from David Wilson of the Miami Herald,

The Panthers began the final month of the regular season by having some of their flaws exposed, even as they continued to stack wins. In its first four games of the month, Florida needed to pull off comebacks — including a pair from four goals down — and the Panthers won all four despite giving up an average of 4.5 goals per game. After every one, Brunette expressed some level of his concern and his best players agreed, parroting the same sort of message: They won’t be able to keep winning like this once the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs begin.

On Saturday, they finally got the message. For the first time since March, Florida (51-15-6) won without the help of a comeback and did it by putting together one of its most complete defensive performances of the season.

The Panthers held the Nashville Predators to just 25 shots on goal and eight high-danger chances — tied for their third fewest allowed against a team with a winning record — to win 4-1 in Tennessee. It let Florida win even though it only scored two goals before the Predators emptied their net — the Panthers hadn’t scored so few in a win since January — and had its fewest shots on goal since February.

“We were letting a lot of goals in the last week’s games, so, of course, we need to defend even better. We know how to score goals, but we need to make sure we help the goalies,” rookie center Anton Lundell said Saturday. “We can’t allow the other team to get breakaways, 2-on-1s that much, so I think today we did a lot of better work.”

more