Paul Maurice was in a much better mood Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Florida Panthers coach admitted the previous day that he was \u201cgrumpy\u201d after Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, despite a dominant victory over the Edmonton Oilers that gave his team a 2-0 series lead.<\/p>\n
That was mostly because of the unknown status of Aleksander Barkov, Florida’s captain who was knocked out of the game midway through the third period after Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl hit him in the head.<\/p>\n
Barkov, who is tied with Matthew Tkachuk with a team-leading 19 points in the postseason, practiced with the team Wednesday morning ahead of Florida’s trip to Edmonton for Game 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the drive of my mood, right?” Maurice said. “You go through that fear. \u2026 Nobody wants to lose their captain. And you don\u2019t know if you have or not for a block of time, and then you find out there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re not going to (lose him), and you\u2019re in a much better mood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maurice said the team will make a final decision about Barkov’s Game 3 status before Thursday night’s game, but the star \u201cfelt better.”<\/p>\n
Barkov, who won the Selke Trophy as the league\u2019s top defensive forward, is a big reason for Florida’s lockdown defense, winning 57.3% of his faceoffs in the regular season and 53.4% in the postseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s a huge part of our team and a huge piece of our game,\u201d said veteran Kyle Okposo.<\/p>\n
Barkov had a pair of assists in the final opener but hasn’t scored a goal yet in the series. Neither has Tkachuk, Florida’s top-scoring forward who has five goals and 14 assists in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tkachuk being without a point hasn’t been a problem for the Panthers, whose depth has emerged as one of their biggest assets. Center Evan Rodrigues leads the series with three goals; young center Anton Lundell is emerging as a formidable two-way player and Niko Mikkola had the tying goal in Game 2 as the Panthers rallied.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody gets here on their stars,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cThey drive the bus \u2014 we would all agree with that. They\u2019re the key pieces. But I don\u2019t think any team gets to this point without the 20 guys you\u2019re dressing. At some point, they have to be the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mikkola, the 6-foot-5 defenseman who signed with the Panthers around the same time Rodrigues did last July, scored his second career playoff goal when he blasted a drop pass from Lundell past goalie Stuart Skinner moments after he nearly scored an own goal on the other end.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old Rodrigues, who had played in just 16 postseason games before this season, scored twice in Florida’s comeback victory, including the winning goal early in the third period.<\/p>\n
Rodrigues has 11 points (six goals, five assists) so far in the playoffs. He’s played up and down the Panthers\u2019 lineup all year and moved up to the top line with Barkov and Sam Reinhart in Game 2, helping spark a three-goal onslaught in the third.<\/p>\n
He has more points than Edmonton’s Connor McDavid \u2014 the leading scorer in the postseason with 32 points \u2014 and the Oilers’ other two stars, Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, combined.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to contribute to a win,\u201d Rodrigues said, “and that\u2019s what we\u2019re here to do. It could be any player on any given day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okposo said he believes those contributions are a product of the way the Panthers play with a stifling defense that sets them up offensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t really matter which line is getting those opportunities,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of the nature of our game and what we do. So when you see a guy like Evan, scoring a couple goals last game, it\u2019s just phenomenal for everybody. Everybody\u2019s extremely happy for anybody else that scores. Obviously this time of year, that\u2019s how it\u2019s going to be.”<\/p>\n
Maurice added that it has been needed in a series like this one, where both teams’ top two lines are so good that they almost \u201ccancel each other out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOver all the minutes you play, your elite players have to be great all the time,\u201d he said. “But there\u2019s going to be a block of time for each player on your roster, and he will be the difference in that block of time for whether you win or lose. And in a couple games in these playoffs, it’s been Evan\u2019s time, and he\u2019s made the most of it.”<\/p>\n
The Oilers, who have just one goal \u2014 a fluky one \u2014 through two games, hope they will be able to fix the power play that has gone 0 for 7 and get things going offensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re doing a great job of making it tough on us,\u201d McDavid said. “But with that being said, the power play has been together for a long time and we\u2019ve been great at what we do. We usually solve penalty kills, and I would expect us to figure this one out, too.\u201d<\/p>\n