Three takeaways: Impact of Aaron Ekblad’s return, a blowout that

The Florida Panthers sure do seem to enjoy playing the San Jose Sharks.

Florida’s 7-2 victory at SAP Center on Saturday night was the Panthers 12th consecutive victory over the Sharks, a streak that goes all the way back to 2019.

Despite the lop-sided score, San Jose actually came out hot and put the Cats on their heels in the game’s early stages.

The veteran Panthers kept their cool and skated to an impressive win, one that allowed them to stay in a reasonably good spot heading into another back-to-back set.

Let’s get to Saturday’s takeaways:

RECOVERED FROM POOR START

Based off how Florida looked during a good portion of the game’s first period, one may have expected a high-scoring shootout to be Saturday’s outcome.

Their forecheck was off and the game had more of a rush feel than the Panthers would ever want, especially against a young team like San Jose.

Fortunately for the Cats, they snapped into form in the latter stages of the opening frame and were able to carry that through to the end of the game.

“We were able to change the game a little bit,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “They came out really strong, really fast, got on them, and they got a lead, and then thought around six minutes left in the first period, we got little more physicality in our game and on our fore check, and that helped us kind of slow them down a little bit.”

IMPACT OF EKBLAD’S RETURN

Top priding defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s return to Florida’s lineup after a seven-game absence brough a ripple effect that impact the team in many ways.

Scoring the game-winning goal and adding an assist was a good place to start.

There is also the distribution of minutes on Florida’s blueline, which get much more regulated with both Ekblad and Gus Forsling able to play their usual workloads.

Add into that how Florida is currently not only playing on the road, but in the middle of another back-to-back set and you’ll start to see how the value of Ekblad’s return touches so many…