The Panthers cruised to a 6-1 victory against the Islanders on Tuesday night, snapping their four-game losing streak. Though their road schedule has been a small sample size, it looks like this Florida group might be a home ice team (8-0-0 thus far) and not a road one…which they will need to work on as the season continues to roll forward.
While there were a lot of good things to come out of the NYI win, there was an unfortunate one that kind of overshadowed the victory.
I don’t need to remind you that Barkov exited Tuesday’s game in the second period after a knee-on-knee collision with Islanders’ defenseman Scott Mayfield. The jarring collision certainly had Cat fans everywhere holding their collective breath. Some relief came when it was announced that surgery would not be needed but Brunnette’s ominous comments from yesterday (below) does not sound too good at the moment.
So what does this mean for the Panthers? It’s simple, really: these guys need to step up.
And apparently they already know that per Sam Bennett:
“It's a huge loss for our team, but guys are going to step up. We care about each other a lot in that locker room. I believe everyone's going to step up their game a bit."
There is a lot of talent on this team (as we all know) and now it’s time for them to come together and fill the gap that will be left by Barky for the foreseeable future.
With that in mind, here is what the lines looked like during practice yesterday per Jameson Olive:
Huberdeau - Bennett - Duclair
Verhaeghe - Lundell - Reinhart
Vatrano - Thornton - Tippett
Lomberg - Luostarinen - Hornqvist
For those wondering about Thornton’s status, it seems he’s a question mark for tonight’s game. If he can’t go, Mamin gets the nod.
And Knight gets the start…this is a big game for him in my opinion. The Panthers took the Devils lightly the last time the two teams met and they paid for it with a 7-3 thumping.
Though the team was generally off, I thought Knight looked the most uncomfortable. He was slightly out of position on a few of those goals and the cost of that reflected in his confidence - as his body language said it all.
One way the team can help their young goaltender tonight is to minimize the shots from the point with traffic out front. The Devils scored three of their seven goals from point shots with redirects out front. Not only that, they had a number of other shots go off the posts and crossbar from via the same means: shots from the pint and traffic out front.
Time clamp down on the blueline and clear the crease, boys!
With New Jersey coming to Florida ice, I’m predicting a 5-2 victory for our Cats.
Let’s get it done!
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Time to hunt…Go Panthers!
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