Roblogg’s Panthers Portal

You have to be impressed by the hard skating, high level of work rate and commitment shown by both teams yesterday, in the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. Florida travelled to this crucial playoff-race game without two of its best and most influential players; Horton and McCabe, and yet continued to battle to the very end – to claim a point of the spoils.

This was playoff hockey as both teams put everything on the line in this riveting contest. Pittsburgh dominated the first and third periods. Sandwiched in-between was an outstanding second three-nothing period by the Panthers. Overall the visitors were badly outshot; 21-to-50, yet they carried a 3-1 lead going in to the third. And at this time it was the Penguins that were lucky to get back in to the game as they got a couple of fortunate bounces to tie the game at 3.

The officials also did the best they could to help the home team by taking 6 iffy penalty calls on the Panthers, while turning a blind eye on all Pittsburgh transgressions but two. I guess that’s what you get when you have rabid fans cheering for the home side – and that famous seventh man in the stands made a big difference on this night. From a Florida perspective we can only hope things even out in the long run, as they always have a tendency to do, and that the crowd in Sunrise will rise to the challenge and lend a helping hand to Cats the when taking on cross-state rivals Tampa Bay on Saturday.

The ref's liked what they saw in Pittsburgh and awarded the home team plenty of iffy man-advantages. Here a Penguin gets a penalty call in the previous game in Sunrise.

The home side started the match in a furious tempo and left the first period with a one-nothing lead (Evgeni Malkin scoring a nice backhanded goal in to the top shelf, from just outside of the crease, 18:31 in to the contest). Perhaps it lulled the Penguins’ stars in to a false sense of security and the Panthers were quick to take advantage in the second period.

Nick Boynton, back in the line-up after five games on the sidelines, shot an uncharacteristically well-placed wristshot-sledgehammer in to Marc-Andre Fleury’s top hand – right corner – to equalize the score. Nick wasn’t satisfied yet however and wanted more. Fed by Cory Stillman behind the net, Boynton loaded another shot from the point. Fleury saved this slapshot, but Kamil Kreps was in front of the goal, digging up the rebound and squeezing it in.

Although it was Brett McLean that was given the task to step in for the injured Nathan Horton, in his first line center position, it was Kreps that stole the show with his aggressive, gritty performance – earning him plenty of ice-time in reward.

Kamil Kreps was on the fly against the Penguins, scoring a goal and putting in an aggressive all-round performance that earned him some extra icetime. Here in the home game a week ago.

Keith Ballard then stepped up at the end of the second period and deflected home a cross-crease shot/pass from Ville Peltonen, to make it 3-1. But, like Boynton said in the interval “the game’s not over yet” and the Penguins came out with a fire in their belly for the third period. Jordan Staal capped an impressive overall performance by volleying home the 2-3 goal; only 2:20 in to the third phase of the contest.

The Pens kept up their unrelenting pressure on an outstanding Tomas Vokoun in the Panther goal and soon got the deserved equalizer; courtesy of Captain Sidney Crosby and a lucky bounce that had the puck deflecting off the post and then hitting Vokoun’s sprawling legs – deflecting back in to the Florida net.

Tomas wasn’t to blame for that goal, but nonetheless redeemed it by making a fantastic highlight-reel save, only moments later; when flinging himself through the air to make an incredible save on an open net chance. It was an arms-outstretched save that would have made any soccer goalie proud. Vokie now locked up his goal, threw away the keys and finished the game with no less than 47 saves to his name.

Tomas saw a lot of action in front of his net in Pittsburgh and was forced to make 47 stops. Here Campbell and Crosby are chasing the puck in front of Vokoun, with Skrastins trailing, in the previous match-up at the B.A.C.

The high amount of shots produced by Pittsburgh in this game (50!), and the previous one against the Panthers at the Bank Atlantic Center, is a direct result of new coach Dan Bylsma and his attack mined hockey-philosophy, as defender Sergei Gonchar described after the game: “We are spending a lot of time in their offensive zone. […] We made a goal for ourselves to shoot the puck as much as we can. We take shots and those shots are creating lots of scoring chances.”

It payed off in the third period as the game was tied at three, and in the ensuing shootout the Penguins proved far superior; scoring on two of three attempts (Letang and Malkin scored, Crosby missed), while the Cats tamely missed both their chances (Zednik and Weiss). Especially with Horton out of the line-up, Florida simply misses the skilled flair-players to be able to compete in a shootout scenario.

Hence, the Panthers should be pleased they came away with a point from a very difficult away game, but yes, one does get greedy and want both – as Florida coach Pete DeBoer admitted after this thriller of a game: "It’s a big point this time of the year, but we had the opportunity to get two and you get greedy this time of the year."

