Roblogg’s Panthers Portal

I bet a few people don’t think me so crazy now.

Maybe if I had been GM we’d have won the game against Toronto yesterday…

I would have gone in hard to acquire Niklas Hagman, at a heavy cost if necessary and he would not have been a two-goal scorer in this game as a consequence.

Yeah, I know. Wishful thinking at best. But you have to admit he’d have been a nice addition to this club that finds it so hard to score goals.

Sure, the Panthers did get four on the board against the defensively challenged Maple Leafs, but that was to be expected. That the Cats would surrender six however, was probably not according to anyone’s plan.

After going two-goals up in the opening exchanges, one could have been forgiven for thinking this contest was as good as over. However, the Ontarians had other plans on the night.

After expensive signing Phil Kessel found the net in the first period it was game-on and a wild contest was ready to unwind before us.

Kessel and Hagman were the offensive juggernauts that the Panthers defense couldn’t handle in this game. Both scored two goals to help Toronto claim both points and secure Florida’s first regulation loss since Washington.

Dmitry Kulikov kept the Panthers in the lead with his two goals on the night, but, immediately after the 4-3 go-ahead-goal by Dmitry; the Leafs came back and equalized.

This quick answer seemed to tip the balance ultimately in Toronto’s direction and they ran out 6-4 winners, with the last goal scored in an open net.

Panthers GM Randy Sexton had said on FSN Florida prior to the commencement of the final period that “the team that wants it the most will win it”. It was apparent on this night that the team that wanted it the most was the visitors.

Apart from stellar individual performances above all from Dmitry Kulikov, Nathan Horton, and Steve MacIntyre—in the enforcer department, the Cats looked rather tame for most of this contest.

Especially on the blue-line.

The defenders that had been so unyielding of late did not impress and ultimately could not handle Kessel, Hagman & Co. Keith Ballard and Jordan Leopold in particular had games to forget.

Perhaps it was a Thanksgiving hangover, but whatever it was, the Panthers will have no time to ponder upon this loss for too long. It’s off to Nashville tonight for a tricky game against another in-form team: the Predators.

We can expect to see Scott Clemmensen in goal for this game. After his solid performance in Detroit he deserves another start and Vokoun could certainly do with some rest after a hectic schedule.

It will be important to bounce straight back and win tonight’s game.

Florida remain in thirteenth spot in the East and lost vital points against most teams above us last night, and that’s not even mentioning Toronto behind us in fourteenth—who are starting to string together some impressive performances and points.

Nevertheless, one game doesn’t determine a season and the Cats will need to find their way back to their stingy away-game tactics tonight.

It is obvious this style of playing suits this team much better than the more expansive home-game tactics—that regularly comes back to bite us in the .

Well, what do you know; miracles do happen!

Slamming Scott for his underperformances up to date—apparently did the trick.

He came out with a hunger in his belly to prove me, and all the rest of us doubters, wrong. And could he have done it in a better place?

Going to Hockeytown USA and leaving with two spanking new points for their troubles…

The Cats must be purring this morning as they get ready to face the Rangers in a tough back-to-back match-up.

Credit is due to Scott.

He really did step up and filled in that previously leaky five-hole of his and practically cemented the Panthers goal line.

And make no mistake, he was tested: 40 times to be correct.

Henrik Zetterberg stormed through several times, but was ultimately denied by Clemmensen. Only a Pavel Datsyuk powerplay goal in the second period slipped by Scott.

And frankly, if you give the Red Wings three clear cut chances in front of goal, on the man-advantage, something is bound to slip in.

The Cats came out with a defensive frame of mind in the first period. No doubt worried about Clem, after the goaltender had had such a slow start to the season, and the focus was on playing simple defensive hockey and helping the goalie as much as possible.

Florida was badly outshot in that opening period, and ultimately lucky not to fall behind, but took the intact score sheet to the second period with renewed confidence.

Knowing now that Clem could do his stuff when called upon, the Cats surged forward and were perhaps unlucky to lose the period by the lone goal from Datsyuk.

However, as many times before this season, the Panthers remained unfazed by being a goal down and could tie the game in the third period—courtesy of a fine link-up between Nathan Horton and Stephen Weiss.

Horton out-battled Zetterberg behind the Detroit goal and threw a pinpoint pass to Weiss—who had wide open net at the back post—to shuffle in the equalizing tally.

