SUNRISE, Fla. — By the time the fifth game of an NHL playoff series rolls around, particularly if that series seems poised to go the distance, it becomes a bit of a grind. There’s an attrition factor that sets in and more often than not, it’s the healthier or the more well-rested team that prevails.
The Florida Panthers and the New York Islanders, tied 2-2 with Game 5 going on Friday evening, have reached that point. And the Panthers seem to be getting healthier with Vincent Trocheck poised to make an imminent return, while the Islanders have sustained another key injury, this one to defenceman Ryan Pulock.
“I’m not saying he’s playing tonight, but he’s going to be a game-time decision,” Gallant said of Trocheck on Friday. “He’s skating real well, he’s feeling good, so we’ll make that decision tonight.”
Trocheck, 22, is a talented two-way centre who broke out for the Panthers this season. He recorded 53 points in 76 games before sustaining a fractured fibula in late March. That he’s nearing a return is impressive – Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Anton Stralman sustained the same injury a week earlier, and hasn’t returned yet – and it should give the Panthers a massive boost, even if their young pivot isn’t close to 100 per cent.
“Trocheck was, if not our best forward before he got hurt, then he played great hockey,” Gallant said on Wednesday.
“I don’t think anybody knew what a good player he was before this season,” added Panthers forward Jussi Jokinen. “He’s been really consistent, he’s getting much better in terms of his defensive game and he had 25 goals. He’s been really good, he can make plays, and probably his biggest thing is how well he skates and how hard he competes.”
If Trocheck is able to return on Friday, he’ll play on a line with Jiri Hudler and Teddy Purcell. It’s a line that has struggled enormously through four games, to the point where you might reasonably describe them as a liability.
Gallant put it more politely when asked what Trocheck can bring to Florida’s tertiary forward group on Friday.
“They haven’t generated as much as the top two lines,” Gallant said, “but they’ve been okay for us.”
In this case, actions speak louder than words. Gallant was worried enough about his third line that he took the unusual step of effective recreating a third-line centre in the aggregate in Game 4. The head coach cycled Jokinen, Aleksander Barkov and Nick Bjugstad through the third line for much of the game, double shifting his most important two-way forwards. Towards the end of the game, as the Islanders protected a one-goal lead, Derek MacKenzie took a key draw with that line.
“Yeah I haven’t seen that happen too often before too,” Jokinen said of Gallant’s approach to creating a third-line centre out of other parts, as if he were a young Dr. Frankenstein.
Jokinen insisted that he didn’t change his game because he was playing more than 20 minutes, a sentiment that was echoed by Barkov after Game 4. He indicated that the two games off between Game 3 and Game 4 helped.
“I think everyone is feeling good,” Jokinen said. “So if we decide to (double shift guys) that’s good.”
It seems likely that if Trocheck isn’t ready to come back, that’s precisely what Gallant will do.
“If Trocheck goes in that spot that’s great, he’s a skilled player who can play with skilled guys and if not then we can move guys in and out of that spot for sure,” Gallant said.
However the Panthers opt to do it, they need more from their bottom-six forward group. The top end of the Panthers roster has been throwing fireballs throughout this series and to this point, the Islanders have had no answer.
Through four games, the Panthers are controlling 58.3 per cent of shot attempts, are outshooting the Islanders by an average of six shots per contest and have outscored the Islanders 7-3 with one of Bjugstad or Barkov on the ice at 5-on-5. That margin could be even more dramatic were it not for two goals that were disallowed on video review.
Florida’s bottom-six forward group, however, has been giving some of that margin back. When Florida’s third or fourth lines are on the ice at 5-on-5, New York is outshooting, outscoring and out-attempting Florida. You combine the struggles of Florida’s bottom-six with their issues killing penalties and the fact that they’re facing a hot goaltender and you have a recipe for a club that could be sabotaged over a small sample of games even if they’re controlling play.
Even if Trocheck isn’t at top form – and considering the nature of his injury, it’s impossible to imagine that he would be – he doesn’t have the highest bar to hop over to be a positive contributor. Even at 60 per cent, he should be able to help Florida significantly. Even at 10 per cent, his presence will at least help keep players like Barkov, Jokinen and Bjugstad fresh.
“On the other side there might some guys who are tired,” Jagr said of the difficulty Trocheck will face if he does return. “So he might look good!”
As for the Islanders, the potency of their power play has been a key factor in allowing them to weather Florida’s even-strength dominance. And moving Pulock over to the left side point and bumping him onto the first unit seemed to be key in galvanizing their effectiveness with the man advantage. Even when Pulock wasn’t directly creating, the threat of his heavy point shot created a ton of space for the Islanders to operate down low.
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“It’s tough to lose another guy,” Capuano said of losing Pulock. “I thought (Pulock) was really playing well for us as a young guy. He’s really coming into his own and helped us on the power play as well.”
Anything can happen in the playoffs, of course. There are a lot of variables over the course of a short series and this one is now a best-of-three. When it coms to teams this evenly matched, every marginal edge becomes higher leverage.
Ahead of Game 5, that would seem to favour the Panthers.
