Panthers drop fourth straight as road trip struggles continue

Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald on Oct 18, 2025

Published in Hockey

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Just about everything went right for the Florida Panthers on their season-opening homestand. Florida swept through those three games on home ice to start a quest for a three-peat that is going to be anything but easy playing without several key contributors.

And then they went on the road.

The Panthers are winless through its first four games on this five-game road trip, with their 3-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon at KeyBank Center perhaps the most humbling of the quartet. Florida has also lost 5-2 at the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, 4-1 to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday and 3-1 to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

But in those first three games, the game was either tied or Florida was within a goal during the third period. The Flyers and Red Wings each scored a pair of empty-net goals to pad their leads late. The Devils scored twice midway through the third to turn a 1-1 tie into a two-goal lead and never looked back.

On Saturday in Buffalo, all of their issues compounded as the Panthers fall to 3-4-0.

So what exactly is going wrong? Here are three of the Panthers’ biggest issues:

The offense isn’t scoring

There was expected to be an adjustment period for the Panthers as they figure out their forward lines without captain and top-line center Aleksander Barkov, star winger Matthew Tkachuk and fourth-line center Tomas Nosek.

But they didn’t fathom this level of offensive troubles.

The Panthers have scored just four goals through these four road games despite putting up 101 shots on goal. Florida has gone just 1 for 19 on the power play, including 0 for 7 on Saturday against Buffalo (2-3-0). The Panthers’ only goal on the man advantage during this road trip came in the third period against Philadelphia.

But the offensive struggles predate the trip. Florida has 15 goals through seven games, but six of those came in the Panthers’ 6-2 rout of the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 11. Only eight of those 15 goals have come with the game at five-on-five.

Coach Paul Maurice is mixing and matching and switching and swapping with his makeshift forward lines to find any combinations that might work.

It’s been a struggle to say the least.

Brad Marchand is the only player who has consistently contributed on the offensive end through two weeks with his team-leading six points (three goals, three assists).

Sam Bennett has one goal.

Sam Reinhart has two goals and three points.

Anton Lundell has two goals, both on the power play.

Carter Verhaeghe had one goal and two points.

Playing from behind

After trailing for just 63 seconds on the season-opening homestand, Florida has held just one lead through four games on this road trip.

That came 1:59 into the first period on Thursday against New Jersey, when Evan Rodrigues picked up a Marchand rebound and buried a snap shot past Devils goaltender Jake Allen.

New Jersey tied that game in 5:48 into the second period and Florida hasn’t led since.

The urgency and desperation this team usually shows when playing from behind instead has been replaced by inconsistent play in their own end.

“We were trailing for 63 seconds in our first three games, so it’s really easy to stay in your structure,” Maurice said pregame Saturday in Buffalo. “Then when you get behind on the road, you have a tendency to open up. ... Getting back to staying and maintaining that structure even when you’re chasing the game, that’s a critical lesson you learn.”

More injuries pile up

As if playing without three key forwards was bad enough, the Panthers are now seeing injuries on the blue line as well.

Third-pair defenseman Dmitry Kulikov had surgery on Wednesday to repair a labral tear in his right shoulder that Maurice said will sideline him for five months.

And on Saturday, second-pair defenseman Niko Mikkola left the game against Buffalo early in the second period with an upper-body injury and did not return.

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