SUNRISE, Fla. — The standings, the oddsmakers and, seemingly, the Florida Panthers all figured the Montreal Canadiens had virtually no chance to win New Year’s Day in Sunrise.
The last-place Canadiens are arguably the worst team in the league and the Panthers, for most of the season, have been the best. With 16 players in COVID-19 protocols, Montreal was as big a betting underdog as the NHL has seen all year. Florida was just two days removed from a nine-goal explosion against the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning and scored in the first 32 seconds Friday, but found itself behind with 25 minutes to go, and needed to scrape and claw just to get to a 5-2 win against the massively short-handed Canadiens.
“It’s a tough game,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “You put up nine the other night and you score right away. ... You hate to say you don’t like that, but a lot of times it’s the kiss of death. You get one early and you think it’s going to be easy, and nothing’s really going. And we kind of got a little sloppy and not on our game.
“It took us a while to get it.”
Star center Aleksander Barkov scored a power-play goal with 4:48 left in the second period to knot the score at 2-2 and winger Frank Vatrano finally let the 13,584 inside FLA Live Arena breathe a collective sigh of relief when he put the Panthers ahead for good with 2:30 left in the period.
The win, as lifeless and often uninspiring as it was, moves Florida (21-7-4) back within one point of the Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division and the Panthers have still played one fewer game than their in-state rival. After losing four of five and three in a row before rising COVID-19 cases forced the season to pause last week, Florida has come back to win three straight since it restarted play Wednesday.
“We’ve gotten comfortable playing without the lead and having that belief in our team that we’re going to come back in any game, regardless of the situation,” forward Sam Bennett said.
Florida’s first game of 2022, Brunete figured, was always going to be odd. It was an afternoon start on a holiday and the Panthers, as much as they insisted they wouldn’t take their opponent lightly, knew what a dire situation Montreal (7-23-4) was in.
Less than six months removed from playing in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, the Canadiens own the worst record in the Eastern Conference, have fired their general manager and were down to just 16 skaters Saturday, and only eight players had any NHL experience.
Florida scored quickly and then not again for a long while. Bennett, who missed the Lightning game Thursday due to an illness, put the Panthers ahead 1-0 with 19:28 left in the first period, but they couldn’t build on it until the game was more than halfway done. Montreal tied the game 1-1 with 2:12 left in the first and Florida only had a 15-14 edge in shots on goal at the end of the opening period. With 10:01 left in the second, Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki put Montreal ahead 2-1 with a 4-on-4 goal.
At the time, the Panthers still had meager 21-16 edge in shots on goal and an even smaller edge in total shot attempts. It was exactly the sort of performance Brunette worried about.
Their sheer numbers advantage eventually was enough for Florida dig out. The Panthers finished with a 48-31 lead in shots on goal — outshooting the Canadiens, 33-17, across the final two periods — plus a 49-23 edge in scoring chances and a 28-12 edge in high-danger chances.
“We did a good job ... of sticking with our game,” forward Sam Reinhart said. “It wasn’t pretty at the start, but we were able to simplify throughout that second period and start to take control of it.”
Bennett scored again just 12 seconds into the third period and left wing Mason Marchment, who missed more than seven weeks with an upper-body injury before returning to the lineup Wednesday, scored with 6:54 left to push the lead to 5-2 and make the score more lopsided than the game.
It was another win and another comeback, and Florida, even after a game it knows shouldn’t have been so close, takes solace knowing it can seemingly always figure out a way to win.
“As a coach, you worry a little bit about some of the beginnings or some sloppiness and every game’s not going to be a Picasso and it’s not going to be great, but I think with this group they find the moments, which good teams do, and they’re able to elevate their games at the right times,” Brunette said. “I wish it wasn’t as often, but it is fun to see, and they’re growing and learning every time they do it.”
