Three takeaways: Panthers bounce back from tough loss, utilize depth on penalty kill

The Florida Panthers wrapped up their five-game homestand with a feel-good victory on Friday night.

Hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins, who entered the game tied for the final Wild Card spot, Florida scratched and clawed their way to two points, though they had to go to a shootout to do it.

Regardless, it’s a win that the team can take with them when they hit the road and head back out west after the weekend.

Let’s get to Friday’s takeaways:

STRONG BOUNCE BACK EFFORT

Playing for a second straight night is never easy, but earning points on those back end games can prove to be far more difficult.

Fortunately for the Panthers, they have grown accustomed to having to dig deep despite being in uncomfortable or unfavorable situations.

That was the case on Friday, facing a Penguins team desperate to climb higher in the playoff race that currently finds them on the outside looking in.

When all was said and done, it just felt like a game that Florida was refusing to let slip away.

“I kind of felt that tonight,” Maurice said. “We’ve got some guys that were fighting through some things to play in the game tonight, and things haven't been easy for us, but their mood was right. They were cheering for each other, they were pulling for each other. The bench felt good tonight, they played hard, we made some mistakes, and when we did, Spencer was great, so he's part of that.”

A PLAYOFF-TYPE WIN

This game definitely had a gritty, grimy feel to it that is generally seen in playoff games.

There were chances both ways to go with plenty of hitting and physicality, and both goaltenders played excellent.

Were there things that both teams will not be pleased with when they review the game footage? Sure.

But ultimately, considering the situation, these are two points that Florida will gladly place in the bank and call it a day.

“I'm actually really happy with that win,” Maurice said. “I'm happy because it wasn't easy for us, and it was a grinder. You play these teams, now they're sitting in the nine hole, a point out of the playoffs, and that's a proud team, and they've won Stanley Cups. So they're coming in and they're rested, they're watching us play last night. To pull out a win in a shootout, I'm taking it. I’m not apologizing for it, and I'm happy with the way it happened.”

DEPTH ON THE PK

Maurice joked that the Panthers were trying to bleed the Penguins to death on Friday due to the 10 minutes’ worth of high-sticking penalties Florida was called for.

In total, the Cats allowed Pittsburgh seven power plays. That is never ideal.

With Florida also playing on the second night of a back-to-back, Maurice needed to monitor the minutes of his top forwards.

That meant trying to limit Sasha Barkov and Sam Reinhart’s penalty kill time, which gave an opportunity to Florida’s third PK forward pair to earn some valuable time.

Tomas Nosek and Jesper Boqvist did not disappoint and received some strong praise from their head coach.

“They’re really good at it, and it’s good that they get the time,” Maurice said. “I think Lundell and Luostarinen can run bigger minutes there because they don’t take the minutes on the power play, but we just can’t run Barky and Reino in a game on back-to-back nights. So those other guys have got to step up and get it done, and they were great. They have to play, they have to take more and they did a good job with it.”

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