Charlotte turned in an impressive performance in Friday’s meeting, notching four straight goals to cap off a lopsided 5-1 victory over the North Division foes.
“The first game, I liked the compete and how we skated,” said head coach Geordie Kinnear. “It was the first time that we’ve seen a real attacking offense, so I thought that was outstanding. There was a window in the second period that I thought we stalled a little bit, but the other team is going to have answers. First night was good.”
The rematch 24 hours later took a different turn.
“We wanted to continue to build on that the next night,” said Kinnear. “But I did not like the second night.”
The Marlies came out firing and built a towering 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission. The Checkers would chip away at that deficit from there - pulling within one goal on two different occasions and outshooting Toronto 18-3 in the third period to drastically tilt the ice in their favor - but couldn’t quite catch up before time expired.
“The third period is what it is, but we lost the game early on,” said Kinnear. “I didn’t feel that - for whatever reason - the compete level was where it needed to be. We weren’t playing fast, weren’t winning puck battles, all that stuff. I thought Toronto came out with a lot of purpose and intent. Their skill guys owned us in the first period. We got going a little bit in the second and the third, but it was too little too late.”
That end to the weekend - which snapped the team’s six-game point streak - certainly left a sour taste in the Checkers’ mouth and set up the focus of this week of practice.
“We want to make sure we’re coaching that part of the game,” said Kinnear. “Not just focusing on the parts you won, because you ended up losing a hockey game. We’re going to move the needle in that department.”
INJURY UPDATES
Charlotte’s lineup took a blow early on in Saturday’s game when MacKenzie Entwistle took a hit and went awkwardly into the boards - after which he exited the game and did not return.“The Twisty hit early on, maybe that took the wind out of our sails a little bit,” said Kinnear. “Especially what he went through last year. I think the guys felt bad for him and it took us a little while to get going.”
Dealing with an early injury last season, Entwistle appeared in seven games during the 2024-25 campaign before suffering an injury on Dec. 7 that forced him out for the remainder of the regular season - he would ultimately return during the Eastern Conference Finals nearly six months later.
The extent of this injury has yet to be determined.
“He’s getting checked out,” said Kinnear after Monday’s practice. “He didn’t feel good yesterday, a little better today. Obviously when you come off an injury like he did last year, we want to make sure that we cross the T’s and dot the I’s, so he’s getting looked at and we’ll have a further update later.”
Kinnear offered one other injury update - this one on Tyler Motte, who has been out since Oct. 25 and has not returned to the ice.
“He’s working through a few things at his end to just give him as much time as he needs,” said Kinnear.
WELCOME TO CHARLOTTE
Charlotte’s crease got a new addition in Louis Domingue. The veteran of over 400 pro games inked a one-year deal with the Checkers and officially joined the team at practice last week.“Louis came over from Russia,” said Kinnear of Domingue, who started this season with Sibir Novosibirsk of the KHL. “So it’s taken him a little time to get back to feeling good - a goalie needs to feel good to play good. He had a good week this week and I’m excited to watch him play this weekend.”
The move injects some experience into a Charlotte goaltending corps that was leaning heavily on second-year pro Cooper Black and Kirill Gerasimyuk early on this season - especially after Carolina’s waiver claim of Brandon Bussi threw a wrench into the organization’s original plans.
“Depth to that position,” said Kinnear of the thought process behind the move. “We’ve been counting on a couple young kids to carry the load. Blacky has done a phenomenal job, Kirill is here for the first time and has really worked hard over the last little while.”
The Checkers are now back into a three-man unit between the pipes - the same set up they have used over the past several seasons. The 33-year-old Domingue steps into the role that Chris Driedger and Kaapo Kahkonen held last season, and he’ll work closely with Black and Gerasimyuk as the trio pushes each other’s games.
“We had three goalies last year, so we have a system in place,” said Kinnear. “Roberto [Luongo, Florida’s Special Advisor to the General Manager], Leo [Luongo, Florida’s Director of Goaltending Development] and Sly [Sylvain Rodrigue, Charlotte’s goalie coach] do a great job communicating with everybody with the plan. A lot of it is about development, but there has to be a merit base to it too. That’s kind of the environment, you want to make sure you earn everything, no one is entitled to anything. They’re well aware.”
FABBRI COMES ABOARD
Domingue isn’t the only new face on the Charlotte roster. Robby Fabbri - a 2014 first-round pick and a 2019 Stanley Cup champion - has signed a professional tryout with the team and arrived in the Queen City Tuesday.The 29-year-old has logged 442 NHL games over his career and matched a career-high with 18 goals two seasons ago with Detroit. Fabbri was in Pittsburgh’s training camp this preseason on an invite but was eventually released and has not yet played this season.
“To fit how the Florida Panthers play and get him up to speed that way,” said Kinnear of the team’s approach with Fabbri, whose last AHL stint was three games with San Antonio in 2018-19. “Extremely excited to get a player of that caliber into our group to help move the needle. Super excited to get to know him and for him to help the group and for us to help him.”
