The Cats are coming off two consecutive wins in regulation and looking to take on the Anaheim Ducks tonight at home.
It was a nice 5-2 win on Tuesday night, but I have to admit...things got a little dicey late in the second and throughout the third for Florida, at least in my opinion.
It felt like smooth sailing when the Cats went up 4-1 in the second - which is a dangerous way to think. Florida was playing very well and taking the game to Philly with high octane pushes into the offensive zone, as well as utilizing a solid forecheck in Philly's defensive zone. In fact, I was really impressed with Toninato again on that fourth line. There were couple of times his efforts on the forecheck pressured PHI defensemen to cough the puck up in their own zone.
Just as you start to get comfortable with a Panthers lead, the opposition strikes. In this case, it was rookie Morgan Frost demonstrating some silky mitts with a fantastic backhand goal for his career first, which subsequently cut the Cats lead in half at 4-2 with about five minutes left in the second. This is a good example/teaching point of a defensive breakdown with Ekblad losing sight of Frost and letting him get in low and unnoticed until it's too late:
Suddenly, it seemed as though the two teams switched places. The Flyers really ramped up their play in the third and now had the Cats on their heels a number of times - putting 14 shots on net to the Panthers 5, with a number of those being very high caliber opportunities.
The difference maker?
Bob.
As someone who has been a bit of a Bob critic thus far, I was impressed with his play Tuesday and especially how he rose to the occasion in the third to push back against the Flyers surge. He never got rattled and came out challenging Philly shooters, making himself look big and confident in his crease. In all, he stopped 35 of 37 shots on the night. Nice work.
Though the Panthers couldn't get the PP going Tuesday, squandering four opportunities, they edged their opponent again in the dot with a 52.1 faceoff percentage. This trend of winning at the dot is carrying over to each game and there's no coincidence that it's helping get wins.
Another number that I was happy to see, as this is the first time I've seen this that I can remember this season, is the Cats didn't have more giveaways than the opposition. They actually tied the Flyers at 12. Hey, that's improvement and something to build on. What compliments this nicely is that that Florida had 12 takeaways to Philly's seven. This is excellent to see.
Happy Sceviour scored, but the goals need to start spreading out a bit. Barky, Huby, Connolly and Hoff had the other s who found the back of the net. These seem to be the only guys getting it done on a regular basis, and while that's great, they can't be relied on solely for production. They'll need others to start contributing in order to maintain success as the season goes on.
The Real Winner
While it was great to see the Cats get another win, it was even better (and arguably more important) seeing the fifth-annual Panther Conservation Night take place Tuesday.
Conservation is very important and it's nice to see the Panthers team up with Flamingo Gardens in order to raise awareness and continue their efforts to educate folks about these awesome, but sadly endangered, animals.
There is a great article that was posted prior to the game that breaks down the plight of the Florida panther, as well as the great people/organizations that are trying to help. I was shocked (and saddened) to see that as of 2017, there are an estimated 150-200 of them left in the wild.
Conservation education is important for all of us!
Back to Hockey
The Cats gear up for the 10-10-2 Anaheim Ducks in town.
The Ducks are coming off a 5-2 loss to the Caps on Monday. This was their sixth loss in the last seven games. They average 2.68 goals per game, putting them in 25th in the league in that category and 12th in goals against at 2.91.
They have a woeful PP that places them 30th in the NHL, only converting 10.2% of the time while on the man advantage, but are pretty solid on the kill at 79.2%.
We'll see a familiar face on the Ducks blueline in Erik Gudbranson. Let's just hope that no one gets spit on tonight...
There should be no change to the game plan. I'd like to see the Cats come out firing again like they did against the Flyers. Push the Ducks on their heels with strong zone entries and a solid forecheck (looking at you, fourth line). Let's see some not-so-familiar-with-the-scoresheet guys find the twine tonight.
Trocheck and Ekblad talked after yesterday's practice about the growing confidence these guys are feeling each game. This is good to hear. These guys know that they can compete with anyone and if they go down, they have the ability to battle back.
I think their mindset for this season should be that of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he said:
"As soon as you think you're perfect, you're screwed."
Florida is having one of the best starts in a long time. They're right behind Boston in second place of the Atlantic Division. It would be easy to get comfortable.
Don't.
This team (like every team) has a number of areas to work at and improve on. I like the motivation I'm seeing in these guys and they need to continue improving. Too much is not enough...
Stay hungry, Cats.
Reading Material
For you growing Toninato fans, Jameson Olive has an interview with him that's a nice little read. If you have some time today, check it out here.
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Florida Panthers Blogger • 
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