The Panthers gave the Coyotes their first win in Mullet Arena on Tuesday night when Florida fell 3-1 to the Coyotes.
The loss can be summed up by special teams failure, a red-hot goalie in Vejmelka, and a handful of pucks ringing off the post for the Cats.
Once again the Florida Power Play unit failed to capitalize on the man advantage, going 0-for-3. What’s more, the penalty kill unit surrendered two goals, allowing the Coyotes to go 2-for-4 on the man advantage.
And so the broken record continues:
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Our power play has struggled this year. We're still grinding away. It's important to get that power play rolling. I'm sure we're going to figure it out. Once we do, it's going to make our team that much more dangerous." - Sam Bennett
At some point this thing just needs to start working. We’ve heard about how hard they’re working and how much they’re trying to get it to click for two seasons now…
If you’re looking for a positive from the loss to a struggling Coyotes team, head over to the Panthers
website for this stat:
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Although there's still work to be done on the man advantage, the Panthers shined at even strength once again despite not getting rewarded with more goals. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, they led Arizona 51-28 in shot attempts, 18-12 in scoring chances and 1-0 in goals at 5-on-5.
By the time the final horn sounded, Florida also led 4.41-2.94 in expected goals.”
Like the stats say, the Cats peppered the net all night, even coming up with number of dangerous chances. But those 42 shots on goal wouldn’t be enough. Florida was bested by Coyotes’ goaltender Karel Vejmelka - who only allowed one goal to slip by him. It seems like every time the Cats see this guy, he stands on his head. His 41 shots were good enough to earn him first star honors.
The reality is that all the positive spins don’t take away the sting of losing to a team you should beat
If the 5-4-1 Panthers want to avoid slipping any further down the Atlantic Division standings (they’re currently in 5th), they better be fired up to pounce on a struggling 3-8-1 Sharks team tonight.
Despite the new branding for this season, San Jose’s play hasn’t been as good as the slick teal sweaters they’ve been rocking this year.
The Sharks are coming off a tough shootout loss to the Ducks on Tuesday night. Not even a hat trick from Erik Karlsson could get them the win as they fell 6-5. Speaking of Karlsson…it’s been a blast seeing him regain his confidence and anchoring the blueline for this Sam Jose team. He’s had a resurgence in his play and is sitting on 15 points (9G, 6A) in 12 games.
While Karlsson is flourishing, the Sharks as a whole are trending in the opposite direction. So much so that they could be willing to move anyone on the team outside of Tomas Hertl (or so the rumors say).
The Panthers have a very good chance to get their road trip back on track tonight, but they’ll have a better shot at 5-on-5 because despite a rough start to their season, San Jose boasts a 94.4% in the penalty-killing department (good enough for second best in the league).
There’s a good chance Florida will see an old friend in net tonight if James Reiner gets the nod.
Can the Cats survive the Shark Tank and get rolling again? Or will they suffer another disappointing (embarrassing?) Mullet Arena loss?
We’ll find out…
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Go Panthers!
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