Follow @SpiegelSports Jason Demers was a thorn in his former team's side Thursday as he scored his first two goals of the season in the first period Thursday night. Both goals came within 2:17 of each other and put Florida up 2-0 early on the Sharks, the Stanley Cup Finalists from last year.
Then an all-too-familiar result was on the way. Defensive mistakes and bad bounces allowed the Sharks to score four unanswered goals, including an empty netter. The Panthers have not won two games in a row since the beginning of the season.
While head coach Gerard Gallant said he was pleased with the overall effort, for the first time this year you could see his frustration with the mistakes leading to the 4-2 loss. "Last year they talked about us having bad starts in games, now we're starting well,'' said Gallant. "I liked the way we played most of the game, but we made three mistakes and they're in the back of our net. Those mistakes kill you. We give them the goals; they didn't deserve the goals. You give up goals, make it a habit, we're going to have a tough season.''
Demers, 28, is known to have some offensive capabilities but to this point he was ice cold as he acclimates to his new home after playing in Dallas for the last two years. Tonight it changed as he was the unexpected star to start the game. By the end of it, it meant nothing to him. "I don't care if I get four goals, if you don't win it doesn't mean anything,'' Demers said. "This has been going on since the start of the year and we got to fix it soon because it's embarrassing. We keep getting games like this and playing hard, and just mental errors and mental mistakes by all of us; we let off the gas and let teams back in the game."
"We've outplayed 95 percent of the games we've played in games and it's between the ears right now.''
Developing defensemen such as Alex Petrovic and Mike Matheson have been sore spots in some of the losses thus far, but it has been a combination of momentary inconsistent defense and the team trying to overcome injuries to the forwards.
Jussi Jokinen returned Thursday after missing nine games with a lower body injury. He looked good but it did not necessarily spark his line with Vincent Trocheck and Reilly Smith. In fact, Gallant switched Trocheck to the 3rd line late in the game looking to get anything going offensively.
The good news is despite the loss the Panthers stood toe to toe with one of the best teams in the NHL and could have won the game as easily as they lost it. Florida is so close to putting together a win streak to right the ship but playing 50-55 minutes won't cut it.
A rematch of last year's playoffs is on tap Saturday as the Islanders come to town in what is sure to be a spirited affair. As most experts agree, the Panthers played well enough to win that series if not for questionable officiating at best. Hopefully the zebras on the ice will let the players decide the game this time.
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