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Game #4: Philadelphia Flyers |
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The Panthers suffered their first loss of the 2022-23 season at the hands of the Boston Bruins on Monday night.
The 5-3 loss is one thing, losing Ekblad after Boston’s second goal is another thing. Originally announced as a lower-body injury, Ekblad has been placed on LTIR. Combine Ekblad’s injury with Montour’s (which is not thought to be serious) and the Cats are in a tough spot defensively - a position they’re already thin at. Carlsson and Kiersted have been recalled.
It was a hard-fought battle at TD Garden with the difference-maker being Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk, who seemed like he was shot out of a cannon all night. He was winning foot races and contributing to offensive opportunities left and right.
Despite the 5-3 score and a number of mistakes throughout the game, the Cats were very close to tying things up. In fact, it was 4-3 late in the third with Florida pulling Bob for the man advantage, until the above-mentioned DeBrusk hit the empty-net dagger for Boston.
I thought Bob had a good game. The only goal I could see him wanting back was the fourth one that was a wrap around. It looked like Bob was in position, but didn’t have the post sealed off enough. The first goal was just bad puck luck with it bouncing over Forsling’s stick after he tried keeping it in the zone by catching it. The second goal saw the Panthers defense losing a foot race, and the third was a great play by Pasta combined with Staal just missing taking Pasta’s body out of the play. Close but no cigar on that one.
Either way, it’s always frustrating to lose to the big dogs when you could have tightened things up a bit and gotten the win.
Flyers on Panther Ice
Coming off the three-game road trip to start the season, the Panthers will finally have their home opener tonight where they will faceoff against the 3-0-0 Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers are led by new, fiery head coach John Tortarella, who has yet to deliver a Torts style sound byte to the media (but I’m sure it’s coming). Regardless of the lack of Tortsisms, he this Flyers team disciplined and playing very good hockey. So much so that they found themselves on the NHL Network yesterday where the analysts debated if they’re “for real” or not - with the crew agreeing they are in fact the real deal this early into the season.
Florida could have the legs and wind (lungs) advantage in this tilt with the Flyers coming off a game yesterday in Tampa and assuming their backup will be in net.
Let’s get back in the win column!
Reverse Retro
I read a rumor that the Panthers will be teasing their Reverse Retros this morning and again in the afternoon. Hope this is true because I can’t wait to see and discuss…
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Go Panthers!
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