Not only did Stephen Weiss lead the resurgent Florida Panthers with a 13.4% success rate on 149 shots in 2011-12, but better than a quarter of his 20 goals on the year were gamewinners: a club-best 6 tied him at sixth in the league at the close of the NHL’s regular season. Among the Cats, Kris Versteeg (5) and Tomas Fleischmann (4) were second and third, respectively.
Who set the bar this year? Steven Stamkos and Radim Vrbata each concluded their campaigns with a sobering 12.
Monday’s results:
- (7) Washington over (1) NY Rangers, 3-2 (REG): Alex Ovechkin logged a playoff-low – by almost two minutes – 13:36, nailed winner on a power play wrister in third frame. Series tied 1-1.
- (8) Los Angeles over (2) St. Louis, 5-2: Jonathan Quick stops 27 shots, now 1.56/.952 in 2012 postseason play. Kings lead series 2-0.
Tonight’s NHL Playoff action
- (6) New Jersey at (5) Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN) – Game Two; no points, 1 SOG, 16:26 TOI Sunday for Jaromir Jagr. Flyers lead series 1-0.
The San Antonio Rampage begin second-round AHL Calder Cup play from Oklahoma City on Thursday; for some odd reason I thought it was today; my bad. Consolation stat: Jon Matsumoto leads all postseason participants in scoring with 9 points (3G/6A).
Panthers GM Dale Tallon held a news conference this morning; quotes popping up all over the Tweets. When audio and/or video washes ashore, we’d appreciate a link in the comments section below. For now…
Via @FlaPanthers:
- Tallon: #FlaPanthers fan support was tremendous. Building was rocking. Players enjoyed it. Take my hat off to fans, they helped motivate us
- Tallon: We’ve got a tremendous amount of prospects so our future is bright. They’ll have every opportunity to make the jump. #FlaPanthers
- Tallon: (On Gudbranson) We saw this young guy develop into a man right before our eyes. Got better each month. Bright future #FlaPanthers
- Tallon: Clem is 1 of the best pros I’ve ever been around. You can’t have enough depth in goal so we’ll continue conversations #FlaPanthers
- Tallon: So proud of Weiss. First phone call I made when I got job was to him. He showed a lot of character and class all year. #FlaPanthers
- Tallon: (About free agency) As active as we can be. We’ve got young talent coming up. This is when it gets exciting. #FlaPanthers