Salvation or curse? The Florida Panthers continue to pile away points beyond regulation time, most recently in a 2-1 shootout loss at Pittsburgh Friday evening, bringing the total number of defeats beyond 60 minutes of play to 13; only Carolina has more (15). Any one (or many more than one) of those could have ended with a different outcome, thereby perhaps drastically altering where the Cats currently find themselves in the Eastern Conference: forgetting the gory details, in playoff position.
A deeper and far darker aspect of the OT/SO losses is that eight of the 13 have occurred only after Florida scored the first goal of the game. Who “tops” that? Yet again, the Hurricanes with 10 losses in extra play after scoring first in regulation. Guess which club visits Sunrise tomorrow?
RECAPS: Litter Box Cats * SB Nation * PensBurgh
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The Eastern Front
|
Rank |
Team |
GP |
W |
L |
OT |
PTS |
GF |
GA |
Home |
Away |
L10 |
Streak |
|
1 |
NY Rangers |
67 |
42 |
18 |
7 |
91 |
184 |
145 |
22-7-2 |
20-11-5 |
4-4-2 |
Lost 3 |
|
2 |
Boston |
66 |
40 |
23 |
3 |
83 |
217 |
155 |
20-12-2 |
20-11-1 |
5-4-1 |
Won 2 |
|
3 |
Florida |
67 |
31 |
23 |
13 |
75 |
164 |
191 |
16-9-8 |
15-14-5 |
4-4-2 |
OT 1 |
|
4 |
Pittsburgh |
67 |
41 |
21 |
5 |
87 |
214 |
171 |
23-8-2 |
18-13-3 |
9-1-0 |
Won 8 |
|
5 |
Philadelphia |
66 |
38 |
21 |
7 |
83 |
218 |
193 |
17-10-5 |
21-11-2 |
7-3-0 |
Won 4 |
|
6 |
New Jersey |
67 |
38 |
24 |
5 |
81 |
189 |
177 |
18-12-3 |
20-12-2 |
5-4-1 |
Won 2 |
|
7 |
Ottawa |
69 |
36 |
25 |
8 |
80 |
213 |
202 |
18-13-3 |
18-12-5 |
7-3-0 |
Won 2 |
|
8 |
Washington |
67 |
33 |
28 |
6 |
72 |
178 |
190 |
22-10-3 |
11-18-3 |
4-5-1 |
Won 1 |
|
|
||||||||||||
|
9 |
Winnipeg |
69 |
32 |
29 |
8 |
72 |
181 |
195 |
21-10-4 |
11-19-4 |
5-3-2 |
Lost 2 |
|
10 |
Buffalo |
68 |
31 |
29 |
8 |
70 |
167 |
191 |
17-11-7 |
14-18-1 |
7-2-1 |
Lost 1 |
|
11 |
Tampa Bay |
67 |
31 |
29 |
7 |
69 |
189 |
229 |
20-10-2 |
11-19-5 |
6-3-1 |
OT 1 |
|
12 |
Toronto |
67 |
30 |
30 |
7 |
67 |
200 |
209 |
16-13-5 |
14-17-2 |
2-7-1 |
Lost 2 |
|
13 |
Carolina |
67 |
25 |
27 |
15 |
65 |
177 |
203 |
17-13-6 |
8-14-9 |
4-2-4 |
OT 1 |
|
14 |
NY Islanders |
67 |
28 |
30 |
9 |
65 |
156 |
200 |
15-14-5 |
13-16-4 |
4-5-1 |
Lost 1 |
|
15 |
Montreal |
68 |
26 |
32 |
10 |
62 |
179 |
192 |
12-15-8 |
14-17-2 |
3-7-0 |
Won 1 |
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Why last night rocked:
- CGY over WPG, 5-3: Jets now 2-5 over past seven away from MTS Center, don’t play again until Wednesday (!)
Why last night jonesed:
- G Jose Theodore had a phenomenal bounce-back performance from just a day earlier, stopping 33 of 34 PIT shots (.971 SV%) before Neal and Malkin ripped out his still-beating heart in the skills competition
Panthers Playoff Update:
- FLA lost to PIT 1-2 (SO); playoff odds up 4.1 to 81.2% per Sports Club Stats /
Why tonight is a Big Deal in SoFla:
Focusing on clubs within 6 points of Panthers (75P); teams FLA needs to lose in bold…
- WSH (72P) at BOS, 1 p.m. (NHL-N): Caps 2-3 in last five on road; home against TOR Sunday
- BUF (70P) at OTT (80P), 7: flip a coin here, as Cats separated from both clubs by five points
- NJ (81P) at NYI, 7: Kovy – 5P in past two games (4G)
- CAR at TB (69P), 7: Bolts lead season-series 3-2 heading into final game, outscored Canes 18-15/
Next up for the Cats:
- Tomorrow at home vs Carolina; LBC Game Thread dusts off the JetBlues at 4:30. Need single-game tickets for Panthers-Hurricanes? Seats starting at $5 right here
Did you know
- Panthers are 2-0-1 in last three games immediately following shootout losses/
Friday’s Organizational News:
- F John Madden, Marco Sturm and D Tyson Strachan returned to the lineup as F Mike Santorelli, Jerred Smithson and D Keaton Ellerby were scratched
- Rampage fell to Texas in overtime; take on the Stars again this evening