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Tuesday Caterwaul: Florida Panthers GameDay Open Forum

Career-highs abound in 2011-12 for Florida Panthers center Shawn Matthias, as games-played (70), goals (10), assists (14), points (24), penalty minutes (49), blocked shots (36), SOG (121), and shooting-percentage (.083) are all significantly up over any of his prior three seasons. The current four-game winning streak has brought no offense from him to speak of, but he’s getting it done in essentially every other area with 24 pim, 6 hits, and 6 BkS.

The Eastern Front

Rank

Team

GP

W

L

OT

PTS

GF

GA

Home

Away

L10

Streak

1

x-NY Rangers

72

45

20

7

97

199

160

25-9-2

20-11-5

4-5-1

Won 1

2

Boston

72

42

27

3

87

236

178

22-13-2

20-14-1

4-6-0

Won 2

3

Florida

71

35

23

13

83

180

197

20-9-8

15-14-5

6-3-1

Won 4

4

Pittsburgh

71

44

21

6

94

231

180

24-8-2

20-13-4

9-0-1

OT 1

5

Philadelphia

72

42

22

8

92

231

204

19-10-5

23-12-3

8-1-1

Won 1

6

New Jersey

73

41

27

5

87

200

191

20-13-3

21-14-2

6-4-0

Lost 2

7

Ottawa

73

37

26

10

84

221

213

19-14-4

18-12-6

5-3-2

Lost 1

8

Washington

73

37

30

6

80

198

208

23-10-3

14-20-3

5-4-1

Won 1

9

Buffalo

73

34

29

10

78

187

207

18-11-8

16-18-2

6-2-2

Won 1

10

Winnipeg

72

34

30

8

76

192

203

23-11-4

11-19-4

5-4-1

Lost 1

11

Carolina

73

29

29

15

73

194

217

18-13-6

11-16-9

5-3-2

Won 3

12

Toronto

73

32

33

8

72

208

227

16-13-6

16-20-2

3-6-1

Lost 1

13

Tampa Bay

72

32

33

7

71

202

247

21-14-2

11-19-5

4-5-1

Lost 3

14

NY Islanders

72

29

32

11

69

169

216

15-16-6

14-16-5

3-4-3

Won 1

15

Montreal

73

28

32

13

69

191

203

13-15-9

15-17-4

4-3-3

OT 2

*

Why last night rocked:

  • NYR over NJ, 4-2: a very mild selection as a game that “rocked”, but only somewhat-tepid news of the night for Cats/

Why last night jonesed:

  • WSH over DET, 5-3: first five-goal effort from Caps since January 24 (5-3 victory over BOS), a span of 25 games
  • BOS over TOR, 8-0: Globe and Mail‘s Shoalts: Monday night’s no-show against the Boston Bruins, which capped a season’s worth of futility against them, was every bit the equal of anything that happened in the worst period of the franchise’s history.”
  • BUF over TB, 7-3: Sabres remain relevant as Bolts hit -45 goal differential mark

Panthers Playoff Update:

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

Focusing on clubs within 5 points of Panthers (83P); teams FLA needs to lose in bold…

  • WPG (76P) at PIT, 7 p.m.: including this only because it should be one completely killer hockey game
  • NJ (87P) at OTT (84P), 7:30 p.m.: another take-your-pick matchup, selected the Devils to lose only due to higher point total between them

Next up for the Cats:

Did you know:

  • Florida has been relatively competitive when playing at Wells Fargo Center in recent seasons; witness a 6-6-1 record in 13 games since 2005-06 (36GF-38GA) /

Monday’s Organizational News:

Talking Points