The Florida Panthers are a different team than they were when the puck first dropped on Oct. 6.
With rookie head coach Bob Boughner at the helm, the Panthers stumbled out to a 4-8-2 start through the first 14 games of the season. They were a team in search of an identity, still learning a new system while adapting to yet another new coaching staff, their third in the past three seasons.
Boughner Likes Panthers Resolve, Expects Better Results in 2nd Half
But in those defeats, the Panthers were also quietly making progress, most notably on the defensive side of the puck. After allowing an average of 3.45 goals per game through the first 22 games of the season, they have surrendered just 2.84 over their last 19. One of the most inexperienced defensive units in the league, six of seven skaters on Florida's blue line are 25 years old or younger - a group rife with both talent and growing pains.
"We had a new system, a new foundation, and the players took a while to adjust to that," Boughner said during a teleconference on Monday morning. "I think they did a real good job. I think our game now is a lot better than it was in the first 10.
"We've got a young defense, everybody knows that. The same thing up front: [Maxim] Mamin was in yesterday, [Denis] Malgin, [Jared] McCann, we've got a lot of young guys. Our veterans have been good; our leadership's good."
At the midway point of the 2017-18 season, the Panthers (17-18-6) are admittedly not as close as they'd like to be to the playoff picture, trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins by seven points for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with three games in hand. With 41 games left on the schedule, however, they're certainly still in the hunt - a message Boughner is preaching to his players.
"There has been a lot of resolve," Boughner said. "I think this is a good group of guys. They want to win together and they want to make the playoffs. We're knocking on the door. We have a lot of work ahead and we're going to have to put together some more segments of winning four or five in a row moving forward and working on our consistency and all those things."
When looking at the biggest issues the Panthers have faced thus far, the two that stick out the most also go hand in hand: injuries and youth. A total of seven players have made their NHL debut with Florida this season, with five of them no longer on the current roster. Evgenii Dadonov and Radim Vrbata are two veteran forwards that have both missed some time, while starting goaltender Roberto Luongo has been out of the lineup since suffering a lower-body injury against the New York Islanders on Dec. 4.
And although Luongo is with the team on its current four-game road trip, Boughner said the 38-year-old isn't expected to return until February at the earliest. In his absence, backup James Reimer has started 14 consecutive games, posting a 7-5-2 record with a 2.42 goals-against average, a .930 save percentage and two shutouts in relief.
"We hit a rough patch," Boughner said. "I would say the first third of the season is when we had a lot of injuries. We had four or five guys up from [AHL] Springfield playing full time for us. That was our struggle. We had some guys out. As we got healthy, I thought we started to play better. It's never easy. Our starting goalie, I believe, has played 12 games all year.
"Reims gets a lot of credit for coming in and playing like he has, but if you look around the league the teams that have struggled and gone through some rough patches are the teams that lost their starting goalie for a while."
After clawing their way back into the playoff hunt with a season-long five-game winning streak, the Panthers arrive at the halfway point of the season looking to shake a three-game skid, including a 3-2 shootout loss in Columbus on Sunday. And although the difference on defense appears to be night and day from the start of their campaign up until now, unfortunately the same thing can now be said for their once-productive offense.
With two-or-fewer goals in nine of their last 12 games, Boughner said the key to the Panthers finding success in the second half will hinge on secondary scoring. For although Jonathan Huberdeau (15 goals), Vincent Trocheck (15) and Aleksander Barkov (13) are all having career years in the scoring department, the team needs to start getting contributions up and down the lineup, rather than just at the top.
"We're getting chances, Barkov said after Monday's practice in St. Louis. "We just need to work on the goal scoring."
Still, after weathering an early-season storm, Boughner is pleased with the strides his team has made.
"I think we're in a better place now," Boughner said. "We're still looking for a little more scoring from the secondary group. But everybody goes through these injuries and things like that. We have to find a way. We're still in the playoff hunt right now and have a lot of hockey to play. I think that we're going to be better in the second half than we were in the first half."
