The Cats look to go 2-0 after downing the Penguins in OT of Thursday night’s season opener.
Florida will face off against the 0-1-0 New York Islanders who were defeated 6-3 by the Carolina Hurricanes in their opener.
The season is obviously very young, but some things the Cats can do to immediately improve their situation heading into tonight are:
1. Stay out of the box
2. Suppress shots
The Panthers racked up 18 minutes of penalties. That’s almost an entire period of penalties…This undisciplined hockey (along with some bad luck) allowed the Penguins back into the game - ultimately taking the lead at one point.
This isn’t the first time we’re seeing the Cats log significant minutes in the sin bin. Last season saw the Panthers take a lot of penalties in stretches during the season. Hopefully this carry over gets addressed ASAP.
While we (rightfully) worry about the guys on the blueline, the overall team defense was spotty against Pittsburgh. It’s not a good night any time you surrender 47 shots to the opposition.
The Panthers allowed the Penguins into dangerous areas of the ice all night - many times allowing opportunities in close, in front of the net and the dreaded multiple breakaways.
Bob did an incredible job bailing the guys out all night, but the Cats need to be better and help their goaltender out. Pittsburgh could have easily had a lot more tallies in the goals column of the spreadsheet if not for Bob standing tall and playing utterly fantastic - especially after two goals went off his own defensemen and we’re impossible to stop.
This will be the first time these two teams clash since Toronto bubble hockey and with NYI’s speed/skill, combined with Florida’s historically bad mojo against them, it should be a great game!
The “Cardiac Cats” and “Comeback Cats” were fun gimmicks the past couple seasons as this team was building up, but it’s time now for these guys to take the next step and win games convincingly.
Florida gets all four lines churning regularly and watch out!
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Time to hunt…Go Panthers!
Florida Panthers Blogger • 
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