Forsling said his approach still begins with defending, though.
“I don’t think it’s changed too much to be honest,” he said. “I still try to have a good gap, shut the other opponents down. It’s always fun to contribute a little bit with goals and assists and stuff like that, but mainly I’m still focusing on defense.”
That’s evident by his plus-8 even-strength goal differential, which is third best in the NHL during the playoffs, despite regularly drawing the assignment of playing against opponent’s top lines. Forsling has been on the ice for two goals-against, each at even strength, during the conference final.
Although Forsling leans toward defense first, the Panthers value him as a complete defenseman and signed him to an eight-year contract March 7 to keep him off the unrestricted free agent market this offseason. The 27-year-old led Florida defensemen with 39 points (10 goals, 29 assists) and had a League-leading plus-56 rating in 79 games during the regular season, despite playing limited time on the power play, where he had three points (one goal, two assists).
Last season, Forsling had an NHL career-high 41 points (13 goals, 28 assists) in 82 regular-season games and eight points (two goals, six assists) in 21 playoff games to help Florida reach the Stanley Cup Final, where the Panthers lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.
“He can shoot the puck and he’s got a really good fake up top, so a lot of his goals came off that this year,” Forsling’s defense partner, Aaron Ekblad, said. “Like you saw last game, ‘Chuckie’ rolled off the wall and got him the puck so he’s moving downhill, and he’s got good feet. So it’s him and the goalie and he’s got good instincts to put in the back of the net.”
Forsling has been showing off those offensive instincts to make some important contributions of late. He joined the rush to score on a rebound for the winning goal in Florida’s series-clinching 2-1 victory against the Boston Bruins in Game 6 of the second round.
Then after snuffing out a scoring threat from Artemi Panarin in the defensive zone in Game 1 against the Rangers, Forsling joined the rush again to carry the puck into the offensive zone before dishing to Tkachuk for the winning goal. On his tying goal in Game 3, Forsling took a pass across from Tkachuk, skated into the left circle and beat goalie Igor Shesterkin over his glove.
“He came out pretty far,” Forsling said of Shesterkin. “I just saw an opening, to be honest, and tried to get it over his shoulder and glove there. So that’s what I tried to do. He usually attacks pretty well, so I tried to get it by him.”
