Your Panthers are 2-0-0 after their recent convincing 5-1 win over the Islanders Saturday night. I don’t care that it’s only two games into the season…let’s ride this wave and enjoy it!
from Conan GIFs via Gfycat
After nearly botching the first game to the Pens by blowing the lead, Florida came out flying Saturday night and dominated with speed and skill to tally five goals over NYI.
Bennett notched himself a nice hat trick - scoring from three different areas of the ice:
1. Creating havoc out front and being rewarded by cleaning up the loose change
2. Using quickness for a wrap around
3. Coming over the blue line, throwing on the brakes and delivering a nasty top shelf snipe
Duclair’s goal was nasty. He continues to show why his speed is so special and such a valuable weapon. Great to see him finish that one.
But of the five goals, I have to go with Barky’s as my favorite. Normally I would have went with Bennett’s third, but the subtly of Barkov’s move was so impressive that I found myself watching it over a few times.
The sell is what does it for me. He makes it look like he’s dragging the puck to the blocker side in order to get the goalie moving. When the goalie bites and starts sliding over, Barky casually tosses it up and over the glove side. Beautiful.
Props to Bob again. He was fantastic . I know it’s a small sample size so far but he has looked very poised and confident in his first two starts. His angles have been great and he’s done a solid job of soaking up a lot of shots and not allowing many second chances - great rebound control.
About Tonight
There’s not a lot to say about this game. The Panthers are primed and know what to do. The Lightning are 2-1-0 and just got dealt a big blow with the news of Nikita Kucherov being out indefinitely with an undisclosed injury that may require surgery.
Add to that the roster taking a post-championship hit and in some weird, backwards hockey world, Tampa currently trails Buffalo in the Atlantic Division standings.
They have surrendered 13 goals in three games - giving up six to the Penguins and six to the Wings respectively.
Last season’s first round one exit and this year’s preseason bad blood should be nice and fresh. I don’t think many would have thought two teams out of Florida would bring back that great, old school hockey rivalry, but here we are…and it’s awesome!
I don’t want to jinx it but this could be the year the Cats take over as THE team of Florida (and maybe the league if they do it right). As fans we have watched the evolution of this team and are finally seeing it get to a point where talent runs up and down the roster and it’s ready to bust out. Duclair said it best:
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Looking forward to a fun and nasty one tonight!
Time to hunt…Go Panthers!
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