Stealing the thunder

It was ugly, but we'll take it. Winning the game during the final two minutes with a goal from Booth was a nice surprise. Usually we are on the receiving end of these kinds of games. Vokoun made some great saves to keep us in the game. Tampa was buzzing our net in the 3rd like it was a non-stop power play. They definitely appear snake-bitten on the road. The hockey gods smiled on the Panthers last night.

This win masks a disgusting game that was played. They lost a lead at home in the third period, and they couldn't score on a 5 minute power play at home. These lucky breaks will eventually run out. This team is no where near out of the woods. I'll take the garbage win and the two points, but I'm pretty discouraged that it took an act of late-game heroics to beat a bad team with bad goaltending at home. Weiss, you continue to be almost invisible out there. Hope you're enjoying that fat new paycheck. You suck.

If we had lost this game, I wonder how many fans would have blamed the refs for the loss??? If you can't score on a 5 min. PP at home, you don't deserve to win.

Other than Pelty (an old fox) the effort level barometer was about 65%. They need to do something about Weiss and that's not more ice time - the penalty he took at the beginning cost us almost the game and puts the whole team down. I don't think that Cohen is that inflexible and cock proud with his first draft in order to destroy the whole team spirit because of this!

Booth was smart at the end-he parked himself in front of the goalie like Peltonen earlier. He used to speed on the wing, lose the puck and become a stone .

Vokoun has a bunch of great qualities for a young goalie including reflexes.
What he needs now is to know when to be more relaxed and when more tense. He seem to be too tense- this will come with better play in front of him, but also with knowing each D's strenght and
weakness like Eddie Befour

Rat Boy wrote:

This win masks a disgusting game that was played. They lost a lead at home in the third period, and they couldn't score on a 5 minute power play at home. These lucky breaks will eventually run out. This team is no where near out of the woods. I'll take the garbage win and the two points, but I'm pretty discouraged that it took an act of late-game heroics to beat a bad team with bad goaltending at home. Weiss, you continue to be almost invisible out there. Hope you're enjoying that fat new paycheck. You suck.

I have to agree. Weiss looks really awful so far. I don't understand why. This was supposed to be his break-out season with a new contract and more ice time.

Rat Boy wrote:

If we had lost this game, I wonder how many fans would have blamed the refs for the loss??? If you can't score on a 5 min. PP at home, you don't deserve to win.

Not sure you can blame the Panthers PP for anything this season. They're right now near the top of the league with a very good 23.9%. That's actually way above normal highs in the league and even the best PP team will probably settle back to the 22% level (based on historical numbers) by the end of the season. If you want to pick at anything, it might be even strength goals, where they are not terrible, but only in the middle of the pack. That's an area where they need to improve if they want to be among the better teams in the league and be assured of a place in the playoffs.

Yeah....I've seen it with Martin all the time- change the lines to make one player look good- turn his "luck" around -theres no such a luxury...you need to keep winning consistently- and all players need to get the message that the coach and management is fair, there are no favorites. Keenan saw him as a rather small player with a misplaced ego and different personal agenda.

HUMMERMEISTER wrote:

Vokoun has a bunch of great qualities for a young goalie including reflexes.
What he needs now is to know when to be more relaxed and when more tense. He seem to be too tense- this will come with better play in front of him, but also with knowing each D's strenght and
weakness like Eddie Befour

I find it comical that people still find ways to criticize vokoun. Someone on the boards a efw days ago said he sucks.

Vokoun has played extremely well and if not for his steady play our season would be over. It took him a few games to settle in but he not only appears to be everything we hoped he'd be (and i'm sure he'll continue to settle in and get better) but he appears to be a leader int he locker room as well.

Wait a Minute wrote:

<quoted text>
Not sure you can blame the Panthers PP for anything this season. They're right now near the top of the league with a very good 23.9%. That's actually way above normal highs in the league and even the best PP team will probably settle back to the 22% level (based on historical numbers) by the end of the season. If you want to pick at anything, it might be even strength goals, where they are not terrible, but only in the middle of the pack. That's an area where they need to improve if they want to be among the better teams in the league and be assured of a place in the playoffs.

Maybe so. Perhaps I was a tad bit too critical of the PP. But my point is this: championship teams have that killer instinct and ability. The Flyers score on EVERY 5-min PP at home. So does Detroit. So does Ottawa. If they get two 5-min PP's in a game at home, they better score on both of them. Because if not, like was almost the case last night, it turns into a major momentum change for the game. And the smart teams know this, and capitalize on them.

