from Walter Villa of the Miami Herald,

There were seven times last season when the Florida Panthers lost a game in which they scored four or more goals.

Had they won all seven games, they would’ve had 100 points, qualifying for the playoffs.

Defenseman Anton Stralman, who last year helped the Tampa Bay Lightning tie an NHL record with 62 regular-season wins, is now part of the Panthers, signing as a free agent. Stralman figures that goalie Sergei Bobrovsky — also signed as part of Florida’s much-hyped free agent class of 2019 — will go a long way toward fixing the Panthers’ defensive issues.

“Defense is a team thing,” Stralman said. “It’s how you play as a unit and as a structure. It’s also determination, mentality and attention to detail....

“Coming up with a system — which [Quenneville] will do — and nailing it down takes time, effort and buy-in from everyone.

“We want to be a team that’s great in all three zones. But it has to start from the goalie on out. It can’t start from [offense first].”

The trick, Stralman said, will be focusing on defense while not losing the offensive flow that allowed the Panthers to rank fifth in the Eastern Conference in goals last season.

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