Yet, there is another opportunity waiting just around the corner – from which to take two points…

Next up is a visit to Buffalo for another crucial playoff-race game. Keith Ballard, I think it was, said it well when saying something to the effect of: “Each and every ‘next game’ is the biggest game of the season, this time of year.” So it seems when a mere point can throw a team up or tumbling down in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Sabres lost yesterday 2-5 against the Philadelphia Flyers, who on a different note look set for that 4th spot in the Conference, and the home side will consequently view the match against the Panthers as a must win game. Hence, if we manage to beat Buffalo (in regulation time) they may very well fall out of the playoff race; which not only means two vital points for the Cats, but also one less opponent to worry about down the stretch.

Sure the Sabres could still recover, as there are plenty of games left to be played, but their confidence would surely be severely ruptured by losing on home ice against Florida at this crucial part of the season. Not to mention that they are already three points behind the pack and would thus risk being five points to the rear of a playoff spot.

Nevertheless, Thursday’s game does loom large ahead with additional importance for both clubs. It’s just a shame that local TV, FSN Florida, won’t be showing the game….

The game couldn’t have started any worse for the Panthers, with the news that goalie Tomas Vokoun would be forced to sit out this game with the flu. After his heroics in Sunrise versus the Bruins on Saturday – he would sorely be missed…

Craig Anderson is an able back-up goaltender with some impressive stats this season. Yesterday however, we saw clearly why he’s not considered a No.1 yet. To his defense must be said that a) Craig hadn’t played since the 3rd of the month and only a couple of times overall this year, so he clearly wasn’t up to match speed in the first period especially. And b) any goalie is dependent on his defense – to swoop up rebounds and give the netminder a chance to do his ‘thing’ – without too much interference from opposing players – and clearly he wasn’t given much help on this night.

So overall, yes he let six pucks behind him, including at least one he’d dearly want back, but you can’t fault Anderson personally for this savage 6-1 beating by the Bruins.

Everyone knew that after 6 defeats out of 7 possible, including both games in Florida, the ‘B’s would be buzzing around the Panthers’ net in the early going of this contest. And sure enough, after a lapse of concentration from Jay Bouwmeester (perhaps distracted by all the rumors about him being traded?) Bergeron got a chance to redeem himself for all the misses in Saturday’s game by putting the first puck behind Anderson after only 48 seconds of play. Poor Andy couldn’t have imagined a worse start to the game even in his worst nightmare.

And things just got worse…

6:17 on the clock in the opening period Mark Stuart was presented with the puck on a 3on1 situation in front of Anderson. He misses his shot, but as luck would have it, his miss actually put the puck right on to his backhand instead and with a quick fluff it was suddenly two/nothing – and the despair was evident on Craig Anderson’s face.

Two fluke goals in little over six minutes – in the first period – is the last thing you need when visiting Boston. The task is difficult enough -without the puck being your foe too!

Nick Tarnasky coming up big against the Bruins. Here he faces Shane Hnidy in the previous game at the B.A.C which Florida won 2-0. No repeat in Boston however; as the Bruins won comfortably; 6-1.

The Panthers did nevertheless put themselves back in to the game via the energy of the fourth line: Tarnasky and Stewart dug out and presented the puck to Kamil Kreps who calmly placed home the 1-2 goal to Thomas’s left, from just outside the slot. Tim Thomas then stepped up to keep the Boston lead intact as Florida started to build some momentum in the late part of the first period and first half of the second.

Tim Thomas kept Florida at bay when Boston came under some pressure in the first and second periods. Here he makes a save in Saturday's match-up.

Apart from that fourth line of forwards however, it was only the third line (as always) that showed the customary gritty intent and forecheck throughout the contest. David Booth also played with a lot of energy and determination, but many of the other first and second liners seemed to be easily overwhelmed by the Bruins’ noticeably more aggressive play in this match. And while all individual players can have bad games, it is hard to win when such key players for the Cats as; Cory Stillman, Jay Bouwmeester and Craig Anderson had very poor efforts on the night.

In fact, Jay Bouwmeester played some 6to7 minutes less than usual, which can only be down to Head Coach Pete DeBoers strict “accountability” doctrine: Ice-time is gained on merit, not reputation. And Bo didn’t have a good enough match to deserve his customary 27to28 minutes of game-time.

Against the run of play in the second period, it was Boston that again found the net next.

Stephane Yelle fed the puck from the boards to Byron Bitz, placed strategically alone in front of Craig Anderson, and Bitz flicked the puck expertly in to the top shelf. It was a pretty goal that came to deflate the Panthers. And if indeed, there was still some breath of life in the Cats entering the third, it was soon extinguished again by Byron who doubled up on his previous goalscoring exploits by pouncing on a poor Anderson rebound – making it 4-1 with only 3:24 played on the clock in the final period.

