With the win tonight, How many points do they have?

39, they have a lot of work to do.

Actually they have 41. That puts them in a tie for second in the division, three points behind Carolina (who is really struggling). Currently they are in 12th in the conference, but only four points out of fourth place in a insanely tight Eastern Conference. If they win the division, they are guarenteed at least the third playoff spot. So yeah, there's a lot of work to do, but they are in a decent position. They have been awesome on the road lately, but can really use some home wins, hopefully they can go on a nice run after tonight's OT win.

I love Tampa Bay being last in the East.

It is getting Really Exciting

I wish we could pick up another big time scorer. Horton is starting to wake up but it would be nice to add someone else who can get the puck into the net

I wish we could pick up another big time scorer. Horton is starting to wake up but it would be nice to add someone else who can get the puck into the net

 

That would be nice. The trade deadline will be interesting. It may not be as active this year with so many teams in the playoff race.

With everyone within 5-6 points of the final playoff spot, who would trade away their star?

The Panthers in this market unfortunatly do not get the credit they deserve. I honeslty think they would only be mentioned on WQAM or The Ticket only if they get into the Eastern Finals. And that would be a throwaway line like- The panthers are in the East Finals tonight at 7, listen to it on The ticket. Parcells has also hired a new waterboy- What do you think of it Stu Gotz?

 

Honestly, Vokoun is AllStar worthy and news worthy- but nobody mentions his achievments. Isn't he second in wins to Broduer in the East, and they were tied before the Devils-Cats game Wednesday?

 

Chris

The Panthers in this market unfortunatly do not get the credit they deserve. I honeslty think they would only be mentioned on WQAM or The Ticket only if they get into the Eastern Finals. And that would be a throwaway line like- The panthers are in the East Finals tonight at 7, listen to it on The ticket. Parcells has also hired a new waterboy- What do you think of it Stu Gotz?

 

Honestly, Vokoun is AllStar worthy and news worthy- but nobody mentions his achievments. Isn't he second in wins to Broduer in the East, and they were tied before the Devils-Cats game Wednesday?

 

Chris

 

Panthers havent made the playoffs in 8 years and are currently ranked 12th in the east. Once they take the division lead you will start hearing about them. In reality I dont blame anyone for not talking about the panthers, they have practically been non existent since the 99-2000 season.

Who do you guys think the panthers might be able to get via trade?

Honestly- Brad Richards might be available- but we do not have any goaltending or salary cap space for a lightning dump/ trade.

 

I head about someone in MTL, but I honestly don't know. Maybe some prospects, and Shane Doan from the Coyotes and Shawn Horcoff, Pitkanen or other players from the Oilers can be had.

 

Chris

Personally, I would just like to run with what we have. Zednik is healthy now, and he is a monster. Put him, and Dvorak on the ice at the same time. Wow. They are by far our two fastest players. Whenever they are both on the ice, we always get great scoring chances.

 

But another scorer is always good. I heard a rumor that we were looking to get Vermette.

Pitsburgh was looking to add vermette to thier top line while trading Malone or Armstrong.

 

I havent heard about the panthers wanting him.

 

Chris

Last Glimmer of Hope?

 

Reeling from an absolutely putrid January, the Panthers had to get a win. At risk of becoming irrelevant in a bad Southeast Division, the Panthers faced off with former face of the franchise Roberto Luongo and his Vancouver Canucks. Right from the get go the Panthers played with emotion; driving to the net hard and finishing all of their checks.

 

Predictably, the Panthers would play a hard first period only to give up a goal to the Canucks with 10 seconds left in the period. Vancouver was 21-6 after scoring the first goal of the game.

 

In the second period, the Panthers didn't let up on the effort. 5:04 into the second period, the Horton-Booth-Weiss line would connect on Nathan Horton's 13th goal of the season. The rest of the period was played out with two more goals, one by the Canucks and one by Jozef Stumpel on the power play. Olli even got into the fray by fighting with Ryan Kesler at the end of the period.

