Retour
Whatever Paul Maurice has been saying to the Florida Panthers following their mini-slump, it appears to have worked.
Florida jumped out early, with three goals in the first half of the first period, and never looked back against the Winnipeg Jets, winning 5-1 to even their road trip at 2-2. They're now 7-4-2 on the season, creeping back up the standings.
Every goal in the game came from the same line. You probably don't need a hint, based on how the Tkachuk brothers have been going of late. But there was more than that, as we will get to in the three takeaways.
Tuesday night was another instance of Florida leaning on its power forwards, at a time when they're without the veteran leadership and goal-scoring of Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand for a few weeks. Every Panther point in this contest came from that one line -- 10 in all. Once again, Matthew was the set-up guy, with four more assists on goals by four different players (Niko Mikkola, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Reinhart and Brady Tkachuk). Matthew became the fastest in Panthers history to accrue 200 assists, doing it in 255 games, 114 fewer than Keith Yandle.
Brady had three points, with two assists of his own.
They continue to pace the power play, which produced three of the goals. And overall, they've combined for 35 points this season in just 13 games.
That midseason trade from a couple of seasons ago continues to pay off -- and it's clear again how much Seth Jones was missed on the backline when he got hurt last season. Jones became the fourth Panthers defenseman in franchise history with 14 or more assists in a single month. He has 14 assists in October of 2026. (Yandle had 15 and 14 in two different months, and Aaron Ekblad and Bryan McCabe once had 14 assist months, but there's still time for Jones this month to pass them). Jones is in very special company with the contributions he's made so far this season. He has been the key element in the power play turning around after a slow start to the season.
It appears as though Akira Schmid truly is finding his rhythm in net as he had another solid game Tuesday night, allowing only one goal on 25 shots, an excellent .960 save percentage. It will be interesting to see how many more games he will get the nod before Jacob Markstrom returns, or if Maurice gives Cooper Black some turns. But any concerns about the Panthers' depth at the goaltending spot seem to be alleviated, and Markstrom now can take his time to fully recover before returning. (Markstrom has an upper body injury from being struck by a puck in practice).
The next game for the Panthers comes Friday, October 30th at 7 PM, where they will find themselves hosting the same Jets after Winnipeg plays in Tampa on Thursday night. Hopefully for the Florida fans, this game will be all treats and a RAT trick.