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Florida Panthers Power Play Has Been On Fire After Starting Season Ice Cold
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- Florida Panthers Power Play Has Been On Fire After Starting Season Ice Cold
The Florida Panthers have been red-hot on the power play over the past several weeks.
Their recent success while up a man has been in stark contrast over how they started the season while on the man advantage.
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Out of the gate, Florida was colder than cold when up a man.
They went 0-for-11 over their first two games against the Carolina Hurricanes and San Jose Sharks.
After five games, Florida was just 1-for-28 on the power play.
That's…bad.
But things quickly started to change in game number six.
While Florida lost that game to the Buffalo Sabres, they went 2-for-4 on the power play, with both scores coming off the stick of Sam Reinhart.
The following night the Panthers were in Columbus to face the Blue Jackets, and that's when the flood gates were swung open.
Florida scored not one, not two, but four power play goals on six opportunities en route to a dominant 7-3 victory in Ohio.
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Results were finally starting to come for the Cats, who were putting in tireless work both on and off the ice to get the power play to click.
"I think (assistant coach) Jamie Kompon and his power play group have done a great job, really changing the foundation of what they try to do," said Panthers head coach Paul Maurice. "You spend two and a half weeks working on your power play with (Sasha) Barkov and (Brad) Marchand on it, and they both disappear within the first three games. It took us three or four games to recover from that, but they found their rhythm."
Indeed they have.
Fast forward a couple weeks and we arrive on Saturday night, when the Panthers added another two power play goals while skating to a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets.
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That means since starting the season 1-for-28 on the man advantage, Florida has gone an eye-popping 15-for-38 since.
So what changed?
"Just puck movement," said Panthers defenseman Seth Jones. "Quick puck movement and putting the penalty kill in positions to make decisions. I think we're scoring in many different ways: low plays, high plays into Reino. I think we're dangerous in a lot of different ways, but just moving it quick, being solid on the breakouts is key."
To his credit, Jones has been instrumental to Florida's power play success.
He's already having a ridiculous start to the season, with 18 points through his first 14 games, which ranks him third in scoring among all NHL defensemen.
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Eleven of those 18 points have come while the Panthers have been up a man, which ties him for the team lead with Matthew Tkachuk in terms of power play points.
"Seth Jones has been a huge driver, and we needed him to," Maurice said. "He's got lots of confidence up top. He's offensively as strong as there is in the league from the blue line."
Florida's power play is now up to eleventh in the league, operating at a 24.2% success rate.
They'll have a good chance at continuing that success over the remainder of their homestand, when they face the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks at Amerant Bank Arena over the next several days.
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Both teams have penalty killing units in the bottom half of the league, but Detroit's is especially poor, coming in at fourth-worst in the NHL.
Based off how things have gone over the past few weeks, the Panthers will be looking to strike early and often when given an opportunity to be up a man.
"I think we're just really looking to attack right away," said Panthers forward Lars Eller. "We have different weapons to score. We have players that can find different ways to break down the opposition, and they've been doing exactly that."
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Photo caption: Oct 17, 2026; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19), left wing Brady Tkachuk (8), center Sam Reinhart (13), and defensemanSethJones(3) celebrate goal during the third period against the Seattle Kraken at Amerant Bank Arena. (Isabella Frias-Imagn Images)
