“The refs and Bob lost the game for the Panthers!” - Many Florida fans

Might just be me, but I didn’t see it that way at all. The refs were right on the offsides call after review - it’s a bummer, but Weegar certainly caught that puck behind the blue line upon seeing the ice-level side angle. And the Duclair non-goal looked to never fully cross the line in real time and review. There just wasn’t enough there to prove it crossed completely.

When it comes to Bob, I thought he had a solid game. Tampa just seemed to always have a guy there to bury it. The second goal was a great example of just that when the puck redirected off of Ekblad’s stick, through Weegar’s legs, and right on Killorn’s tape.

I thought it was a fun game and liked the Cats effort through the majority of it. There was some sloppy defensive play/breakdowns, but I agree with Q when he said:

“I thought it was a great battle. I thought both teams worked hard. I thought our team did everything we possibly could to put ourselves in a spot to get a point or two. A tough loss, but at the same time a lot of positives coming out of that game.”

One of the main concerns to me was the fact that McDonagh was out and McElhinney was between the pipes and the Cats couldn’t get it done. But I think that’s a bit of a testiment to how gods/well-rounded the TBL roster is.

The PK unit continued its solid play by holding the Lightning to 1/5 on the man advantage. But c’mon, guys...let’s not give the best team in the league five cracks at the Power Play next time.

Nice to see the Cats’ Power Play find some life and go 2/5. Forsling is really fitting in nicely for Florida. Aside from letting Tyler Johnson get the edge on him for a nifty redirect goal (which ultimately broke the Panthers’ back), I think he’s been a nice addition for this squad.

We talk about it a lot, but no surprises here, the biggest stat that stood out to me was faceoffs. The Cats were again obliterated at the dot, going 39.7% to the Bolts’ 60.3%. Hard to win games (especially against teams of Tampa’s caliber) when you’re not able to gain control/possession at the dot.

Props to Barky for his 10th multi-point game of this truncated season, where he leads Florida in scoring with 37 points.

Tonight

The Blackhawks look to be leveling off after surprising the NHL by staying competitive in the Central Division.

Currently on a four-game skid, are we starting to see the rebuilding Hawks, or is it just a slump that every team goes through during the course of a season?

The Panthers tend to play the role of the slump-buster for teams in the Hawks’ current situation, so Florida should not go into this game expecting an easy bounce back win.

Kane has struggled during Chicago’s recent hard times and it’s obvious that his down play reflects on Chicago. The connection of his play to this year’s rebuilding group is like ET and Elliott - with the team seeming to reflect his highs and lows.

With #88 being the glue/main driving force for this team right now, Florida needs to continue to work at shutting him down. Let’s be honest, he can snap a skid at any second and get both himself and the Hawks back on track.

Things got pretty chippy the last couple times these two teams met, and with their recent loss to Tampa, I’m expecting the Cats to come out hot. Not to mention, they don’t want to ruin that back-to-back loss stat...

I think the bottom line for tonight is to not take Chicago lightly. While they lack a lot of the talent they once had, the combination of skilled young guys coming up and savvy veterans is strong enough to help them find success through hard work.

I would like to see Florida clog up the neutral zone like they did in that second game against Nashville. They did a great job of disrupting the Preds’ attempts to gain the zone and have any chance of a “clean” entry.

The Cats can continue to dump shots on the opposition, but it’s not always leading to wins, nor is it blowing teams out of the water. The reason for that is a majority of these shots are coming from areas where the goalie is seeing them the entire way. Lankinen is a rookie and Subban looks like he can have spells where he’s out of position. There’s no reason the Panthers shouldn’t be getting bodies to the front of the net to try and take advantage of both guy’s situations.

Come out ready tonight to get that W!

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