After winning Game 1 and 2 on the road in North Carolina, the Panthers are back home in South Florida where they have a major opportunity to put a stranglehold on this series by going up 3-0.
What can you say about the Game 2 win? It was about as dominant as you can get from the Florida side. They had scoring from throughout the lineup, they suffocated Carolina both offensively and defensively - limiting the Canes to a total of 17 shots - and then shutting them out.
I don’t want to jinx the Cats…but it looks like Carolina is generally flat and out of it. It’s a vastly different looking team from what we saw in the regular season. They’re struggling to get any type of flow to their game - a rip of the hat to Florida’s aggressive forecheck and disruption through the neutral zone.
Ironically, during the writing of this blog, Carolina has announced that Pyotr Kochetkev will start in net tonight. This is no doubt an attempt by The Bod to give this Canes team a shot in the arm. Eddie Olczyk mentioned this idea numerous times during Game 2, citing that Andersen (and the Canes as a whole) need a wake up call. Pulling/sitting Andersen is one way to send a message.
An interesting stat related to the Hurricanes woes from our
Litter Box Cats friends:
“
After rolling through the first two rounds of the postseason, the Hurricanes are looking for solutions. They have now lost six straight third round games to the surging Panthers dating back to 2023.”
Be cautious when in the eye of the storm…
Reinhart is out and listed as day-to-day. Jesper will take his place. I’m cool with that because JB is a legitimate fill in.
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The Panthers have them in their jaws…time to bite down!
Florida Panthers Blogger • 
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