 

The third period started off with the types of stupid mistakes we've come to expect from the Panthers: Ruslan Salei carried the puck deep into Vancouver's zone and no one covered his position leading to Vancouver Rookie Mason Raymond scoring five hole on Vokoun. Big hits continued to be a major part of the game as the Panthers played strong defense while keeping the pressure on the Nucks (why they don't this all the time, beats the crap out of me). Coming off a power play that saw few shots from the Cats, Stephen Weiss received a beautiful feed Steve Montador and blistered a shot over Luongo's left shoulder. The Panthers and the Canucks would end the period with the Cats on a power play.

 

In the overtime period, not much went on in the way of Cats chances. Enter Tomas Vokoun. In the last two minutes, Vokoun stopped three point blank chances, one by Ryan Kesler, one by the Sedin twins, and one by Markus Naslund on the penalty shot.

 

Into the shootout, the Panthers elected to go with Horton, Weiss, and Jokinen in that order. The Vancouver Canucks went with Taylor Pyatt, Alex Edler, and Daniel Sedin. In a move that was somewhat surprising, the Panthers elected to shoot second. Pyatt skated in on Vokoun where he was met with Vokoun's shutting of the five hole on him. Next, Horton took the puck and skated in Luongo where he went to Luongo's left, delayed his shot, and then scored inside the right post! The Panthers now had the lead in the shootout; all they had to do was score once more and or have Vokie stand on his head. Vokoun was visibly pumped up and in a zone. Alex Edler who had scored on 2 of his 4 shootout attempts tried to go top left corner on Vokie. But Tomas stacked the pads and denied Edler's attempt to get to the shelf where Mrs. Moller keeps the peanut butter. Stephen Weiss went on to miss on his shot attempt. It was up to Vokoun now to deny the Canucks for the Panthers first win on home ice since the Ottawa game. Daniel Sedin skated in and put on several moves. As he made one last move, the puck rolled off the stick and the Panthers, especially Vokie, and the fans, were pumped up to see the team pull off such an emotional win!

 

This team has one shot to get into the post season and that is to win the division. Somehow the Panthers have lucked into being in the Southleast division this year with no one taking charge. If the Panthers can reel off wins in the next 5 games, the Cats may be in business again. Hopefully, tonight was not just another mirage that we have become so accustomed to as Cats fans. This may be the last glimmer of hope that we see this season. But the impossible dream lives on in the aching hearts of Cats fans everywhere.

 

This is either the end or the beginning. Make it a beginning Jacques, make it a beginning Nathan, make it a beginning Olli. Its time to play real hockey in South Florida again!

 

www.flpanthers.blogspot.com

Sadly, this is looking like it'll probably end up a typical Panthers like year. :confused

Big win tonight for the Cats, coming from behind with 2 goals in the 3rd to beat Tampa Bay, 3-2.

 

Good start for the road trip!

Big win tonight for the Cats, coming from behind with 2 goals in the 3rd to beat Tampa Bay, 3-2.

 

Good start for the road trip!

Hell yeah!

 

What a way to win it too, in the last 6 minutes. Very few times have we seen the Panthers win games like that in the last few minutes of the game in the past 7 years.

Holy crap, I just realized the Year of The Rat begins today. We're going to turn this around and win the Stanley Cup now.

Holy crap, I just realized the Year of The Rat begins today. We're going to turn this around and win the Stanley Cup now.

where is scott mellanby when we need him to slap around some rodents

only 3 points out from division lead and #3 seed. or 6 points out of playoffs in general.

Good news so far in Toronto...3-0 Panthers with 14 minutes left in the second period (Zednik in the 1st, Horton and Jokinen in the 2nd).

 

Congrats to Olli on scoring his 200th career goal! :arms

 

 

 

EDIT: And Cory Murphy makes it 4-0! Cats chase Toskala right out of the game!

Good news so far in Toronto...3-0 Panthers with 14 minutes left in the second period (Zednik in the 1st, Horton and Jokinen in the 2nd).

 

Congrats to Olli on scoring his 200th career goal! :arms

Wins over Canadian teams are the sweetest of them all.

This would be huge if they could pull this off. When was the last time the panthers won 3 games in a row?

This would be huge if they could pull this off. When was the last time the panthers won 3 games in a row?

 

December 16, 18, and 20 (Chicago, Montreal, and Carolina).