The Panthers train keeps on chugging along. Are they blowing teams out of the water? No. But they continue to win and are hitting both team and personal milestones in the process.
Let’s make it official!
— x - Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) April 13, 2022
That’s 300 goals scored by your Florida Panthers so far this season 🔥 pic.twitter.com/1UvOQdTEiC
Mark that as Anthony Duclair's first career 30-goal season as he joins Aleksander Barkov as the second @FlaPanthers player to hit the mark in 2021-22.#NHLStats: https://t.co/vJlw3iC5CI pic.twitter.com/HNcMorGF9g
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 13, 2022
And Huby is still red-hot.
Huberdeau has 105 points (28 goals, 77 assists).
— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) April 13, 2022
He's also second among #FlaPanthers forwards in shorthanded TOI (134:05).
That's pretty cool.
Even though they’re building a nucleus of young, talented guys in Anaheim that can catch teams by surprise, I thought the Panthers were going to cream the Ducks Tuesday night. Never did I think the Cardiac Cats would be needed against the Ducks, but because of one man, they were.
And that man Tuesday night was John Gibson.
Talk about a performance. The Anaheim goaltender faced 55 shots and turned away all but three. What’s even crazier is that the Ducks had 21 blocked shots. So he could have seen even more rubber than he already did. And it wasn’t like all those shots hit him square in the chest either. Many of them were legitimate scoring opportunities. If you’re a fan of stellar goaltending performances, Gibson put on a clinicfor you Tuesday night.
Despite having to channel the Cardiac Cats yet again (you can never count them out), a real nice positive to come out of the Ducks game - besides obviously winning - was Florida’s dominance at the dot. The Panthers won 62.3% of the faceoffs compared to Anaheim’s 37.7%. Having control of the dot in all three zones is a trend I’d love to see carry over into the playoffs. Giroux’s speciality for sure.
With nine games left in the season Florida turns their sights to the Winnipeg Jets tonight as the men from the North come down to South Florida.
The 35-28-11 Jets find themselves in sixth place of the Central Division and battling to keep their playoff hopes alive.
As Winners and Whiners points out:
“The Jets have kept their playoff hopes alive with their offense stepping up and scoring 3.08 goals per game including eight goals in the last two games. Kyle Connor has scored 42 goals and 43 assists while Mark Scheifele, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Nikolaj Ehlers have added 80 goals and 94 assists to the top two lines but the rest of the offense has stepped up as well. Paul Stastny, Blake Wheeler, and Adam Lowry have combined for 44 goals and 69 assists while defenseman Josh Morrissey has added 11 goals and 22 assists from the point to open up the offense.
The Jets' offense has been great but the defense has struggled, allowing 3.08 goals per game. Brenden Dillon, Neal Pionk, and Josh Morrissey have combined for 7.2 defensive point shares and 279 blocked shots but the rest of the unit has struggled and is allowing opponents to find open shots on the net at will. The bright spot has been the play of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck who has a .911 save percentage and a 2.93 goals-against average on an unprecedented 2033 shots.…
One of the things I’ve admired about Winnipeg teams over the past few years is they play a heavy, skilled game. It seems like they always have big guys that are a mix of skill and physicality.
This will be a good test for the Panthers late in the season as the playoffs loom. They’ll be clashing with a desperate team that’s fighting for their playoff lives. I expect them to come out strong.
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Enjoy the game and Go Panthers!