And yes, they dominated in a sense, but I attribute that more to Florida being really bad rather than us actually playing good hockey.
Puck luck had nothing to do with this game. Shooting a puck that bounces off 4 bodies and slides across the goal line before being covered up is bad puck luck. Taking 30 something perimeter wrist shots at the chest isn't bad luck, those are just bad shots.
Florida kept our guys to the perimeter on most shots, the question is why? Why did our guys allow them to do that? I said before, we played down to Florida's level and let them dictate the pace of the game. I don't care how bad a team is, but the team that is dictating the pace is usually going to win.
Zone possession means nothing if all it results in is a logo snipe or an un-screened point shot.
Failure to get guys in the slot and make life uncomfortable for Markstrom, logo sniping him and failure to convert on the PP were what lost this game.
Also, about Richards' penalty, while I think him diving was 100% the wrong play and I don't know why he did it, I think it was a weak call. He goes under the guy and swipes, misses and tries to avoid contact, the Panthers' guy knowing this leaned into the fallen Richards and exaggerated his fall. I actually though (especially on the replay from the refs POV) that it was a borderline dive. You see when he starts to go down Richards isn't even touching him anymore. It sucks that we couldn't kill that penalty off because it was a weak call. However, it sucks even more that we couldn't generate anything when Nash drew that penalty late.