We asked for it and we got it. The Cats played their best game (IMO) Tuesday night against a strong team in the Pittsburgh Penguins and got the 4-2 win.
It was nice to see Florida take advantage of the Penguins, who were coming off a 3-0 loss to the Knights in their game prior to clashing with the Panthers.
Florida played as a cohesive unit throughout the majority of the game and it was nice to see them seal the deal in regulation.
I was impressed with Florida's pace and overall team defense - preventing their normal amount of high quality chances to the opposition. While I'm not a big Yandle guy, I thought he looked good in this game and Stralman continues to be the quiet, steady man on the blueline. The team also blocked 11 shots and put the body on the opposition with 31 hits to the Pens 12. Bob also chipped in quite a bit by putting together a really nice effort and coming up big when needed.
Florida will need to keep an eye on their turnover rate, as they gave the puck away 22 times. Contrast that with the Penguins 9 giveaways and it's pretty startling...
I really liked what I saw in Boyle. Sure, he may have been a little gassed at times, but that's to be expected as he knocks the rust off. It's such an asset to have a big body down the middle and he likes to park himself in front of the net. Looking forward to him getting his legs/lungs back and throwing the body a bit. Nice to see him with some shots on net, too.
Great to see Huby keeping up his (almost) a point-per-game pace, while Accairi continued his hot start with a unique/awesome goal. Can't stop watching it.
another one of Noel's goals! 👀 pic.twitter.com/hGwKkW76eO
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) October 23, 2019
Trocheck (injury) and Ekblad (illness) were out against the Penguins, while Matheson exited the game in the second period. Hopefully these three can get healthy for the upcoming left coast swing.
Denis the Menace
Malgin has impressed me this season and especially these past couple games. He's put it all together and is using his speed to his advantage. It's good to see him drive to the net and create offense. He has certainly improved under Q and one of the things Quenneville expects out of his players is defense. Malgin has looked a lot better in this aspect of the game - often busting his butt to help on the backcheck. The man is becoming a solid weapon.
Trade
The Cats traded defenseman Ian McCoshen to the Chicago Blackhawks for forward Aleksi Saarela.
From the Panthers website:
"Saarela, 22, has appeared in five games with the Rockford Icehogs of the American Hockey League, registering one assist.
In 2018-19, the 5-foot-10, 200-pound native of Helsinki, Finland, produced 54 points and a team-leading 30 goals for the Charlotte Checkers (AHL) over 69 regular season games. Saarela won the 2019 Calder Cup with Charlotte, notching 15 points (7-8-15) over 17 postseason games.
Over 152 career AHL regular season games, Saarela has amassed 108 points (61-47-108), while recording 18 points (9-9-18) over 30 career AHL playoff games. Saarela was originally selected by the New York Rangers in the third round (89th overall) of the 2015 NHL Draft."
Calgary Nights
The Flames currently sit at 5-5-1 and seem to be struggling getting offense from the guys they need to have get going.
From MSN Sports:
"Speaking of needing a spark we will move on to the Calgary Flames. Calgary tried to string a two game winning streak together against Washington for the third time this season and failed for the third time this season. The Flames scoring depth has been one of the few reasons they’ve been able to keep themselves in games lately. Calgary’s bottom six is providing most of the offence while those that are expected to carry the load aren’t at all. Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk have been non-existent. In their last nine games this trio has three goals combined (Gaudreau with one and Tkachuk with two) and that’s not enough. This group is paid to do the heavy lifting and so far this season they aren’t doing even close to enough lifting.
Now, with all that said this current version of the Flames sits at 5-5-1. Want to know what last year’s Calgary Flames team record was after 11 games? You guessed it, 5-5-1. That team went on to finish with the second best regular season record in the NHL. There’s plenty of time for the Flames to get back on track, but if they are going to do that Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk and even Mikael Backlund and Mark Giordano need to be more involved."
With some of their big guns holstered at the moment, this could be another great opportunity for the Panthers to grab another two points and continue to build from Saturday and Tuesday.
Can't wait for puck drop tonight. Lets have a good one and as always...go Panthers!