They are finding ways to win rather than ways to lose now-That is a BIG CHANGE!I like VOKOUN and he wants to win.Weiss is a bit of a dissapointment and Horton has done very little lately.What a dirty play by the Tampa player.I heard that those two got into a fight at Tampa in the parking lot but probably just B.S.I will take the win --LAST YEAR we would have choked and lost both the Carolina and Tampa games and also the Montreal game-this year the tide is changing very slowly

I dont listen to crap most of the people on here have to say about this team, cause they make no valid points. This was a game Florida would have LOST last season. This year, not playing their best hockey, they find a way to WIN, yet some still have to be critical. We are playing inconsistent right now, yet we have 14 points currently, and a win Wednesday would put us in fifth place. This team is going to improve over time, and they will make the playoffs this season. They dont suck...S-U-C-K like some idiots proclaim.

You have to remember that this is a team who doesn't have big names like Ottawa, Philly or Detroit. Also, Tampa has a lot of skilled players. Bottom line, we won. It's good to see Vokoun calling the team out, because last night Van Ryn and Allen had good games, after sucking the few games before. Weiss is the one who looks depressed and lost. I think Martin will probably drop him to the third or fourth line for a couple of games if this continues, to get him going. What Boot did yesterday is what he should be doing for this team. In the end, we got the two points. Can we get them in Tampa? That's the question. Olli needs to score more o nthe road and Horton is due to score a couple.

I was at the game last night...

The Panthers certainly didn't play well. They were not in sync and seemed to negate every good scoring chance with an offsides. But, they won!

That's what counts.

To ensure success (aka playoffs), the entire team will have to play stronger, tougher and smarter.

Tampa will be ready to defend their home ice on Wednesday. That game will show us what the Panthers really made of!

I'm not going to comment on the game, however some of these posters...

Buy tickets for the next game.

I agree with KSB. If the team with the better skilled players always won there would be no reason to play the games.

Successful teams find a way to win even when they don't bring their "A" game to the rink.

Luck also plays a part on a team being successful. These two elements are usually the difference between a team making the playoffs and being on the outside looking in. How many games have the Panthers lost in October and November in the last two seasons. Just going 500 for these two months would have put them in the playoffs.

It is the same with overtime losses. If the Panthers had gone 500 in overtime games they would have made the playoffs last year. It the team that makes the most of the breaks that they are given that usually wins a close game. Thats luck.

Skill and determination (read HEART) are the other two factors. You have to have skilled players to be competitive or you wont be able to take advantage of the two elements above. If your players lack the Heart, determination, desire to excell or whatever you call it they wont go very far no matter how good they are. You have to want to win every game so bad that you aren't willing to accept that another team with better players is going to beat you.

Look at Appalachin State. There was no way on paper that they should have even been competetive with Michigan yet they won. That was pure heart and desire. This is where some of the Panthers are lacking. Maybe they dont realise that each shift that they are on the ice could be their last. Life is short and a NHL career is shorter. These guys need to wake up and realise that there are no guarantees of next season or even next game. I'm not talking about the whole team. Every player has an off game here and there. I'm talking about the few that seem to continually mail in games.

KSB wrote:

I dont listen to crap most of the people on here have to say about this team, cause they make no valid points. This was a game Florida would have LOST last season. This year, not playing their best hockey, they find a way to WIN, yet some still have to be critical. We are playing inconsistent right now, yet we have 14 points currently, and a win Wednesday would put us in fifth place. This team is going to improve over time, and they will make the playoffs this season. They dont suck...S-U-C-K like some idiots proclaim.

Sure, they won last night. they found a way to win without playing a full 60 minutes of hockey. And if you think that's the characteristic of a playoff team, then continue waving your pompoms. But I'm tired of reading the same quotes from the same players saying after games they're not giving it their all, and then not showing up the very next game. Sure, they won. Congrats. And last year, maybe they lose this game. but it's not last year anymore. It's time for this team to grow up into a playoff team. And winning big one night and playing with a lack of effort the next two nights, just isn't cutting it anymore. and although you can point to the fact that we have 8 wins already, we've also played the most games out of anyone in the conference, meaning there's a lot of teams with games in hand. I'm not trying to be pessemistic, but there's two sides to every story.

The guy that sucker punched Allen better keep head up on Wednesday. After his performance last night someone from the Panthers had better be looking for his number in the first period. You can't let a guy get away with that.