Florida Panthers: The Power Play is Off to a Brutal Start

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IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

SUNRISE — Remember when the Florida Panthers had a power play that was humming along and scoring about once every four tries?

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Oh, the good old days.

They were not that long ago.

During the 2024-25 season, the one in which the Panthers won the Stanley Cup for the second straight year, Florida had a power play that was successful 23.5 percent of the time.

How many times in that season did we see the old bing, bang bumper play — Sasha Barkov to Matthew Tkachuk to Sam Reinhart — resulting in another power play goal?

Reinhart alone had 13 power play goals that season.

In the playoffs that season, the success kept coming: Florida went 25.3 percent on the power play while killing off 86.4 percent of its penalties.

Last season’s power play rate was 19.5 percent, which was not too bad, considering how badly the season went due to injuries.

Now, it is a long season with plenty of time to right the wrongs.

But the glaring weakness to Florida’s 2-1-2 start has been its power play.

After five games, the Panthers have exactly one power play goal in 28 attempts. 

You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to figure out that it comes to a 3.6 percent success rate which places them dead last in the NHL.

Against Minnesota on Saturday, the Panthers managed 11 shots in their 0-for-5 run with the man advantage. The effort was certainly there.

“Our entries have been a problem for us, for sure,” Paul Maurice said after the 4-1 loss to the Wild. “But it wasn’t tonight. I thought we did a pretty good job with that. We had 11 shots. Normally I would say, ‘Hey, we got our looks,’ and I never liked that idea when you’re talking about a power play because everybody’s power play gets looks.

“As frustrating as it was tonight, it was better than it has been on the road.”

At Sunday’s practice prior to flying off to Buffalo for today’s matinee, Maurice acknowledged that many parts of the game were not up to his liking, in addition to the scoring deficiency (nine goals in five games).

“It’s not our main focus,’’ Maurice said. “You can’t do two or three things really well at any one time, so we have to be good at the one and then, ‘What can we get, plus?’  So, it’s one plus that we’re looking for.

“We want to be a real good defensive team. We gave up more off the rush last night than we had. So that’s our biggest concern. Those two goals off the rush and two other chances that we don’t like at all.”

As for the power play problems he indicated that it should be corrected almost on it’s own if other tweaks are made.

“It’s rare that maybe your 5-on-5 offensive game and your power play aren’t going at the same time,’’ Maurice said. “Usually, one is feeding the other a little bit, and that’s not happening.”

Maurice has, as in the past, shuffled lines frequently to get the right combinations, even if it is mid-game. In Barkov’s absence he expects to keep Reinhart at center, his original position, for the immediate future.

Everything else is open.

“I’ve got two cards when I’m gong to the bench,’’ Maurice said. “Usually, when you’re in some sort of flux, I’ll write out two (sets of) lines. The one that we’re going to use to start. If I don’t like it I’ve got another one that I’m going to go to but I do want to leave (Reinhart) in the middle for a while.”

Neither Reinhart nor Brady Tkachuk have registered a single point in the five games to date.

If it’s any consolation going into Buffalo, the Sabres power play at 5.9 percent is also struggling and is second in the league to Florida for futility.

Buffalo is a much-improved team, as evidenced by their first playoff appearance last season after a 14-season drought.

With both teams struggling to score, look for some wide open hockey.

ON DECK: GAME No. 6FLORIDA PANTHERS at BUFFALO SABRES

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