Paul Maurice raised a possible attitude problem in the Florida Panthers locker room. Matthew Tkachuk openly criticized the team's play.
Thursday night in Pittsburgh was the low point. The Penguins shut Florida out 4-0 on the second half of a back-to-back.
One night earlier, Ottawa had already handed the Panthers a 5-1 loss. Two straight nights on the road, outscored 9-1.
Tkachuk took aim at his group's performances in public. When the top scorer on the roster says it, nobody in that room gets to brush it off as media noise.
He has 15 points through 11 games. But he's without a goal over his last five, and he went minus-2 in Pittsburgh.
Then Maurice put the word attitude on the table. Is that a coach reading his room, or a coach trying to light a fire under it in October?
The timing is ugly. Pittsburgh sits 25th in the league standings, and Arturs Silovs still turned aside all 26 Florida shots for the shutout.
Barkov, Marchand and Markstrom leave Florida thin into November
Injuries explain some of it. Aleksander Barkov is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and isn't expected back until at least Nov. 27.
Brad Marchand is sidelined until at least Nov. 21 with a leg injury. Jacob Markstrom, out with an upper-body issue, won't return before Nov. 4.
Losing Barkov and Marchand at once is like a kitchen losing its head chef and its best line cook in the same week. The dinner rush shows up anyway.
Cooper Black got the net in Pittsburgh. He stopped 17 of the 20 shots he faced.
Akira Schmid hasn't offered much relief either, with an .867 save percentage over five appearances.
Sam Reinhart fired six shots on Silovs and came away empty. Down the lineup, Anton Lundell has gone minus-6 over his last five games.
Still, Maurice is right to make this about attitude. Injuries don't explain a no-show, and Thursday looked like one from the opening puck drop to the final horn.
Florida sits at 5-4-2 and fifth in its division. The goal differential has slipped to a -3.
The road trip doesn't let up. The Panthers visit Chicago on Sunday afternoon before heading to Winnipeg on Tuesday.
Their road record sits at 3-3-2, and the bench won't get any reinforcements on this swing.
Maurice has said his piece. Tkachuk has said his. Now someone in that room has to answer on the ice, and nobody coming off injured reserve is going to do it for them.
Is Paul Maurice right to blame attitude instead of injuries for Florida's 9-1 collapse?
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