matches and things like that."

It will be Ekblad's third game since March 8. On March 10, the NHL announced he was suspended 20 games, without pay, for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.

"He's been really good for us," Maurice said. "We've missed him for quite a while, so just a little bit of structure to our game."

The Panthers found themselves in an unfamiliar position after the first period of Game 1: trailing. That's why the structure Ekblad can help provide will be a welcome addition to the lineup.

Florida never trailed after the first period in their five-game win against the Lightning.

"We didn't look like ourselves," Maurice said.

William Nylander scored 33 seconds into Game 1 to give Toronto a 1-0 lead, skating into a pass at the blue line that came around the boards from Max Pacioretty, who was behind the net. Nylander flew by Evan Rodrigues and shot past Sergei Bobrovsky's glove from the bottom of the right face-off circle. He made it 2-0 at 12:51 after the Panthers allowed the Maple Leafs to come through the neutral zone with speed. Pacioretty dropped a pass to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, whose shot off Bobrovsky's left pad resulted in a rebound that went to Nylander, unchecked in the slot.

Seth Jones cut the lead to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 16:57, but the Panthers gave up a 2-on-1 on the next shift and Morgan Rielly restored the two-goal lead 19 seconds later.

"I think our start is [going to be] big," Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. "We came out slow and they came out with a lot of jump, so that's going to be huge, getting back to our game. As the game went on we got better and better, but we have to come out a lot quicker and a lot more prepared."

Though Florida scored twice in the first 4:30 of the third period, Maurice said he does not take much solace in how it played out.

"There will be a list of things, but at the end of the day the style of play and our identity, we didn't give ourselves much of a chance to get to that early in the game," Maurice said. "Then we got a little better as the game went on, but the score changes the way teams play sometimes. Both teams' risk profile changes, so you don't want to put too much into the third period when you're chasing the game by three."

The last time Florida lost Game 1 of a series was 5-1 against the Boston Bruins in the 2024 second round. It responded in Game 2 with a 6-1 victory. Jones, acquired in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on March 1, is confident the Panthers will look more like themselves in Game 2.

"It's a fresh start, but as Paul always says, we have to learn from our losses," Jones said. "We didn't come out with the start we wanted to. They had the home crowd behind them. They were fast on the forecheck, quick to pucks, so we want to be better with that and match that energy coming into Game 2."