The victories start back to return to the Florida Panthers.
After a rough section in which the CATS launched five consecutive games but played decent hockey, Florida succeeded a few victories together since its return to the Sunrise.
Thursday, the Panthers won the Detroit 4-1 Red Wings, go back to a point of Tampa Bay and four points behind Toronto’s first place.
It was the second consecutive match when Florida left the ice as if it had won a victory and really collected the two points.
Now the test will be to see if they can continue to spend the last games of the regular season and take momentum in the playoffs.
We know how it worked for them last year.
Let’s move on to Thursday:
Merchant finds the net
It took eight games, but Brad Marchand scored his first goal as a member of the Panthers.
It had been used on several different lines while acclimating the Florida systems, now skating with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.
They have now set up a solid expanse of hockey and find the back of the net.
We have seen several players flourish on the Lundell-Luostarinen line (Sam Reinhart comes to my mind), so it is not very surprising to see Marchand hitting his stride with the funny Finns.
“It was good to get out of the last match because the line scored and you think there is something there,” said Panthers head coach Paul Maurice. “You also like that players also believe in it, and they have had a bunch of chances and a very good area of zone, but guys who produce big points must set up figures to feel good, so that they feel as if they contribute, so I like this belief in the line, and I like the way they played.”
Cut the wings
Florida knew they were going to face a desperate team from the Red Wings.
Detroit entered Thursday’s match without margin of error.
At this point, they must essentially win each of their remaining games and hope for a lot of help to make the playoffs.
Despite the permission of the wings first, Florida checked a large part of the game and never had the impression of continuing the match.
It certainly seems that cats stop in the form of eliminatory series.
“They had a certain area of zone – a long change in the second period, Sergei (Bobrovsky) made a lot of backups – but there was not the danger of the race, and this is where this team is difficult,” said Maurice. “(We were) smart enough to stay outside the penalty box, because their power game is elite., I like the murder and a half that we had.”
The progression of a recruit
Mackie Samoskevich scored her 15th goal of the season Thursday while skating on the Florida’s upper line with Sasha Barkov and Sam Reinhart.
The recruit has seen its game grow up by step as a giant since the start of the season, much more than on the match sheet.
Despite being one of the smallest guys on the ice, listed at 5 feet 11 inch and 180 pounds, Samoskevich showed a propensity to throw his body and use his speed to improve his physical prowess.
Based on the skills and progress he has shown this year, it seems that heaven is the limit for the young sniper.
“He is very unusual for a young man to cover the distance he has traveled because he was always physical in the game and hard where he had to be,” said Maurice. He has played now with each line and in each section, so good for him and his credit, because you do not see young guys coming and learning difficult things and being willing to do hard things as quickly as he did. “”
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