Filled with confidence, it was then the same pair of felines that set up Captain Bryan McCabe for a big slapshot in the ensuing overtime. McCabe shot an unstoppable puck past Chris Osgood—and then it was off to seventh heaven for the Cats.

They’ll have to come down quick however, as they today face a tough Conference foe in the NY Rangers at the MSG. And they will do so without one of the Florida players that’s been playing best of late: Cory Stillman.

Stillman went down with a knee injury against Detroit and “will be out for some time”. Pete DeBoer will call up a forward from Rochester to fill Cory’s skates, rather than trusting Ville Koistinen for the job.

It remains to be seen if the Panthers can take a bite out of the Big Apple tonight, but either way, the future is starting to look rather more promising for the fans and team as they are finally finding some hockey chemistry.

The Florida Panthers are now back to .500 and have gone 7-2-1 in the last 10 games. In addition, we are now a mere three points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning; who currently sit in eighth spot of the East. The NY Rangers are ninth—also three points ahead of us.

That makes tonight’s game all the more important.

Tomas Vokoun is expected to be back in goal for the contest. But now that we are starting to see the real Clemmensen perform; Tomas might be getting more nights off in the future. And considering the tight schedule—that’s definitely good news for the team as a whole.

Scott really did do a good job of Clam-ing up the Panthers goal and was very stingy when it came to letting go of any rebounds.

Now that’s the kind of play we want to see from the big man!

Clem the Clam—it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

The Florida Panthers travel to Hockeytown to play the Detroit Red Wings who, despite a slow start, has posted a 7-2-1 record in their last 10 games. The Cats too have a good 10 game streak coming on; posting a 6-3-1 record in their last 10.

However, this is the Red Wings we’re talking about. A team that boasts the likes of Datsyuk and Zetterberg and recently mauled the Columbus Blue Jackets 9-1.

They then disappointingly lost their last home game to Dallas 1-3 and will thus be motivated to get their mojo going again against us.

So, with this background coach Peter DeBoer takes a hard long look on the schedule and decides to put Scott Clemmensen between the pipes…

Yes, the same goalie that called out his teammates after letting in 7 goals against Washington—whilst still remaining positively philosophical about his own poor performance.

And yes, the one and the same goalie that posts a 5.13 GAA.

So, this is the goalie you decide to go with against one of the most high-powered offensive lineups in the NHL, Pete?

Well smack me and call me Judy; I think we just threw in the towel for this one!

There must be something here I don’t understand.

To investigate we shall dive into the complex inner workings of the head coach and the cerebral ongoing that must have preceded this shocking decision.

OK, ready? Let’s delve into the unknown…

Hmm, Tomas Vokoun has been playing a lot lately and very well too—or I would have been quick to pull him otherwise, and he’ll eventually need a rest. But does it necessarily have to be tonight against the Red Wings?

No, I guess not. Vokoun is a workhorse and thrives when playing as many games as possible and being worked hard in those games—which is why I sometimes instruct the boys to let the shots rain down upon him.

It is still early in the season and he could definitely play both tonight and tomorrow against the Rangers if need be.

However, he will need a rest sooner or later I suppose and Clemmensen is probably, to some extent anyway, playing so poorly because he hasn’t played much hockey for a long time.

If he’s ever to get better—he needs games—and seeing as he has a big contract it would look bad for my boss if he never got to play.

Fair enough. Clemmensen needs game practice and Vokoun will need to rest at some point. But why tonight?

Well, after Detroit we have Conference foes NY Rangers (twice) and Pittsburgh Penguins in line. And if we are to lose any of these four games I’d prefer it to be against the Red Wings; seeing as that wouldn’t impact our improbable bid to make the playoffs as much as losing points to teams in the East would.

OK, that sounds good!

We forfeit tonight’s game, although token resistance must be upheld for appearances, and then blow our steam in the upcoming games instead. Brilliant!

Also, if Clemmer makes a crapper of the Detroit game as well, we can always pull him after a couple of early goals and put Vokoun in there to steady the sinking ship.

And who knows, maybe the boys will feel sorry for Clem and decide to outdo themselves and salvage something from the Joe.

That is not my main goal here, but miracles do happen and at this point I’ll take any point I can get—whilst still remaining realistic and not really expecting too much.

That will make anything gained a bonus!

