Apologies for the late blog, and with a short window before puck drop, let’s keep this one quick…
The Panthers laid an egg in Game 3. Gotta make sure you don’t do that again because Tampa got a big confidence boost when they downed the Cats 5-1 on Saturday.
Verhaeghe on managing the ebbs and flows of a series:
— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) April 27, 2025
"It's finding a balance to a more even keel. It's never as bad as it seems, and it's never as good as it seems. It's just going through and grinding."
Maurice has made a lineup change after the loss, sitting Samo and replacing him with Greer.
#FlaPanthers rushes this AM, looks like Greer is coming in for Samoskevich.
— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) April 28, 2025
Verhaeghe - Barkov - Reinhart
Rodrigues - Bennett - Tkachuk
Luostarinen - Lundell - Marchand
Boqvist - Sturm - Greer
Forsling - Ekblad
Mikkola - Jones
Schmidt - Kulikov
Bobrovsky
Vanecek
Per Maurice on the decision:
“This is the natural progression of a young player. ... Anton Lundell went through it. ... I'm a big fan of that young man."
Hard to argue with the head coach and his track record.
Most important thing tonight is to not panic because they lost Game 3. That, and not getting dragged into silliness - I’m looking at you #19. I have a feeling the Bolts will be trying to bait Tkachuk into a lot of things because of his late hit on Guentzel at the end of last game. Chucky will need to be smart tonight and not give in to petty stuff.
Wouldn’t mind seeing ‘Mr. Postseason’ Carter Verheage come alive…
Looking forward to this one. Feels like the Battle of Florida will really take off tonight. Both teams have taken a piece of a key player on each side. Tempers were glaring at the end of Game 3. Im guessing (hoping) we see some fireworks! __________________________________
Let’s make the series 3-1…Go Panthers!