Carter Verhaeghe could face supplemental discipline after cross-check on Artem Zub, NHL is reviewing

The game itself was a tight one, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 17 of 19, and Florida cashed two power plays to steal badly needed road points. Evan Rodrigues, Verhaeghe, and Gustav Forsling scored, and the Panthers improved to 23-18-3.

Then came the play everyone is still yelling about, with just over a minute left in the second, Verhaeghe took down Zub with a cross-check from behind, and it was ruled a minor for boarding. People saw «numbers and boards» and jumped straight to major and suspension talk.

Here's the part I'm defending, two minutes does not mean «nothing happened,» it means the officials judged it without an injury trigger and kept it in-game. Zub stayed in, there was a scrum, and the refs had a chance to settle it right there.

And if the larger claim is «Florida never gets called,» Ottawa still went 0-for-5 on the power play while Florida took 12 penalty minutes and killed the rest. The Panthers also went 2-for-4 with the man advantage, so the special teams math cut both ways.

As a Panthers watcher, I'd rather see consistent standards than a «reputation tax» attached to the jersey.

The tricky part is the league is dealing with two Florida flashpoints in the same week, because the Toronto game had its own fury. Reports out of that one say Eetu Luostarinen hit Scott Laughton from behind into the boards, and it somehow drew no penalty, with Leafs voices calling it a missed call.

As of Sunday, NHL.com's Player Safety news feed still hadn't posted anything tying either incident to a hearing or supplemental discipline. That does not rule out action later, but right now it's silence, not a decision.

What Florida does have, fair or not, is a style that irritates teams for 60 minutes, heavy on puck pressure and finishes, and it always makes borderline plays feel louder. Paul Maurice even talked Saturday about winning without «so many big men,» leaning on compete more than weight.

If you want the cleanest takeaway from this night, it's that the Panthers won with structure, and the rookie who debuted did not look scared doing it. Maurice loved Sandis Vilmanis because, in his words, «He didn't play not to make a mistake,» and Monday in Buffalo is the next test for that same edge.

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"Florida Panthers get away with it" talk explodes after Carter Verhaeghe's hit on Ottawa Senators Artem Zub