Though Panthers' Fleischmann comes up big, Cats lose in SO to Jets

by Chris S Roberts on Oct 31, 2011 10:55 PM EDT in Florida Panthers Game Recaps: '11-12

The Panthers had plenty of luck tonight, two third period goals from Tomas Fleischmann, Jose Theodore standing tall as the Jets poured on the chances; but ultimately they ran out of luck with 50 seconds left on the clock. Yeah, the call at the end was questionable(or if anything, indecisive) but sometimes that's how the game goes. Ask the Buffalo fans on Saturday. Anyhow, the Panthers didn't exactly deserve those two points after coming out flat at home and letting a sub-par team set up the cycle for extended periods of time. In fact, Florida's performance wasn't much different tonight than it was in Ottawa, except this time they escaped with a point.

Final - 10.31.2011	1	2	3	OT	SO	Total
Winnipeg Jets	2	0	1	0	1	4
Florida Panthers	1	0	2	0	0	3

Complete Coverage >

I suppose we should give Winnipeg credit; they aren't as bad as we assumed. You can accredit that to their droves of young talent though, not to any geographical movements. Having a goalie who can stop 39 shots, including some huge chances and secondary plays, never hurts either. Alas, we'll see them again soon. And remember what happened to the last team we met up with that embarrassed us at home.

1st: After returning home from the three game road trip, the Cats started the game in the manner we hoped; quickly. Florida controlled the puck for the first few shifts keeping Winnipeg at bay, but the Jets would take an early lead when Andrew Ladd threw the puck out front to an open Kyle Wellwood who'd send a quick shot over the shoulder of Jose Theodore for an early lead(from Ladd and Stuart). For the next few minutes Winnipeg would enjoy the momentum but wouldn't be able to add to their lead. Scottie Upshall would lay a hit on Evander Kane in the corner and would subsequently be called for elbowing. With the terrible penalty kill of late, it wasn't a big surprise the Jets would capitalize. It would be Kane who would put the puck in the net, assisted by Nik Antropov and Zach Bogosian. Tomas Fleischmann would be high sticked in the neutral zone by Dustin Byfuglien to give the Panthers their first powerplay of the night. The Cats had no problem setting up, but no one could make the pass or pull the trigger. After the powerplay, you could sense some major urgency in the Panthers play as they continued cycling long after Byfuglien exited the penalty box. Ondrej Pavalec would muscle through the numerous chances Florida tested him with in the final 4 minutes, and he would turn away all but one. Jason Garrison, the king of clutch, would sail a slapshot past Pavalec with 20 seconds left in the period, assists going to Brian Campbell and Tomas Fleischmann. The period would end on that positive note, the score remaining at 2-1 Jets.

2nd: The second period wouldn't start out quite how the first ended, it was apparent that Claude Noel had a few words with his players to settle them down after the late breakdown. Not much would happen in the early part of the period, but Former Panther Kenndal McArdle would take a hooking call as Shawn Matthias drove into the Jets zone. Fast forward to less than 4 minutes left in the period, Jack Skille would lay a massive check on Tobias Enstrom in the corner, 400lb Byfuglien would come over and rag doll little Jack Skille around, earning himself a 4 minute double minor for roughing. The Panthers couldn't muster much in the way of scoring chances during those four minutes with any and all shots being covered by Pavalec.

3rd: With the final seconds of the powerplay killed by Winnipeg, Skille and Ladd would do a little dance at center ice. While neither Ladd or Skille are known for dropping the gloves, they both threw some good punches before being broken up by the linesmen. With those two in the box, Mike Weaver would let a one timer fly from the point where Flash would corral the rebound from between Byfugliens legs and send it past a sprawling Pavalec to tie the game (assists to Weaver, Kris Versteeg). After what seemed like hours of back and forth, cycling chances for Winnipeg, Dmitry Kulikov would be called for a high sticking infraction to give the Jets their second powerplay of the night. While the Jets couldn't score on thier man advantage, a few minutes later Florida would go on their 4th as Blake Wheeler would tie up Fleischmann along the boards. One goal and an assist wouldn't be good enough for The Flash though, why not add another one on the powerplay? Tomas would do just that to take the lead with just 2 minutes left in the game, assists going to Kulikov and Campbell. With the net empty for the better part of two minutes, Evander Kane would knock the puck out of mid air (near the height of the crossbar) and drop the puck through Theodore to tie the game with 50 seconds left. After getting a favorable call go their way the game before, the Panthers wouldn't be so lucky when the review returned good goal, so the two teams would head to overtime.

