Friday Caterwaul - Panthers Open Forum
by Donny Rivette on Jan 15, 2010 9:08 AM EST
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How about Rostislav Olesz? "Rusty" has been good for 3 goals on four shots over his last three games, with one GW. If coach Pete could just get him shooting more...
Really seems rather elementary. Nathan Horton - whose pass-rather-than-shoot policy has been a subject of tremendous attention in recent years - wrote the book on just such an approach. We'll never debate these guys and the reasons for their on-ice decisions, but we've all gone short of permanently hoarse lobbing profanities at the television when a particular situation quite obviously was tailor-made for a wrister. But what do we know?
Tomas Vokoun has been earning his keep this month, going 3-2-1, giving up 12 goals in his past six contests (one shutout). And the support he's had has been, well, unpredictable: (Goals-for over the last six) 6, 2, 0, 3, 4, 3. No matter; he's shown up.
Congrats to defenseman Keaton Ellerby, who finally nailed his NHL debut last night. DeBoer didn't allow for much freedom (4:58 total TOI, no special teams appearances, no points, -1), but in a tight game such as that which played out in Tampa, time was not on Ellerby's side. Great to finally see the former first-rounder in the bigs.
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I loved the winning goal – not just the finish, but how he stole the puck too.
We actually held on to the lead for once, and actually looked like we were trying not to blow it too! Not sure why Reinprecht missed an open goal with a minute left though, but whatever.
Vokoun had another great night – badass penalty save too.
BTW, Not sure what network everyone else saw the game but on Centre Ice we got SunLightning and the commentator kept making digs at the Panthers and laughing at ALL those ridiculous calls we kept getting?! He was picking on Weiss and accusing him of being dirty basically. Am I missing something??
Weiss dirty? You kidding? Downie has been the definitionof dirty his whole career. I can’t believe that he has ten goals this year.
I’ve heard other teams broadcasts in the past, and our Panthers hardly ever get any respect. At least this year. Last season may have been different.
The key now is to win Saturday night. I would like toi see Vokoun in net again, as he deserves it.
Thought the same thing about Rhino missing the empty netter, but, oh well.
I dont think I can listen to other teams commentators anymore, almost all of them are homers and almost all of them have the worst hockey knowledge I’ve ever come across, lately I’ve been pressing mute and listening to Randy Moller. Not that Goldie and Lindsay are that great though, Lindsay’s a homer himself and Goldie’s pretty new to the game (he cant even skate!), man I miss Denis Potvin.
As for the game, we sucked, Ballard and Mccabe might as well be holding ringette sticks out there they’ve been playing so bad lately.
I think the right message to the players might get them to pull their heads out of their asses (remember the Belak trade last year?), I think Mccabe should be stripped of his captaincy or Ballard scratched for a couple games, Garrison is playing better than him anyways. Or maybe fire the assistant coach who’s getting paid to do nothing (aka work on our powerplay).
Ready for a shock?
Considering how much we suck this year, Horton, Weiss, Frolik, Reinprecht, Olesz and Seidenberg are all on pace for career years offensively and we’re currently 6th in the conference in goals for!
I would say that that would make this season an “on paper” success offensively (assuming the production doesn’t slow down) or at least as much of a success as one could hope for considering our roster and injuries.
We (the boxers and everyone else in hockey) all thought the panthers would have an impotent offence this year, looks like we were wrong.
Great point on the “career year” comment, Puke. Even DeBoer mentioned before the season began that everyone was going to need career years for this team to remain competitive; the message got through to some of his troops.
But it ain’t a light switch.
by Donny Rivette on Jan 15, 2010 3:46 PM EST up reply actions
the only problem with that is “career years” for Frolik, Reinprecht, Olesz, etc… are good numbers for a 3rd line. Unfortunately, they need to be primary threats. Horton and Weiss are tearing it up, no question, yet they’re still just 19th and 29th in the league in points. Our next top scorer, Reinprecht, is 60th.
Don’t get me wrong, we’re 13th in the league in total goals, which is a giant step over where anyone realistically thought we would be, especially without Booth. 22nd in goals against isn’t horrible, but here we are in mid-January, 13th in the conference.
The biggest problem has been consistency. Not that we can’t score, but that we haven’t figured it out on a night-to-night basis. Just in the last 10 games, we’ve scored 4 or more 4 times, but scored 1 or been shutout 3 times. And the worst part is two of those 4 goal games were losses. This isn’t a team that can throw away 4 goal efforts to a loss.
4 of our next 5 are against teams near or below us. I think anything less than 7 of 10 points could be the beginning of the end…
Shocked at Downie???
Steve Downie was a first round draft choice. He actually has skills to go along with the sandpaper and sundry scumbaggery. I could argue he’s less of a goon and more of a pest type who has great hands and warrants being on Tampa’s top six. Yes he’s a mental case and has been dirty in the past (and will probably do something dirty in the near future) but for anyone to think Downie is some scrub who can’t play needs to do their homework.
Great game by the Cats and especially Vokoun…they can sweep the home and home if Stillman and Reinprecht play solid. Enough of these middleweight fights, let’s see Mac vs Zonopka,
Two massive suspensions go a long way toward shaping a stereotype, regardless of draft position. My dos cents.
by Donny Rivette on Jan 15, 2010 5:22 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
For any fellow stat lovers out there. Here’s a site that that breaks down playoff probability by adding or subtracting percentage points based on the outcomes of games.
By the way, the Panthers are currently at 22.5%
http://www.sportsclubstats.com/NHL/Eastern/Southeast/Panthers.html
Excellent, IC. A fantastic site that I spent a lot of time on a year ago. You’ll spend hours on it.
by Donny Rivette on Jan 15, 2010 6:50 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
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Southeast Standings
| GP | W | L | OTL | PT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Florida
|
55 | 27 | 17 | 11 | 65 |
|
Washington
|
56 | 28 | 23 | 5 | 61 |
|
Winnipeg
|
57 | 26 | 25 | 6 | 58 |
|
Tampa Bay
|
55 | 24 | 25 | 6 | 54 |
|
Carolina
|
57 | 21 | 25 | 11 | 53 |
(updated 2.13.2012 at 10:29 PM EST)
Eastern Standings
| GP | W-L-OT | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
New York Rangers
|
54 | 36-13-5 | 77 |
|
Boston Bruins
|
53 | 34-17-2 | 70 |
|
Florida Panthers
|
55 | 27-17-11 | 65 |
|
Philadelphia Flyers
|
56 | 31-18-7 | 69 |
|
Pittsburgh Penguins
|
56 | 32-19-5 | 69 |
|
New Jersey Devils
|
55 | 31-20-4 | 66 |
|
Ottawa Senators
|
58 | 28-22-8 | 64 |
|
Toronto Maple Leafs
|
56 | 28-22-6 | 62 |
|
Washington Capitals
|
55 | 28-22-5 | 61 |
|
Winnipeg Jets
|
57 | 26-25-6 | 58 |
|
Montreal Canadiens
|
56 | 23-24-9 | 55 |
|
Tampa Bay Lightning
|
55 | 24-25-6 | 54 |
|
New York Islanders
|
55 | 23-24-8 | 54 |
|
Buffalo Sabres
|
55 | 24-25-6 | 54 |
|
Carolina Hurricanes
|
56 | 20-25-11 | 51 |
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