The Florida Panthers haven’t skipped a beat.
With a 6-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions improved to 3-0-0 and currently sit in first place in the Atlantic Division.
“I think their attention to detail has been really, really good,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “They’ve come in with the focus that we have to be right in the systems part of our game.”
Below, find some key numbers that stood out from the team’s perfect homestand.
1:03: The amount of time the Panthers have trailed this season. Outside of a very brief moment when they fell behind 1-0 to Chicago in the first period of the season opener, the Panthers still haven’t needed to activate their “Comeback Cats” mode.
5: Different Panthers with at least three points. Producing at a point-per-game pace out of the gate, Brad Marchand, Anton Lundell, Evan Rodrigues, Mackie Samoskevich and Gustav Forsling have all tallied a team-high three points over the first three games of the season.
9: Different Panthers that have scored at least one goal. With both Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk sidelined by long-term injures, Florida’s enviable depth has been picking up the slack. All four of the team’s forward lines feature at least one goal scorer through the first three games, while Marchand and Lundell lead the team with two goals each.
.925%: Sergei Bobrovsky’s save percentage. Manning the crease in all three games, “Bobby” has surrendered just five total goals. In addition to his outstanding save percentage, he owns a 1.67 goals-against average and has turned aside 13 of 15 high-danger shots, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
41.7%: Florida’s success rate on the power play. Lighting the lamp at least once with the extra attacker in each of their first three games, the Panthers have cashed in on five of their 12 trips to the man advantage so far. Lundell leads the team with two-power play goals, while Samoskevich, Carter Verhaeghe and Aaron Ekbald have all notched one. “We’re just so deep and so close,” Samoskevich said of the power play. “The first unit is going to do their thing. They’re such good players. They jell so well. I think even our second unit, we’re pretty tight-knit and know where guys are going to be and stuff like that.”
7: Straight power plays killed to start the season. Sitting at 100% through the first three games, the penalty kill continues to be Florida’s calling card. Barely giving their opponents time to set up, the Panthers currently rank second in the NHL in both fewest shots attempts allowed (68.48) and fewest shots on goal allowed (34.24) per 60 minutes on the penalty kill.
1: Goals allowed when the defensive duo of Ekblad and Forsling has been on the ice. The top pair has been exceptional to start the season for the Panthers. In three games, Florida has led 32-15 in scoring chances and 4-1 in goals when they’ve been deployed at 5-on-5.
22: Combined hits for A.J. Greer and Jonah Gadjovich. The fourth line has been bringing the pain once again for the Panthers as Greer and Gadjovich have each racked up a team-high 11 hits. As it stands now, they both rank among the top 13 players in the NHL in hits per 60 minutes.
