Most of the Florida Panthers’ top players weren’t in the lineup on Thursday.
It might have been hard to tell based on the final result.
Even with interim coach Andrew Brunette looking to the future as the playoffs fast approach, the Panthers still posted a 4-0 shutout victory over the Ottawa Senators in their second-to-last game of the regular season.
It was yet another reminder of the depth the Panthers have at their disposal.
Florida’s top line on Thursday of Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett and Anthony Duclair entered the game with a combined 90 goals.
Reinhart opened scoring and gave Florida (58-17-6) a one-goal lead that stood through the first two periods before the Panthers added three more goals in the third period — one by Bennett and two by Carter Verhaeghe.
It all supported Spencer Knight’s second shutout of the season. The 21-year-old goaltender turned aside all 27 shots he faced from the Senators (32-42-7).
Brunette sat most of his top players on Thursday with Florida’s spot as the top seed in the Eastern Conference already locked up and very well could do the same Friday against the Montreal Canadiens to wrap up the regular season. The goal is to make sure the team is as close to full strength as possible when they begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs next week. Florida will face either the Washington Capitals or Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round.
The core group that didn’t dress Thursday: Forwards Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Claude Giroux and Anton Lundell; defensemen MacKenzie Weegar, Gustav Forsling and Radko Gudas; and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Panthers also brought up forwards Cole Schwindt and Aleksi Heponiemi as well as defenseman Matt Kiersted from the Charlotte Checkers, their American Hockey League affiliate, to round out the roster. Schwindt and Heponiemi played on a line with 24-year NHL veteran Joe Thornton, while Kiersted was primarily paired with Robert Hagg.
Even with a good chunk of the Panthers’ core not playing, it took all of six minutes for Florida to take a lead.
Reinhart took a feed in front of the net from Bennett and fired an up-close wrist shot past Ottawa’s Filip Gustavsson to give the Panthers the early 1-0 edge.
That score held for the next 35 minutes until Bennett got control of a rebound of a Duclair shot attempt and flicked the puck into the net 1:11 into the third period. Reinhart got the secondary assist on the play, giving him 17 points over the past 12 games.
Verhaeghe made it a 3-0 lead 21 seconds later after taking a pass from Eetu Luostarinen on an odd-man rush across the slot and buried his own wrist shot for the three-goal lead. He closed scoring with his second goal of the game and 24th of the season with 6:52 left in regulation.
