That 3rd and OT was the best period we've played against them this season, easily. Made them look below average for that entire period (even though they scored a flukey goal)
Playoff team and Coach Q will have quite a goaltending decision. Bob has been mostly good this year but......
It’s going to take a collapse to lose the division lead. 2 points up with 2 games in hand. Would have to lose out to not win the division from the panthers.
That doesn’t jive with my sand bagging mentality. Seems like all 3 teams at the top of the central, plus the Preds, are getting hot right here at the end- these first 2 playoff rounds are gonna be insane.
Real shame that what seems like 2 of the best 5 teams and 3 of the best ten in the NHL will have to battle it out for one spot in the conference finals.
Yep, teams in the Central and the East are getting screwed by this format. Or the Avs/Knights too. I’ve been hoping the Preds would get the 4th seed, assuming the Canes are 1, but even they’re scary right now with the way Saros is playing.
How are we still +2200 to win The Cup? https://www.vegasinsider.com/nhl/odds/futures/ Odds were too good to pass up. Bovada only let a max bet of 187.50 at +20000.
I'd venture to say it's because of the road to get there more than anything. First you have Tampa (maybe with Tampa getting home ice...TBD but it will just come down to the last 2 games). Then you get the Hurricanes which the Panthers simply can't figured out how to beat much less 4 times. THEN the Caps or pens THEN the Knights or Avs. It's brutal. All without a top 3 player/Norris Trophy candidate.
This. and it will be a Tampa team that is getting Stamkos and Kucherov back. No team in the NHL has a harder path to the finals than Tampa/Florida.
Done. That game was pure sex. Tampa wanted to goon it up to send a message about playoff hockey. Panthers answered back both on the scoreboard and with the physical game.
So annoying since you can tell we're good enough. Tampa's goals were insanely preventable. But they held their ground after that. Don't think we generated a single odd man rush or if we did I don't remember it. Gotta stay with Driedger
First period Panthers had some extended offensive opportunities (there was one part with like 5 straight minutes of zone time) and the counters actually didn't result in goals. The first goal was a failure to clear the zone and the second was 1 on 4 and just a great play by a great player. They had some other opportunities but they didn't lead to goals. That said, their neutral zone play absolutely stifled the Panthers aggressiveness and ability to create odd men rushes where Barkov and Huberdeau have options. I think for Game 3 and Bennett back, you have to load up... Barkov-Huby-Verhague Bennett-Duclair-Tippet everyone else Id wish we could bench Yandle but not much to replace him with other than less ice time and he's actually SIXTH in ice time for d-men. Forsling, Weeger, Montour, Nutivaara, and Gudas(!) all have more ice time per game than Yandle so far in this series. So as far as ice-time-to-mistake ratio........that's a yikes.
I'm going to disagree here. The first goal started as an odd man rush because nutivara caught an edge and turned over the puck at the offensive blue line. the second goal was another turnover where they had good positioning in transition, but Point was able to expose Weegar's lack of speed with an incredible effort. I completely agree here but have different line combos. I think you scratch hornqvist who has provided absolutely nothing in this series, bring Denisenko back into the lineup and roll with Denisenko-Barkov-Verhaeghe Huby-Bennett-Duclair Vatrano-Wennberg-Tippett Lomberg-Acciari-Marchment That's your best offensive lineup. There is not speed and skill throughout your top 3 lines and your 4th line can just focus on banging.
I love this play so much mainly because it’s the play every beer team tries to set up for their fast guy but no one is really good enough to ever do it cleanly even though we still plan pre face off that we’re going to run this play. win face off and take off. D man flips it over everyone. Easy peasy.
Man is Spencer Knight something. I really wanted to think Yandle was going to rebound with a good game and he just can't go at this level anymore. When gudas was hobbling the camera moved away at one point and when it came back I saw a guy still not moving well thinking gudas didn't make it to the bench. It was actually Yandle. Biggest difference in power plays is Tampa completely collapses the middle and cross ice passes or even passes into the slot don't happen. Whereas we basically invite it. But still got a couple PPG through thankfully. where did that third period neutral zone play come from!!!?!??!! That was fucking lockdown at least as far as the Panthers can play.
barkov is an ufa after next year think you have huberdeau the next 3 years you have bob and yandle fucking you for a while
With Knight and Ekblad I would like to think barkov loves the south Florida lifestyle and will have a real shot next year. Those yandle and Bob contracts are depressing and even more depressing when you consider they were both healthy scratches in the playoffs. That's next level awful. Well at least we didn't exit the playoffs in overtime this year like the last two exits.
Come to think of it...for a franchise that has such little playoff experience given the amount of years the panthers have been eliminated by an overtime goal a hell of a lot Avs in the 96 final Rangers the following season Devils game 7 Islanders game 6 That's 4/6 playoff exits. (I'm not counting last year's qualifying round)