No banner, no victory in Florida Panthers' home-opener loss to Wild
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SUNRISE — Something was missing from the Florida Panthers' home opener.
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Something other than the Panthers' power play, the juice they typically display their first game at home and the obvious in a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.
This year there was no ceremony. No banner raising. No chants of "repeat" or "we want three."
No Stanley Cup.
Just another home opener like every other team that does not spend the summer drinking out of the Stanley Cup.
Not only have the Panthers gotten used to skating off with a victory in their home opener — seven in a row heading into this season — but the last two happened after large white Stanley Cup Champion banners were raised to the rafters at Amerant Bank Arena.
But Saturday there was no banner. And no victory.
"Not the result we wanted," said Matthew Tkachuk, who scored the Panthers' lone goal.
The Panthers (2-1-2) did a good job of one thing … taking the sellout crowd out of the game early. The first of Kirill Kaprizov's three goals — and four points — came before all the seats were occupied.
Less than six minutes later, it was 2-0 Wild.
"It was 2-0 before we could blink," Tkachuk said.
"They came out for blood," Sam Bennett added.
And the Panthers did little to stop the bleeding.
Florida was sluggish. Too many passes landed on the sticks of the guys wearing white and green. The Panthers never got into their game.
"We were just slower than they were, and we were slow in all parts of our game," Florida coach Paul Maurice said. "They were also quick in how they moved the puck, their feet. And getting back on your heels at home early in the opener just sets a tension into your game. I felt that at times."
And then there's the power play. The Panthers were able to overcome, for the most part, their missed chances with a man advantage while recording six of a possible eight points in their first four games, all on the road.
But not in the home opener.
Florida was blanked on five power plays and now is 1-for-28 on the season with a man advantage.
"It's been not great, we know that," Bennett said. "Sometimes things aren't going to go your way. It's really about staying positive. We knew we have to be better."
Florida Panthers didn't raise a banner this year, but they saw one raised
The Panthers may not have raised a banner this year, but they were present for one when the NHL played a cruel joke on the two-time Stanley Cup champions. Florida's season opener was at Carolina, the team that ended Florida's run of back-to-back titles.
And Maurice had the team on the ice that night, not sequestered in the dressing room, to watch the Hurricanes raise their banner and parade the Stanley Cup around their arena for one last time.
And who can forget the look on the Panthers players' faces. When the camera panned to Matthew Tkachuk, you could feel the stare coming through the screen.
The only memory of those championships Saturday were the two banners hanging in the rafters. For the first time since Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, the Panthers played a home game in which they were not reigning Stanley Cup champions.
The Panthers thought a fresh start to a new season would bring better health. So far, not so much.
Florida already has lost two emotional leaders. Captain Aleksander Barkov and fireplug Brad Marchand are dealing with knee injuries that will sideline Barkov for up to two months and Marchand for six weeks.
That's 31 years of experience and 738 goals in knee braces until sometime after Thanksgiving.
The Panthers are not making excuses. "There a lot of really good players on this team," Bennett said. "It means more opportunity. More bigger roles."
Panthers give momentum right back after Matthew Tkachuk goal
The Panthers appeared to make a game of it early in the second period. But it took less than three minutes for the Wild to stretch the lead back to two goals.
Matthew Tkachuk remained the only Tkachuk on the roster in the scoring column. He scored his team-high third goal of the season early in the second period, a rebound of his own shot.
Meanwhile, his brother, Brady, a highly-publicized and celebrated offseason acquisition, still is looking for his first point of the season.
The brothers were paired with Bennett in the third period, the first time Maurice had them on the same line this season other than the power play.
"I was just trying to get a little more speed in some different areas," Maurice said.
The strategy was mostly thwarted by a bunch of penalties, two which came against the Tkachuks, who had another first together as members of the Panthers … first time both were in the penalty box at the same time.
The Wild ended any hope of a miracle comeback when Kaprizov completed his hat trick with an empy netter.
Meanwhile, Maurice continues to move around his pieces trying to find the right combinations.
After Barkov went down, he elevated Marchand to the first line, shifting Sam Reinhart to center. Marchand was replaced by 18-season NHL veteran Lars Eller on his line.
That lasted fewer than two full games with Marchand being helped off the ice in Los Angeles. So Maurice then had Eller centering Brady Tkachuk and Reinhart to start against the Wild and called on 31-year-old Sam Lafferty to make his Panthers debut as the fourth-team center.
Just five games in and already line shuffling and power play concerns.
But, as they say, it's still early.
"We got to have a more sustained offense," Matthew Tkachuk said. "A wave after wave, shift after shift mindset. We just got to stay with it."
Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: No banner, no victory in Florida Panthers' home-opener loss to Wild