OT/SO: The five overtime minutes weren't particularly exciting, other than a few big glove saves from Theodore. This game was headed for the skillz comp. Kris Versteeg, Mike Santorelli and Stephen Weiss would get the nod for the shootout, Tim Stapleton, Ladd and Wellwood would go for Winnipeg. Stapleton would miss the net on his attempt, Pavalec would stop Versteeg with the glove. Ladd would shoot oone through Theodore's five hole, Santorelli would miss the net. Kyle Wellwood would deke Theodore and slide one into the open net. Jets win.

Observations:

Someone breathe some life into the penalty kill. Cardboard cutouts would be better than what Gord's been throwing out there lately. Who misses Radek Dvorak? I sure do.
The powerplay has been putting up great numbers despite being poorly executed. We'll take the goals but dang, how are we getting them in the first place.
Jason Garrison has 3 goals in 3 games, Campbell has 11 assists in 11 games. Can't ask for much more from that pairing.
Since we're only getting goals from the first line, maybe we could shuffle those other three. Just this once.
Tomas Fleischmann is looking extremely dangerous on the ice, at the rate he's firing them home we're looking at a 35+ goal season. Flash also earned an assist tonight.
Three cheers for Jack Skille! The guy lives and breathes energy.
Here's hoping whatever Tomas Kopecky's injury sustained at the end of overtime isn't serious. Kopecky has (quietly) been making a big difference this year.
Can we please see Mikael Samuelsson now? The second line needs a playmaker, stat.
Maybe Marco Sturm escaped the wrath of Brendan Shanahan, but I highly doubt Upshall will. Skille's hit will probably be looked at too, but I doubt much will come of it.

Tweet Comment 40 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

unbelievable

So the explanation of the goal was that Lads played the puck with a high stick but Kane subsequently played it with a non high stick and scored making it a clean goal.

Two things:
1.) If a puck is played by a team with a high stick then the play is supposed to be ruled dead so how can there be justification that after it was high sticked it was played with a legal shot?

2.) If you look at the replay it was clearly a high Stick by Kane. He makes contact above the cross bar.

This goes to show that the NHL looks out for Canadian teams and looks down on “non hockey” markets. It drives me nuts how biased the NHL can be towards teams they favor like Montreal. They should really stop doing it if they plan on growing the sport outside of traditional markets. We have a good product that needs a chance to grow and success will prove that we are a hockey town.

by Ad1zzl3 on Oct 31, 2011 11:24 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

"It's far from done, but we did get something accomplished."-#19 B.Richards

by -19-AgainstAll on Nov 1, 2011 1:37 AM EDT up reply actions

1. High stick is non reviewable. Yeah its illegal but if they catch you doing it on tape its OK? Whatever.
2. It was very close, therefore call on the ice stood.

I’m putting here for reflection later on in the season…. #14 Tomas [Fleischmann] is getting a 40G season. FLASH COUNT: 5G/5A
by RPC on Sep 17, 2011 5:20 PM MDT
Find me on Twidduh And look at my Marmots

by Chris S Roberts on Oct 31, 2011 11:29 PM EDT reply actions

The call on ice was no goal. It was completely a Canadian call

by Ad1zzl3 on Oct 31, 2011 11:46 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions 1 recs

Sure you want to characterize a penalty call/no-call on nationalistic grounds? Most of FLA’s player personnel are from Canada, as are most of their prospects…just saying we probably shouldn’t be going that generalized route.

Litter Box Cats - Your tarp-free Florida Panthers Colossus

by Donny Rivette on Nov 1, 2011 12:21 AM EDT up reply actions

I’m not so sure. You don’t think the league wants Winnipeg to do well? If it’s at the expense of the Panthers, who cares? Certainly not anyone up in Canada…

by jimmyh71 on Nov 1, 2011 8:27 AM EDT up reply actions

Guess I was watching a different game...

