Maple Leafs 2021-22 Opponent preview: Florida Panthers
Welcome back to my Toronto Maple Leafs opponent preview series. In this series, I’m going to preview each team in the Atlantic Division and break down how they’re hosting Maple Leafs. The purpose of this series is to refresh people about how Atlantic Division teams will be built for the 2021-22 season, especially given that the Maple Leafs have not played most of these teams since 2019-20.
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Last time I broke a Maple Leafs match against Detroit Red Wings. You will find that song here. This time, I’m looking at how the Maple Leafs will face the Florida Panthers in 2021-22.
Florida Panthers
2020-21 record: 37-14-5 (79 points, Tampa Bay Lightning first round)
Significant additions: Sam Reinhart, Joe Thornton
Significant reductions: Starring Alexander Wennberg, Lucas Wallmark, Nikita Gusev, Anton Stralman, Keith Yandle, Chris Driedger
Draft for 2021: Actors Matthew Samoskevich, Evan Nause, Vladislav Lukashevich, Kirill Gerasimyuk, Jakub Kos, Braden Hache
Series for the 2019-20 season: 1-2-0 (won 16-12)
In a division where the top three places have been dominated by Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins in recent years, the Panthers are not wasting time showing their Atlantic Division colleagues that they mean business.
After starting noise in 2019-20, they established themselves as one of the best teams in the one-time Central Division last year and finished second only to Carolina Hurricanes.
The Panthers attack sees one big increase
The Panthers had a relatively quiet mid-season on all fronts this year. However, one movement stood out from the others. On the second day of the NHL, they received the second all-time player of the year 2014 from Buffalo Sabers in exchange for Sam Reinhart’s selection for the first round in 2022 and a goalkeeper opportunity from Devon Levi. While Reinhart can play in any striker position, his playing in the middle behind Alexander Barkov would get them in the middle of a polluting one or two strokes.
Once Reinhart is added, the Panthers will have plenty of weapons to search for the crime. In addition to the dynamic duo of Reinhart and Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, they have Carter Verhaeghe, who had a huge break of 2020-21 and 36 points in 43 matches. They also have names like veteran Joe Thornton, who joined the one-year contract, together with Patric Hornqvist and Sam Bennett. This team has a healthy mix of young talent and veterans who are capable of offending, and it should be a strong suit for them.
How do Maple Leafs fit together?
This is closer to some of the other previews I’ve done in recent years, but I’m still going to give an advantage to the Maple Leafs attack on this issue. In reality, four core players from Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander will make Maple Leafs a better attack than most league teams this year. I will say, however, that I think it is safe to bet that when these two teams play each other, there is guaranteed to be fireworks in every game.
Panthers Defense loses tracks but remains stable
As I mentioned earlier, the Panthers had a quiet offseason, so they didn’t add new faces to the back. But after Aaron Ekblad broke his leg and left half of the season, he might as well be their big addition to the defense this year. They also lost veterans Anton Stralman and Keith Yandle, so their defense looks different this year.
However, I think the Panthers still have a strong defensive core. Between Ekblad and Mackenzie Weegar, they have defenders who are able to take part in the attack. And as names like Radko Gudas, Brandon Montour and Gustav Forsling round off the back, their defense is one of their strengths this season.
How do Maple Leafs fit together?
Between the two teams, I like the Panthers defense more. Although Maple Leafs has done a good job talking about their defense problems over the last two years, the Panthers have a really great mix of players who are able to both increase attack and shut down an opponent. This may change depending on how big a role Maple Leafs beginners Rasmus Sand and Timothy Liljegren get this season, but for now, I’ll take the back of the Panthers.
The Panthers goalkeeper has potential
The Panthers goalkeeper situation will be fun to pay attention to this season. Because Seattle Kraken chose Chris Driedger in the expansion draft, the Panthers rely on novice Spencer Knight and veteran Sergei Bobrovsky.
How the Panthers goalkeeper develops this season depends entirely on whether Knight’s NHL performance last season was just flashes in the panor if he is willing to do so throughout the season.
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It’s painfully obvious that Bobrovsky hasn’t fulfilled his contract monster so far, but if Knight continues to succeed from last season, he’ll make the Panthers much harder to play.
How do Maple Leafs fit together?
This is a really tough thing. At the moment, I give Maple Leafs an interest only because of the uncertainty of the Panthers wrinkle. Admittedly, there’s still a bit of uncertainty in the Maple Leafs wrinkle, but at least we’ve been able to see what Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek are capable of as NHL goalkeepers. If Knight proves that last year was no coincidence and he’s actually ready to play as the NHL’s best goalkeeper, that answer could change quickly.
Head coaching match: Sheldon Keefe v Joel Quenneville
In this scenario, Florida has a better head coach, and it’s certainly not a conversation. Of course, nothing against Keefe, but when you go against head coach who has Joel Quenneville’s pedigree, it’s hard to get to the top.
I think Keefe is on his way to big things, but he doesn’t have an 82-match season as head coach yet under his belt. Meanwhile, there are 22 and three Stanley Cups in Quenneville. In this case, the experience takes the cake.
Panthers Prospect Corner
Anton Lundell
Lundell made an impression at almost every level last season, and if I’m in Quenneville, it’s very hard for me to leave him off the list to start the season. The 20-year-old first-round pick in 2020 had 25 points in 26 games in the SM-League HIFK last season and also had ten points in six games in Team Finland at World Juniors.
Barkov and Reinhart are probably the top two centers, so Lundell has a great opportunity to move into a third-line center role and develop in sheltered minutes. If it goes well, he should see the top six minutes sooner rather than later.
Aleksi Heponiemi
Heponiemi played the club’s fourth round in 2017, and he played most of last season, quoting the Swedish Allsvenskan League as MODO, where he scored 14 points from 16 matches. He also scored six points in six games at the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey Association (AHL) and got his first taste of NHL action, where he had two points in nine matches.
Heponiemi was recently sent to the AHL, but I would imagine he is one of the first calling options, and when he does, he gives an offensive mood to the sixth lowest. If he doesn’t, I think he’s a go-to call-up player for them all season.
Grigori Denisenko
Grigory Denisenko immersed himself in the North American hockey regions for the first time last season and scored four assists in seven NHL matches and nine points in 15 AHL matches.
Elected 15th in the Panthers in 2018, the 20-year-old Russian could very well join beginners Lundell and Heponiemi to give Panthers fans a taste of the years to come.
Schedule
March 27, 2022 against Florida
April 5, 2022 @ Florida
April 23, 2022 @ Florida
Forecast for 2021-22: Third in the Atlantic
The Atlantic division will return after it has been out of service since the initial transfer of the 2019-20 season, so I believe this is the year that the Panthers will be one of the best teams in the division.
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While Reinhart’s addition and a possible strong start-up period between the Knights ’pipes make Reinhart’s loss more than they won this season, they will become one of the toughest teams this season.
Alex Hobson is a third-year radio student at Niagara College. He has been writing about sports since 2005 and has been with The Hockey Writers since October 2020 Toronto Maple Leafs, Juniors of the world, and NHL draft, and it is also a part Maple Leafs Lounge podcast, by THW. For interview requests or other questions, you can follow Alex’s social media pages listed at the bottom of his articles like this.