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Having Confidence

November 5, 2019, 11:49 PM ET [2 Comments]
Matt Ross
Florida Panthers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
This past Saturday the Panthers beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-0. It was a big win in my opinion.

To start things off, I think it’s important to point out that Detroit is in a transition period as they slowly rebuild, so they’re not the Wings were typically used to seeing. As such, their record coming in to face the Cats was 4-10-1. Despite the lopsided loss, I was really impressed with Bernier. I thought he made some great saves to deny the Cats from finding the back of the net even more than they did.

That being said...

The weakened Red Wings may have been exactly what the doctor ordered for a Florida team coming off a difficult October schedule. While on paper the Cats should have gotten the win, it was encouraging to see them actually get the win. What I mean by this is that Panthers will face weaker teams (statistically) throughout the season - as do all teams - and these are important games to win not only for the standings, but for team confidence. It’s also what the truly good teams do.

I think we saw some of this confidence come out from this FLA crew during this most recent win. Coming off a pretty successful road trip and playing some of the league’s stronger teams throughout the first month of the season certainly translated to what we saw on the ice Sunday.

The Cats controlled the better part of the whole game and they were moving with speed and purpose - their passing and shots followed the same blue print. They had their foot on the gas and never let up. That’s that pace that Q is always talking about. Credit to Detroit for having some nice opportunities, but Bob rose to the occasion (more on him shortly).

This game went about as good as I hoped and the numbers nerds should be happy, as the Panthers led in most categories. A couple of good ones to see were the Cats outshooting the Wings 41-22, beating them at the dot with a faceoff percentage of 55.6% to Detroit’s 44.4%. Florida also continued their trend of tossing the body around, narrowly out-hitting the Wings at 16-14. Perhaps my favorite was seeing the stat line where the Panthers blocked 13 shots. That’s preventing 13 shots from finding their way to the net and potentially in - so that’s always a good thing!

Of course, every yin has its yang and in this case, for all the good stats to come out of Saturday, there were two somewhat alarming ones to me. The Cats gave the puck away 20 times to Detroit’s 10 (doubling them) and only managed to take it away five times. These numbers might be OK against a rebuilding team like the Wings, but tougher customers will take advantage of those giveaways. I’d like to see them tighten that aspect of their game up a bit more.

The Guy Who Benefited Most

I think Sunday’s win was most beneficial to the man between the pipes: Bob.

I remember my days in net and the feeling of coming off a win. What topped that? Getting a shutout. I can’t imagine what they feels like at the NHL level. It has to be insane.

For a guy coming to a new team, playing under unrealistic expectations from a win-starved fan base and taking some criticism throughout the first month, the goose egg Bob posted must have felt fantastic.

I thought #72 looked solid in the blue paint. Insert generic goalie comments...but he really was out on top of his crease challenging shooters and making himself look big. Make no bones about it, the Wings had their opportunities a number of times and each time Bob stepped up to best them. He was seeing the puck well and playing with a ton of confidence. Let’s hope that continues.

Falling Dominos

The recent victory helped give Florida points in 10 out of their last 11 games (6-1-4). What’s more, they’re now seated in fourth place of the Atlantic Division with a 7-3-4 record and on the heels of Toronto who is at 8-5-3.

Hard work and good play builds confidence. Confidence builds winners. The team that took the ice on Saturday is the team they need to build off of and continue getting stronger.

They seemed to move with a purpose, they took shots when they had opportunities and moved the puck exceptionally well. They never played down.

Let’s keep this momentum going...go Panthers!

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