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Worst Start In Franchise History |
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Tampa, FL- The first period still is plaguing the Florida Panthers. Although Peter Mueller responded with a quick goal to answer Tampa's first goal by Steven Stamkos, too many odd man rushes and defensive breakdowns are killing the Cats.
To be realistic, it can't be much worse for the Panthers, who have been thoroughly outplayed since their opening 5-1 victory over Carolina opening night. Florida's energy out of the gate was much better than in previous games, minus the results being the same after one period.
For the second time this season, Keaton Ellerby, defended one of his teammates getting into a fight with B.J. Crombeen after Crombeen took a run at captain Ed Jovanovski. However, Ellerby getting 2 for instigating, 2 for unsportsmanlike conduct, 5 for fighting, and 10 minute misconduct was surely excessive, leaving the Panthers in an all-too-familiar spot of being shorthanded, whether it be by penalty or injury. Naturally, that lead to Tampa's first goal of the night, and the momentum rarely shifted in the 5-2 loss.
When it rains it pours and an unlucky bounce off Tom Pyatt in front of Jose Theodore made it 3-1. The Panthers are seemingly not built to come from behind right now, and GM Dale Tallon and Kevin Dineen have to be seeing red, and not the good kind, about the progress of this club.
"There's snapshots every night and I think there's some individual efforts that encourange you but it gets back to our team players and how they sync right now," said Dineen. It has fallen the wrong way in the last 10 days and that's a problem."
The Panthers are now off to their worst start in franchise history, and the players now have to look within to pick themselves up. "It's obviously embarrassing to love five straight games," said defenseman Filip Kuba. It's not the right time to put our heads down and feel sorry for ourselves. We got another game coming and forty something [games] left, so we have to figure out quickly what we have to do to get ready and play better."
One of the few bright spots has been the play of Drew Shore. First thoughts were the rookie was getting playing time because of the lack of healthy bodies, but he has shown he belongs. He is responsible on both ends of the ice and is simply awesome in the faceoff circle.
Unlike Jonathan Huberdeau, who still gets pushed around most of the time, Shore has a big frame at 6'3", 200 pounds. He should only get bigger. Add monstrous Nick Bjugstad to this group next year as Huberdeau beefs up and the future is bright. However, the future means nothing right now as the Panthers don't even need to win a game right now. How about win a period. Sure they are beat up, but even for Florida's standards this is a shocking start to the season.
A red-faced, stewing Dale Tallon stared down in his own world of pain as he went down to see his team after the game. One has to wonder if he's thinking towards a high pick in the draft or shipping off liabilities as soon as the roster gets healthier. There are a few names high on the list to move out of town. But will Tallon find himself in a position to make those moves that will help this club this season and in the future? The next week should be very telling.
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Dan Spiegel...
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