I thought the Panthers controlled the vast majority of this one. More so than probably any other game this season outside of game 1. 42 shots on goal, with 20 or so more blocked. Multiple times, the Cats kept the puck in the Jets zone for consecutive shifts. 36-25 advantage in face offs. The Jets had a few good chances, sure. And their first two goals were due to some bad mistake son our part. But for 48 minutes between their 2nd and 3rd goal, if it wasn’t for Pav, we could have easily been up 4 or 5-2 on another night. To say we were lucky to get a point I think is a bit off.

And as far as their tying goal, I have no idea what happened. He clearly waived it off first. Then after some discussion, BEFORE going to the video review, he changed his mind? With the video not being conclusive, they had to go with the call on the ice. My question is what did the 3 guys at center ice see that convinced the ref who was standing next to the goal to change his call? I didn’t even know you could do that. I’m just imagining an umpire calling “strike 3!” and as the guy walks to the dugout, hearing “wait, the 1st base ump said it might have been outside, come on back.” I won’t go so far to get into the whole Canadian conspiracy, but I would love to hear from the refs on what actually happened.

by kSelvig on Oct 31, 2011 11:31 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah it was a extremely questionable overruling. I was there and Florida had many more chances to capitalize and didn’t. Now comes Chicago.

Fish, Heatles, Cats, Fins, Noles

by National Mario on Nov 1, 2011 12:18 AM EDT up reply actions

Chris

I’m not sure if you were at the game or if you watched the game tonight (maybe you just saw the highlights or listened through the radio)… but the Panthers were 100% the better team tonight. They controlled play for probably 90% of the time. Winnipeg going up 2-0 in the first period wasn’t a result of us getting outplayed, but more of them just happening to capitalize on the few quality chances they were getting. In that respect, this game was nothing like Ottowa… In Ottowa, we didn’t really deserve the win and we ended up losing it. This time we deserved the win and got cheated (or just unlucky) out of a point.

I also just wanted to point out that the Panthers completely controlled the Overtime period. There were no whistles the entire time and the Cats completely dominated the Jets with constant pressure in their zone. The last thing was that had their been an extra 5 seconds on the clock, there’s a good chance the Cats would’ve scored with less than 10 seconds left in regulation to score, as we had a 2 on 1 chance but time ran out before a quality shot could’ve been taken.

Just my two cents after watching the game.

by lipsonjeff on Nov 1, 2011 2:22 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

We also outshot them by 11 shots, 42-31

by lipsonjeff on Nov 1, 2011 2:23 AM EDT up reply actions

And sorry I meant a few extra seconds from Overtime, not regulation**

by lipsonjeff on Nov 1, 2011 2:37 AM EDT up reply actions

(maybe you just saw the highlights or listened through the radio)

Are you suggesting I dont watch the games? I cut out of school early some days and put up with spotty low def streams so I can watch the entire season.

Winnipeg was the better team by virtue of their goaltending and their ability to set up for 5 minutes at a time. Remember how everyone complained about how the defense could never clear the zone leading to Ottawa’s two late goals? We saw that in the MTL game, the BUF game and now this one. While the defense is shaky and only one line is scoring this team is not 100% better than even the worst teams in the league.

by Chris S Roberts on Nov 1, 2011 1:16 PM EDT up reply actions

I missed this game (THANK YOU OCTOBER NOR’EASTER, DAMMIT), but that has been a problem in almost every game this year. The forwards are just as much at fault as the D in a lot of cases I’ve seen too.

Litter Box Cats - Your tarp-free Florida Panthers Colossus

by Ryan Meier on Nov 1, 2011 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions

to be honest, I don’t really remember them setting up for extended periods of time. And having a hot goalie stop 39 of 42 shots doesn’t really make them a better team. Just hard for me to understand a team being outplayed as much as your recap made it sound when they (in my opinion) controlled 50 minutes of this game and had 42 shots on goal, and 62 shots attempted in total.

But that’s the fun of sites like this. 2 people can watch the same game and get 2 different viewpoints from it.

by kSelvig on Nov 1, 2011 4:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Chris, I’m not accusing you of anything bad. I’m sure you watch many if not all the games, but sometimes even the best of us miss a game or only see highlights, and it’d be hard to make a real assessment about a game had that been the case… which is why I asked. I’m not trying to call you less of a fan. I also set up crappy feeds and sit in my dorm to watch, considering my dorm doesn’t have NHL Center Ice or FSFL.

