Three takeaways: Florida looks off again, Cats officially in funk

There is no sugar coating this one.

The Florida Panthers looked anything like themselves on Thursday night in Chicago, and the scrappy young Blackhawks took advantage.

Credit to the home team for mucking up the neutral zone and taking away the middle of the ice in their end, basically doing to Florida what the Panthers have done well against so many others.

Chicago’s 3-1 win will be a tough pill for the Panthers to swallow, especially considering it was their fourth loss in five games.

Things don’t get any easier for the Cats. They host Colorado on Saturday night in Sunrise.

Before we get to that, here are Thursday’s takeaways from the Windy City:

UNCHARACTERISTIC PANTHERS PLAY

Paul Maurice’s group was off on Thursday night.

They walked into the barn of the NHL’s worst team and failed to get the upper hand.

Playing on the road is almost preferred for the Panthers, as they’ve proven over the past couple seasons, so that can’t be an excuse.

The team is fully healthy so there’s nothing there, either.

Nope, Florida is just off, and it’s going to be on their head coach to right the ship.

“We turned five pucks over in the neutral zone that were not contested turnovers, and you can’t forecheck turnovers,” Maurice said. “I think that got us into a bit of trouble, and then there was an awful lot of stuff that we left, we were late on a whole bunch of things out there.”

TOUGH NIGHT MOVING THE PUCK

While the Panthers didn’t necessarily play the way they would’ve liked, there were still plenty of chances and opportunities for Florida to earn two points on Thursday.

Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek was brilliant between the pipes, stopping all eight high-danger shots the Panthers sent his way, but considering how hard Florida had to work to get some of those looks, it’s clear they left a lot on the plate.

Once they were in Chicago’s end, Florida was able to do their thing.

Getting the puck from the Panthers end of the ice to Chicago’s proved to be incredibly challenging.

“We had a bunch of extended zone time,” Maurice said. “We’re going to be over five minutes possession in their zone, so I’m not worried about that.”

IT’S BECOME A BAD STRETCH

Florida has now dropped four of their past five games. They’ve lost them by a combined score of 19-7.

For whatever reason, the Panthers are off.

Perhaps this was the concern that some had about Florida’s incredibly challenging road schedule last month that culminated in their trip to Finland for the NHL Global Series.

Either way, the Cats need to figure out how to snap back into shape.

“This is a five-game block, we’ve played one we liked,” Maurice said. “That’s not good enough for us.”

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