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Game #15: Edmonton Oilers |
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The Panthers got off on the right foot for the first game of their five-game home stand after they blanked the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 3-0 on Wednesday night.
While there were a number of good things to see on an individual level (particularly Knight’s shutout), it was the overall team defense that really stood out. At some points in the game, most notably in the third, Florida’s defense was suffocating in the defensive and neutral zones. Let’s hope this trend continues. Oh, and they successfully killed three PP’s and even scored once on the man advantage.
The big news out of Ice Den is that the Cats have placed Rudolfs Balcers (2G, 2A in 14 games) on waivers in order to open up space for Aaron Ekblad’s return to the lineup.
Per Coach Maurice:
“We like the way Forsling and Montour played. We can flip that in game, and we may. It’s a little protection in his first game back after about a month. He doesn’t need to run against McDavid every shift.”
Glad to have Eklblad back in the lineup, but it will be a tough tilt to have to jump back into after going down with injury on October 17th. Though barely over .500 at 8-7-0, the Oilers are still led by the best in the business in Connor McDavid and the highly talented Leon Draisaitl, along with a number of other skilled forwards - though they undoubtedly have taken a hit with Kane now sidelined.
From what I’ve seen/read, it seems Edmonton’s woes come from the backend and in the blue paint. The Oilers are giving up an average of 3.73 goals per game and just gave up seven to the Hurricanes on Thursday night. It also seems like the move to get Jack Campbell hasn’t paid off how Edmonton was hoping (at least not yet). Campbell is 6-4-0 and owns a 4.27 GAA and .873 SV%.
Knowing how dangerous the Oiler offense can be when McDavid gets going (we’ve all seen him shred defenses like nothing), the Cats will have to put out a similar team defensive performance as they did against Carolina.
Florida gets another added boost (to go along with Ekblad) when Mr. Tkachuk makes his return having served his two-game suspension.
Tkachuk:
“Not an ideal situation the last few days, but I'm excited to get back and play against a team that I've been pretty familiar with over the past 6-7 years. I'm looking forward to it."
Something interesting to note is that despite missing two games, #19 leads the Panthers in a number of offensive categories:
- Assists (12)
- Points (17)
- Shots on Goal (63)
Knight gets the nod after turning away all 40 shots en route to a shutout this past Wednesday.
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Go Panthers!
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