No Time for Losers
Coming off a terrible homestand, losing four of five games, the Florida Panthers are taking to the road. Tonight they will suit up in Buffalo and tomorrow it’s in Philadelphia; before a quick swing west takes the Cats to Dallas on Saturday before returning home. A tough schedule by any standard or time of year. In midst of a hectic, battling, playoff race – it’s do or die time. Win a couple and return to South Florida with renewed hope — or start planning the summer vacation.
To be fair the Panthers are very lucky to still be in the playoff chase. After the post-trade deadline run of defeats and goalscoring woes; the Cats are fortunate to only be two points out of the alluring Stanley Cup playoffs. Montreal have gifted us a lifeline by being even worse; losing five games in row, but yesterday they finally got their act together and beat Atlanta 6-3 (while the NY Rangers won yet again).
The misfiring Habs stars – Kovalev, Koivu and Tanguay – were pieced together on the first line and the goals duly started trickling in behind the visiting goaltender Kari Lehtonen. Alex Tanguay got five points on the night and hope was reignited amongst the centennial celebrators.
It seems the funeral eulogies of hockey’s old boy were somewhat premature. With the Canadiens now seemingly back on track, the pressure to perform is mounting on the Cats.
Florida will need to win, probably, a couple of more games than Montreal down the stretch and seeing as both teams have a mere 9 games left to play – it will be easier said than done. In fact, at this point in time, you’d have to be a brave man indeed or a blinded optimist to predict the Panthers making the playoffs this year. Yes, hope is the last to desert the true fan, but it doesn’t look good by any standard right now.
True. The Panthers have played well in their last two games, versus Columbus and Carolina, and their efforts were more deserving of four points than the one received. But the hard truth is that nearly is not good enough, neither is a very good effort or a point of tepid solace from crunch games against fellow playoff hopefuls. There is no time for losers at this time of year, no matter how well they play when losing, this is professional sports and no consolation prizes will be handed out to the teams that don’t make the post-season.
The aim was clearly to make the playoffs this year and evidently nothing else is good enough. Or why is it we kept Bouwmeester when we could have strengthened the franchise for the future? It was to win now! And it’s time to start producing…
The Cats need to keep this in mind when entering the ice in Buffalo tonight. There are no excuses. Just win. And then win again. And again. That’s what will get the playoff circus to South Florida; not mere good efforts, which are commendable, but clearly not good enough in the end. It’s crunch time and we need results, not words of false hope.
If the Cats don’t produce a win tonight I’m afraid the horizon will be quite gloomy. The players need it, the franchise needs it, the fans need it – but the post season seems to be slipping away, further and further …
Let’s cross our fingers for tonight’s game!!