I have to agree with Selvig, in regard to Atlanta almost never having that much posession. We completely controled most of this game. We outplayed them and got unlucky, whereas in Ottowa we got outplayed and had what was coming to us (like I said above). We simply ran into a hot goaltender and had a very unlucky bounce towards the end of the game (which probably should’ve been cleared, but from that mistake alone does not mean we were outplayed).

by lipsonjeff on Nov 1, 2011 10:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Its all good, just been a long week on my end :)

by Chris S Roberts on Nov 2, 2011 12:04 AM EDT up reply actions

We were Toroscrewed

I won’t got anti Canadian. I will just say that the War Room must have experienced backlash for giving one in favor of the Cats and took their opportunity to nullify that by what we saw last night.
a. Ah, there were Jet fans in the crowd, maybe we ought to get them moved back to Atlanta. I felt the chants usually geared for the NY JET football team did work well. J-E-T-S suck suck suck.
b. I’m disappointed in myself. Eating upstairs with my friend I told him at the start of the game I felt that Flash was going to pull a hat trick 2G1A, I was close, but if Coach would have put him on the ice 6 on 4.. I felt he would have pulled it off for sure. The Cats dominated this game, but we are still missing some finishing grit.
c, Jack Skille- if I was wearing my LBC hat I would have tipped it. Byfoon just came up to pound on him and he stood tall, same with tossing em down with Ladd. Skille “I’m no fighter I’m a tweeter” earned respect for sure.
D Jason GarriBOOM! aka Jason “Cannon” Garrison. Seriously. I need a bowl of what he’s eating before games.
and now to update my Weavswatch.. :-)

I hereby predict Captain Mike Weaver #43 will score 6G 20A -RCR 0G3A 10/22
Be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, always do your best...

by RPC on Nov 1, 2011 8:17 AM EDT reply actions

“Ah, there were Jet fans in the crowd, maybe we ought to get them moved back to Atlanta. I felt the chants usually geared for the NY JET football team did work well. J-E-T-S suck suck suck.”

I was in that guys row, awesome idea

by Colt1235 on Nov 1, 2011 5:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Happens alot with this team

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLNKfkUcqb8
Bottom line is we need to close out games and not keep losing(or tie) in the closing seconds.

CFS93

by chesterbardo on Nov 1, 2011 9:35 AM EDT reply actions

I’m not going to bitch about the call. I had a bad feeling about this game since Sunday.I didn’t think there was anything wrong with Kane’s deflection but shouldn’t the whistle have blown after Ladd touched the puck? That one looked like a high stick to me but it shouldn’t have mattered, the Panthers should have won that game handily.

The Panthers should have won but didn’t due to the same problematic reasons I keep writing about game after game. Once again no other forwards were able to score except for someone from the first line. Versteeg coughed up a puck trying to be cute in his own end that led to a goal, dumb needless penalty by Upshall leads to another goal. The game tying goal was a fluky play.

I can’t wait until Samuelsson is ready and not I;m sure about the health of Dadonov but he needs a call up when he’s ready too. Some of these forwards not named Versteeg, Fleischmann or Weiss need to start sitting down.

by Todd Little on Nov 1, 2011 10:02 AM EDT reply actions

one more thing

despite the negatives these Panthers are much more fun to watch

by Todd Little on Nov 1, 2011 10:04 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

these Panthers are much more fun to watch

As you said, short of the outcome, it was an outstanding hockey game.

Litter Box Cats - Your tarp-free Florida Panthers Colossus

by Donny Rivette on Nov 1, 2011 10:39 AM EDT up reply actions

If they would have played hard for the first 10 minutes it would have been a different game, I don’t know why they always play so soft until the first goal against.

by Robert Wright on Nov 1, 2011 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions

Could of, Would of, Should of. I know, but...

Between this and Ottawa’s last minute fail we could have been 8-3.

Steve Diaz
Twitter - @sdiaz6215

by Sdiaz6215 on Nov 1, 2011 10:32 AM EDT reply actions

Flash's second goal

Was nothing short of sick. I only caught the highlight of it and holy crap, the dude’s got even softer hands than I had thought before!