Byron Bitz took the bite out of the Panthers at Bruins - scoring two game deciding goals.

The avalanche of mishaps soon buried Florida beneath a swirling Boston, who glossed the scoreboard with a fifth (a beautifully – rising – Aaron Ward slapshot, 5:46 in to the period) and a sixth goal (Michael Ryder with a power-play tally, 9:31) – soon after Bitz’s two game deciding goals had robbed the Cats of the will to claw themselves back in to contention.

Panther defenseman Nick Boynton put it best, and certainly most poignantly, in his post-game comment: “We played like garbage in the third period […] I thought the first two (periods) we were pretty even.”

Overall this was a game to quickly forget about for the Panthers. Fortunately it doesn’t affect the standings too much as both Buffalo (1-3 vs. Anaheim) and Carolina (2-4 at Ottawa) lost their respective games. However, with both Montréal (3-0 vs. Vancouver) and Philadelphia (4-2 vs. Washington) winning theirs – we become all the more embroiled in that 8th spot struggle.

And things don’t ease up any either – as in next match we face the NY Rangers; currently in sixth and with a new Head Coach (John Tortorella) behind the bench.

It will be a crucial crunch-up with plenty of bite against the New Yorkers. If the Panthers were hurting after the Boston game – they have something much worse awaiting them at the Madison Square Garden tomorrow: Tortorella likes to deploy a highly up-tempo and aggressive “old” style type of game that the Panthers need to be expecting and be mentally prepared for. The timidity shown against the Bruins won’t win them any games; least not against a John Tortorella fuelled Rangers side.

After that despondent NY Islanders game, Head Coach Pete DeBoer tried to downplay the loss – claiming the side played with heart, but overcomplicated things and tried to get too nifty. Whilst the latter is true, the former is more likely a comment that should be seen as a “coach’s answer” – one intended to keep the players confident and not risk tamper with team morale. You have to admire DeBoer for this, as anyone else might find it difficult to keep their cool after such a frustrating display. I certainly did!

Fact is, that it wasn’t a good enough performance and it was clearly seen on the scoresheet; the Islanders fully deserved their 3-1 victory and goalie Yann Denis was, despite the high number of Florida shots, rarely tested. So, a better game against the Leafs is needed to get back to winning ways. Good is that one bad game doesn’t determine a season, as frustrating as they may be, and there is plenty of time to recover from any dire spell encountered along the way.

The trick is to minimize any poor run of form and obviously have more committed, hard working games – than the slacker kind. Players are only human and will sometimes relax or simply have a bad spell. The season is ridiculously long in the National Hockey League and it will happen to everyone. Just look at Detroit – who recently had 5 straight losses!

It’s how you rebound from adversity – that is important.

Now, losing to the NY Islanders is more the stick in the wheel – kind of difficulty – than the flat tire Ottawa type. But, we are in an increasingly difficult part of the season; when wins don’t come easy or without considerable effort, so it does feel like we have a rebound game on our hands in Toronto.

The Maple Leafs helped us by beating Pittsburgh in their last contest, but that makes it two straight now and Toronto will be a thorny opposition for the Panthers tonight. There is no room for underestimation or lassitude if we want to win. However, committed hard work and determination should go a long way in seeing off the challenge.

Toronto are a vulnerable team, with all the speculation surrounding the club. If the Panthers can have a good start to the match – the Leafs may very well wilt as the tie progresses.

So; a good start, the right attitude and more straightforward north-south style of game will be key for Florida in this contest. And while the Islanders may not be the kind of opposition that inspires player to give their all – a matchup with Toronto (the heart of Hockey) usually does. Therefore it seems that the Cats should be able to rebound in this fixture and continue its winning/playoff/tilting ways.

David Booth meanwhile is doubtful for this game, still suffering from a bout with the flu. If he doesn’t play Kamil Kreps will fill his spot on the first line as left winger; next to Horton and with Zednik on the opposite wing. Brett McLean, who got the initial chance to fill in for Booth in the last contest, will again be moved down to the fourth line. With Kreps moved up, McLean will center that energy line with Stewart and Tarnasky on the wings. Otherwise no changes to the starting line-up are to be expected.

Thanks to the Ducks in Anaheim, Florida remain a mere 3 points behind Buffalo in 7th spot (Ducks beat Sabres 3-2 yesterday and ex-Panther Steve Montador got two assists in the match), while Carolina are only one ahead of us. Again we have games in hand on all opposing playoff contenders, which obviously is good, but only counts for anything if Florida wins them…

Leading up to tonight game the Eastern Conference Standings are as follows: