Bennett: Panthers played 'too soft' in blowout loss to Wild

Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett wasn't pleased with his team's effort in its 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.

"Right at the start, I thought we looked pretty good. Then they got a couple and we kind of just got away from our game, got off the forecheck," Bennett said postgame. "We were a little too soft tonight. We need to be a little bit more physical and more engaged in the game. We're just going to regroup after that one."

Bennett scored Florida's lone goal in the contest, but he was also responsible for the only two penalties of the game - one of which led to a Wild power-play goal.

Florida did out-hit Minnesota 55-26 and controlled 57.1% of the shot attempts, per Natural Stat Trick. But Bennett believes his team can be better.

"I think the main thing is just our compete level tonight wasn't there," the 28-year-old said. "That's not normal Florida Panther hockey. That's an easy fix."

Bennett has stepped up early in the season with captain Aleksander Barkov sidelined - he's tied for the team lead with five goals in eight games.

Head coach Paul Maurice, fresh off signing a multi-year extension with the club, took the blame for the team's poor performance.

"It's on me, that's my job," Maurice said. "I really only have one team (to get) ready to play and we weren't ready to play."

The reigning Stanley Cup champions are off a 4-3-1 start on the campaign. The Panthers have been a bit leaky defensively, ranking 25th in goals against per game. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled in Tuesday's contest and now owns an .875 save percentage on the year.