The Ghost of David Nemirovsky

by panthersfan27 on Nov 1, 2011 10:48 AM EDT reply actions

he is looking more and more dangerous as we go on. just need some secondary scoring and I think the wins will start to pile up.

by Todd Little on Nov 1, 2011 11:09 AM EDT up reply actions

Remember when all we had was “secondary scoring”? I love the emergence of a true top line on this team. It’s been a loooong time since we’ve had one of those (outside of the days of Booth-Weiss-Horton, and even that was a stretch as a “top line”).

The secondaries will come once the chemistry sinks in. You can see it starting. Skille and Goc are awesome to watch, so quick and aggressive, their points will come (I hope). Bergenhiem will chip in when healthy, you can see Santo starting to get his game legs.

by kSelvig on Nov 1, 2011 4:23 PM EDT up reply actions

Dissapointed with the result last night but we were the significantly better team.

What’s positive is that this year the team looks more able to put themselves in situations where those types of calls go our way.

With last years team that high stick wouldn’t be evened out by one that went our way later in the season, this year I think the team will be better at making their own luck.

by pukeoncops on Nov 1, 2011 11:04 AM EDT reply actions

East looks even tighter than usual. Can’t let points slip away.

by Todd Little on Nov 1, 2011 11:08 AM EDT reply actions

At least the fans in South Florida are pre-programmed to shout down anyone J E T S as was the case last night in my section. Never seen so many people removed from the game at once.

by Robert Wright on Nov 1, 2011 11:13 AM EDT reply actions

*chanting

by Robert Wright on Nov 1, 2011 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions

I’m always missing all the fun stuff sitting up in the 400’s. What went down?

Steve Diaz
Twitter - @sdiaz6215

by Sdiaz6215 on Nov 1, 2011 11:27 AM EDT via iPhone app up reply actions

Rowdy young (19ish?) panthers fans shouting down a small group of jets fans, a couple from each side started the fingers in the face thing and security just took the whole lot out it looked like. Was in section 128 halfway up, I was in low on 125 so I couldn’t see very well. At least there was some hometown emotion being shown, not like the clowns out in the tunnels talking crap. I understand the love for your home country but having so many people sporting leafs and canucks gear like they had both just played really got old.

by Robert Wright on Nov 1, 2011 1:46 PM EDT up reply actions

that “almot fight” happened in the row behind me..section 128 row 9…a bunch of drunk teenagers started screaming at each other. You couldn’t even understand what was coming out of their mouths. Then an usher who was about 80 yrs old comes down, stares at them and does nothing

Dara

by gravenger5 on Nov 1, 2011 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Consistency + Line 2 wake up!

I have 3 thoughts and I’ll try to be brief:
A) Panthers are playing well. What a difference from last year!
B) Panthers need to develop that “Killer instinct” and close winnable games. One step at a time though, right? Consistency first.
C) Lines 1 (Weiss line) and 4 (Matthias line) I feel play hard every shift. Skille is literally (almost) on fire. I feel line #2 needs to wake up. Only weak line, IMO, right now.

by Weezheat on Nov 1, 2011 1:14 PM EDT reply actions

We Lost Because of

Two bad turnovers in our zone in the first period and a bad non call of a highstick in the third. We did not come out flat the first 10 minutes as one has suggested. I believe we outshot the Jets 5 or 6 to 0 before the goal. It was great that we did comeback and not only tie but take the lead. Hard to really complain on this one other than the two bad early turnovers and the non highsticking call. The shootout is a crapshoot and nothing more.

by FL ELKs on Nov 1, 2011 3:21 PM EDT reply actions

Agreed, I hate shootouts. I want to see more OT hockey.

Litter Box Cats - Your tarp-free Florida Panthers Colossus

by Ryan Meier on Nov 1, 2011 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions

First period shots was 20-7 FLA. First 10 minutes was the difference in this game.

by kSelvig on Nov 1, 2011 4:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Just for fun...

and maybe to fuel the Canadian conspiracy theorists out there… but NHL.com’s headline in the recap of our game; “Jets Rally. beat Panthers in shootout.” Now if memory serves, the Jets led for about 54 minutes in this game… but it is the Jets, so clearly they had to rally to beat us. Yea yea, I know they had to score with under a minute left to tie it, but come on. Wouldn’t a Panthers’ rally comes up short headline make more sense? The NHL must hate us.

by kSelvig on Nov 1, 2011 4:28 PM EDT reply actions