The Florida Panthers didn’t so much have their4 eight-game point streak snapped, as much as the Vancouver Canucks took it out back to the shed and beat the living daylights out of it.
The Panthers traveled to Vancouver with a 4-0-4 record over their eight games.
The Canucks showed little patience and posted five goals in the first period en route to a 7-2 thrashing of the Panthers.
“I don’t think we were ready to play,” Florida coach Joel Quenneville said. “They were the more desperate team by a wide margin, and right off the bat. Tough to catch up from 3-0 from the drop of the puck.”
That about summed up the night.
The score was 5-1 after the opening 20 minutes and you would be forgiven for having turned to cartoons or something.
Brian Boyle and Mike Hoffman were the Florida lipstick on this pig.
“We went completely from the best game of the season to probably the worst,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “It was 2-0, 3-0 like before we could even start playing and it’s tough to come back in this league.”
J.T. Miller struck for two goals in the win.
Brandon Sutter, Tim Schaller and Jake Virtanen scored early to make it 3-0 in the first.
“Secondary scoring is a big part of winning hockey games,” Miller said. “It’s part of the reason we’re getting so many goals every night. Every line is on the same page right now. We’re trying to buy into this process that we’ve talked about as a team, and the results are showing.”
Brock Boeser and Josh Leivo also scored for the Canucks.
“It’s great to have that all four lines can contribute and play good out there,” Elias Pettersson said. “It keeps everyone excited.”
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Canucks highlights]
Sam Montembeault got the start for the Panthers, but lasted long enough to surrender three goals on just nine shots in the first. He left the game at 6:18 of the first.
“They executed their game plan better than us,” Hoffman said. “They kept it simple and got pucks in deep and a really strong forecheck and just made it tough on us all around and off of that, they created chances and were able to put a few in our net.”
Sergei Bobrovsky, stepped into the shooting gallery and let in two goals over the rest of the first period.
“We had some good stretches, some really good third periods,” Quenneville said. “But the for most part, [we’re] finding a way to get points in tough buildings on the road [against] teams off to decent starts. I thought we were heading in the right direction, and then something like this.”
Montembeault returned after the first intermission and made 25 the rest of the way.
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