Penalty kill has become sturdy after a dismal start

SUNRISE — Quietly, the Florida Panthers penalty kill as been undergoing a renaissance across the last month, transforming itself from one of the worst units in the league to the NHL’s most stingy since Nov. 22.

Through the season’s first 20 games, the Panthers killed only 72.1 percent of penalties, a number that would have qualified as the worst in franchise history. In the first seven weeks of the season, Florida jostled with Edmonton for the league’s worst penalty kill.

But since a game against Toronto on Nov. 22, the Panthers have killed 37 of 40 penalties. The 93 percent rate is the best in the NHL since then. Overall, Florida’s penalty kill still ranks a middling 19th at 80.2 percent, though it’s a long way from being the worst in the league.

As the Panthers have allowed three power-play goals, they’ve scored two shorthanded goals of their own. On the season, Florida leads the league in shorthanded goals.

So what’s behind the recent surge? There’s a multitude of factors, from goaltender James Reimer’s play to actually having healthy penalty killers to simply having more confidence, as center Colton Sceviour said.

“When you’re struggling, you kind of go out there and just try to survive almost,” Sceviour said. “You’re like ‘Hopefully, we don’t get scored on.’ I think now, there’s a little bit of confidence in our group where we’re like ‘All right, we got this. We’re going to kill it.’ ”

The penalty kill’s emergence is the latest in a series of maddening trends with the Panthers this season. When the offense was pouring in goals, the defense was leaky. When the defense stiffened and the goalies shined, the goals dried up. When the 5-on-5 play was decent, the special teams struggled.

It’s not a matter of facing poor power play teams in the last 14 games. Florida has played five of the league’s top nine power play units in Winnipeg (third), Toronto (sixth), Detroit (seventh), the Islanders (eighth) and the Rangers (ninth).

The only teams to dent Florida’s penalty kill were Carolina (29th) and Winnipeg, though the Jets went just 1-for-7 with the manadvantage on Dec. 7. Every other team went scoreless.

If the Panthers stayed out of the penalty box during this stretch, they could be seen as beneficiaries of a small sample size. But they

haven’t. They’ve been shorthanded 43 times in the last month (11th most in the NHL) and have played 74:09 shorthanded (10th most in the NHL).

“Our clears are better,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “Our faceoffs have been good. We’re blocking more shots. There’s more urgency. I think guys got a little frustrated, disappointed where we were and wanted to do something about it. We wanted to get back to respectability and we’re starting to do that.”

Another factor has been the reliability of Florida’s penalty-killing forwards. Boughner has found his group of penalty killers in Sceviour, Derek MacKenzie, Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck and Jared McCann.

Florida is no longer relying on Connor Brickley’s services (51 seconds total on the PK this month) nor Chase Balisy’s (sent down to AHL affiliate Springfield). It doesn’t have to anymore.

In the early part of the season, Sceviour, McCann and MacKenzie battled injuries. They missed a combined 22 games, often at different junctures. Through the first 20 games of the season, Barkov, Trocheck, Sceviour, MacKenzie and McCann played in the same game just seven times.

In the last 14 games, all five have played in 12 games together.

The forwards are responsible for applying pressure on opposing power plays, especially in the system Boughner and associate coach Jack Capuano have installed in Sunrise. Boughner said the coaches have tweaked the rotation up top to minimize shot attempts from the circles, and the forwards have ramped up their forecheck to make it more difficult to enter the zone with speed.

“I think we’ve been a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more committed to blocking shots, jumping up to check a little bit quicker,” Trocheck said. “That’s been helping put a little bit more pressure on the power play, but definitely getting a little bit more chances for ourselves on the PK. I think we’re being a little bit more aggressive down ice and I think that leads to more turnovers, more chances.”

Added Sceviour: “Early in the year, they were coming through us pretty easily and skating right into the zone and setting up. I think we’ve been having a little more success lately with pressuring them off that initial break in and not letting them set up, which makes killing the penalty a whole lot easier.”