Sunday Caterwaul: Panthers GameDay Open Forum

by Donny Rivette on Feb 12, 2012 9:46 AM EST in LBC Caterwauls: '11-12

"It was funny how we dominated early and that was probably the worst thing because maybe we thought it was going to be easy."

Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, following a 17-save performance in Saturday's losing effort vs. Florida. (NorthJersey.com/Gulitti)

Final - 2.11.2012	1	2	3	Total
Florida Panthers	1	1	1	3
New Jersey Devils	1	0	0	1

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The Eastern Front

Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	L10	Stk
1	NY Rangers	53	35	13	5	75	150	108	17-6-2	18-7-3	7-2-1	Won 2
2	Boston	53	34	17	2	70	184	120	18-9-2	16-8-0	5-4-1	Won 1
3	Florida	54	26	17	11	63	137	151	14-5-7	12-12-4	5-3-2	Won 2
4	Philadelphia	55	31	17	7	69	179	165	13-9-5	18-8-2	4-3-3	Lost 1
5	Pittsburgh	55	31	19	5	67	171	146	16-7-2	15-12-3	7-2-1	Won 1
6	New Jersey	55	31	20	4	66	154	155	15-10-3	16-10-1	5-3-2	Lost 1
7	Ottawa	58	28	22	8	64	169	181	15-11-3	13-11-5	2-6-2	OT 1
8	Toronto	55	28	21	6	62	171	161	16-8-4	12-13-2	6-3-1	Lost 2

9	Washington	54	28	21	5	61	151	152	19-7-2	9-14-3	4-3-3	OT 1
10	Winnipeg	57	26	25	6	58	139	161	16-8-2	10-17-4	4-5-1	Lost 1
11	Tampa Bay	54	24	24	6	54	153	181	15-8-2	9-16-4	7-1-2	Won 1
12	NY Islanders	54	23	23	8	54	130	155	12-12-5	11-11-3	6-2-2	Won 1
13	Buffalo	55	24	25	6	54	136	158	13-10-6	11-15-0	5-4-1	Lost 1
14	Montreal	55	22	24	9	53	144	149	11-11-7	11-13-2	5-4-1	Won 3
15	Carolina	56	20	25	11	51	142	172	14-12-3	6-13-8	4-2-4	OT 2

Why Saturday rocked:

PIT over WPG, 8-5; Jets after 31 road games: 67GF, 102GA
NYR over PHI, 5-2; Flyers: 8 goals scored in last four games (1-2-1)
MTL over TOR, 5-0; Leafs' tenders faced 18 shots. Total.
EDM over OTW, 4-3 (OT); falls under "rocks" category due to host Sens' failure to hold two leads

Why Saturday jonesed:

No actual joneses to be found. A good day.

Panthers Playoff Update:

FLA defeated New Jersey 3-1; playoff odds up 10 to 83.1% per Sports Club Stats

Why today is a Big Deal in SoFla, beyond the obvious:

WSH at NYR, 12:30 p.m. (NBC); no introduction needed here
TB at PIT, 7; after pulling for Pens a day ago, we're all about the Bolts now
PHI at DET, 7:30 (NBC-SN); Flyers are 2-14 at Joe Louis Arena since 1990

Next up for the Cats:

Another (not quite so) early start, this time from Uniondale; LBC Game Thread powers up at 2:30. Meantime, check out our pals at Lighthouse Hockey and Islanders Point Blank.

Did you know:

Former Islander Sean Bergenheim has recorded 6 shorties and 5 gamewinners in 128 appearances at Nassau Coliseum

Saturday’s Organizational Transactions:

D Colby Robak recalled from San Antonio

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Comments

It will be interesting to see how many minutes Strachan and Robak get today. Don’t the Panthers need to add a D with a mid round draft pick right now?

by roywhitby on Feb 12, 2012 9:51 AM EST via mobile reply actions

Don’t the Panthers need to add a D with a mid round draft pick right now?

Are referring to making a trade?

Litter Box Cats - Your tarp-free Florida Panthers Colossus

by Donny Rivette on Feb 12, 2012 11:57 AM EST up reply actions

McCabe

by Rob PKane McMahon on Feb 12, 2012 1:54 PM EST up reply actions

Strach has paired well with Ellerby. Unsure if KD wants to disturb that chemistry. And so long as Colby can hold up well, I don’t believe Dale will make any poor thought haste.

CFS93

by chesterbardo on Feb 12, 2012 10:05 AM EST reply actions

I think Strachan ha played well too. I worry about Campbell wearing down since I can’t see Robak getting a lot of minutes today.

by roywhitby on Feb 12, 2012 10:30 AM EST via mobile up reply actions

Presumably Strachan’s ice time will increase from the 15:38 (24 shifts) he logged Saturday as Robak enters the lineup. Even Ellerby did a grand job keeping his lanes clear in 19:36 (31 shifts).

Litter Box Cats - Your tarp-free Florida Panthers Colossus

by Donny Rivette on Feb 12, 2012 11:38 AM EST up reply actions

As of right now, Jovo’s due back before the deadline. If that holds, I don’t think Tallon makes a move for a defenseman.

"Shut up, Pierre!" -Everyone

Litter Box Cats - Your Panthers Colossus.

by John Beatty on Feb 12, 2012 11:31 AM EST up reply actions

I think I’d rather see Pittsburgh beat Tampa Bay today. Even though the Panthers are close to the Pens in points it’s hard for me to see them passing them up. The Lightning is on a nice little run that needs to be ended. I have a feeling one of the 11-14 teams is going to make a big run and get back in it. I’d rather it wasn’t the Lightning.

117 days until Prometheus

by Todd Little on Feb 12, 2012 11:52 AM EST reply actions

Yeah, I struggled with that one, ultimately settling for the lowest common denominator :(

Litter Box Cats - Your tarp-free Florida Panthers Colossus

by Donny Rivette on Feb 12, 2012 11:54 AM EST up reply actions

Logically it’s the right call but it doesn’t matter much to me what happens in that one. Right now the teams that need to keep losing are the Caps, Leafs and Sens until that changes I am not too concerned with the other teams in the East. As long as the Cats are taking care of business they will be the 3 seed no matter what anyone else does..

117 days until Prometheus

by Todd Little on Feb 12, 2012 11:58 AM EST up reply actions