And who doesn’t like being rewarded when they least expect it!?

Scott Clemmensen thinks he might have found another reason why his GAA is as high as 5.13...

OK, so that wasn’t the inner workings of DeBoer, gee, I do wonder what gave me away…

Anyywaaay!

I’ll file this away into my new little rants and sarcasm folder and hope for the best tonight.

I try, I really do! But sometimes it’s just so hard to remain positive and hopeful when it comes to the Cats. We win a few games and suddenly I’m expecting the roof to cave in on me. I just can’t help it.

I think I might need help.

The Panthers came in to the home-and-home header versus Southeastern rivals Washington, high on confidence, but left with team morale in tatters.

Having won three straight games and played the best hockey so far of the season, fans and players alike felt that the Caps looked ripe for the picking.

The Capitals were without inspirational sniper Alex Ovechkin and had, up to that point, not done very well without him.

Early in the first game of the back-to-back series, Washington also lost their goal scoring defenseman Mike Greene and all signs of victory seemed to point firmly in Florida’s direction.

However, it was not to be.

The Caps cruised to a 4-1 victory in Sunrise and then came from behind to punish the Cats in a third period licking in Washington.

The Capitals emerged from 3-2 down and turned proceedings on its head by scoring five goals in that third period. The Panthers only managed one and consequently lost the game 4-7.

The second period had looked promising for the Cats as the call-ups from Rochester, of the AHL, gave the Floridians a chance to win with their all-heart performances. Kenndal McArdle, Michal Repik, Victor Oreshkovic, and Jeff Taffe, not only filled the numbers—but also visibly led the Panthers when going forward.

If only more of the regular players and veterans of the Florida roster had decided to show up for this game as well…

Especially the defense and goaltending was dreadful to behold. Unless of course, you were one of the many waving fans in red that urged their team to triumph in that decisive period.

I’m sure they cheerfully acknowledged the Panthers’ inability to keep the Caps at bay in front of the crease, or at the far post, and the subsequently appalling goaltending provided by Scott Clemmensen—when pucks came bouncing his way.

Clemmensen is having a torrid start to his Florida career; posting a hideous 5.13 GAA in his four starts of the season. Not that it’s all Scott’s fault though…

"It was like Murphy’s Law. Anything that could go wrong, went wrong," Clemmensen told the Associated Press after the game. "We weren’t very good down low; there were a lot of open guys around the net. It looked like a fire drill down there. It was total chaos from my perspective."

From my own perspective, in front of the TV (admittedly not the best viewpoint), it looked like the Caps knew very well how to crack Clemmensen wide open.

Yes, the defense did a poor job in helping him out, but a high-quality goaltender should have been able to stop a few of those pucks that went past Scott on this particular night—and the one in Dallas last week when he let five slide by.

Scott continues to look wide open along the ice and down by his legs; the Caps have obviously noted this and scored almost all their goals down low, rather than trying to go top shelf on such a tall frame.

Moreover, his reaction time was sluggish, bordering leisurely, and overall this was just a terrible performance from a goalie standpoint; backup or not.

It is understandable that Clemmensen will be rusty after having been sidelined with the NJ Devils for such a long time—prior to this season. After having stepped in for the injured Brodeur admirably last campaign, he was then demoted and did not feature in any more games.

But, he now needs to get his game on track promptly—if he wants to earn the confidence of his Coach and new fans in Florida.

Moaning about the defense and finding excuses won’t win anyone over here. Only good performances on the ice will do that.

In fact, that doesn’t just go for Clemmensen—that applies to the entire team.

This is a team game, and just as a team wins as a team—they should lose as one as well: No blaming other teammates or pointing fingers. ‘United we stand, united we fall’.

Comments like these, uttered after the game by Clemmensen, do not fall into the above category: "(What) we need to do is work on our coverage down low and behind the net."

OK, fair enough, that’s what the defense needs to do. I’m sure they’re quite aware of that too. But, dear Clemmensen, look at what you individually could have done better and what you could have done to help the overall team effort—instead of focusing on everyone else.

This is the Florida Panthers, not the New Jersey Devils, you will face many more shots and be challenged further around the crease, than what would have ever been the case in Newark.

You need to understand that, accept that you ultimately only have control over yourself and your own actions on the ice, and start focusing on how to adapt and improve your game to meet the particular needs of the Florida Panthers.

Get that, Scott?