Goals were difficult to come by on Thursday night at Amerant Bank Arena as the Florida Panthers locked horns with the New Jersey Devils.
The first period goal scored by Sam Reinhart would stand as the game-winner thanks to a 31-save shutout by Sergei Bobrovsky as the Panthers skated to a 1-0 victory.
Florida has now won four of their past five games and despite continuing to lose players to injury – Eetu Luostarinen and Cole Schwindt went down this week – they continue to make progress and build momentum.
Picking up a hard-earned win against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference certainly helps the confidence, too.
Let’s get to Thursday’s takeaways.
BOB STANDS TALL
Panthers starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky had one heck of a bounce-back game against New Jersey.
In his last outing, Monday’s 8-5 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, Bob faced only 15 shots on goal despite allowing a handful in, but fortunately for the Cats, they dropped an eight-spot and still picked up the win.
Bobrovsky responded by stopping all 31 shots the Devils sent his way, including nine of the high-danger variety.
He’s now tied for the league lead in shutouts and tied for second in wins.
“I kind of feel that's been a bit of a story of the career, and certainly for number one goaltenders…if you didn't like one of Sergei’s games, pretty sure you're going to like the next one, right?” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “He was right on tonight, and clean with everything they did. There's a lot of danger, once you watch that game on video, you'll be really impressed with the little deflections, they have wonderful hands on that team, and he made some great saves.”
A DEVINE DEBUT
Florida prospect Jack Devine did not look like a player making his NHL debut on Thursday.
While he finished the game with only 8:20 of ice time, Devine was noticeable when he was out there.
That’s particularly true during the first two periods when Florida was able to roll its four lines and continue keeping pressure on the Devils.
His ability to jump right into Florida’s lineup and play with confidence will go a long way as he starts to build a case for being considered for a regular NHL spot.
“He was where he was supposed to be, and had a good sense,” said Maurice. “I thought he showed a little confidence, even (though) his first play was a turnover in the neutral zone, which was kind of funny, sort of, but there was a play to be made there, he was trying to make the play, and then he picked the puck up and made nice outlet pass for a chance on his first shift. I thought he had a good balance between, you know, there's a lot of pressure on you. It's not just you want to perform for yourself, there's all these 19 other guys on the bench that played here a while that you want to perform for those guys. I liked their line, I thought their line in the second period gave us that four-line rotation that allowed us to be pretty aggressive.”
PENALTY KILL KEEPS ROLLING
Florida has been playing quite good when down a man over the past several weeks.
Outside of allowing two goals on six opportunities to Vancouver on Monday, the Panthers have not allowed any power play goals since the first period of their game in Los Angeles all the way back on Nov. 6.
That’s a span of 21 penalty kills over seven games in which Florida has allowed just the two goals.
“We've had one off night with it,” Maurice said. “And then probably from the Vegas game on, much like our power play, we've got some pairs that are going together now that have been really good. But again, it's driven by the back end. Those big fellas back there cover a lot of ice.”
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Photo caption: Nov 20, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers right wing Jack Devine (38) moves the puck against the New Jersey Devils during the second period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)