Post-Game Talk: Only took a decade but we did it! Panthers win 5-4 in Minnesota. Yandle has himself a night, 1 g,4pt

[Boothinator]

Five game win streak yay Would be nice to win after outplaying the opponent but given the Minnesota curse just happy for the two points.
Fun stat: after being unable to win in regulation to start the season, we're now 6th in regulation wins in the NHL. If it gets to tiebreakers for a playoff spot, that could come in handy.

That's really nice with the wins in regulation. I think Anaheim was the last game. Nobody can't say this isn't sustainable!
Bruins meanwhile have 12(!!) OT losses

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

 

[PBPantherfan]

Acciari the new Pirri

Except Acciari is defensively responsible, throws hits and he PK’s.

 

[ProjectPanthers]

Five game win streak yay Would be nice to win after outplaying the opponent but given the Minnesota curse just happy for the two points.
Fun stat: after being unable to win in regulation to start the season, we're now 6th in regulation wins in the NHL. If it gets to tiebreakers for a playoff spot, that could come in handy.

Also, Stillman with over 24 minutes of icetime, second only to Stralman. You've got to love how Q does this - if he thinks someone is playing well, they get the icetime and screw experience or draft pedigree. Giving Weegar a big role to start the year, moving Acciari up, giving Toninato the 3C job... not sure how many coaches would go there.

Still not daring to get my hopes up too much because years of bad experience... February will be tough with all those games. Fingers crossed for a win against Chicago to give us a little cushion there.

I think part of Stillman's high ice time was due to Matheson being benched in the 3rd after that bad penalty he took. MM finished with just over 11 minutes of ice time.

 

[Boothinator]

I think part of Stillman's high ice time was due to Matheson being benched in the 3rd after that bad penalty he took. MM finished with just over 11 minutes of ice time.

No I don't think it was.

IIRC, Stillman had about 9 in the first. After the second I think it was like 17 or so

I am pretty sure about the 9 minutes. I don't know about the second. It was 5 am already

 

[GrumpyKelly]

Nearly at the 2/3 mark of the season and still hovering around bottom five in GA. Time to accept this team is trash defensively.

Gotta make an upgrade. It would suck big time to waste such a good offensive season.

 

[KW]

Nearly at the 2/3 mark of the season and still hovering around bottom five in GA. Time to accept this team is trash defensively.

Gotta make an upgrade. It would suck big time to waste such a good offensive season.

Agreed but it has to be also acknowledged that high scoring offense and tight defense almost never happen at the same time because offense and defense aren’t independent of each other.

 

[RogerRoger]

Nearly at the 2/3 mark of the season and still hovering around bottom five in GA. Time to accept this team is trash defensively.

Gotta make an upgrade. It would suck big time to waste such a good offensive season.

I'd get Kyle Clifford and Ben Hutton. Both are really solid defensively and wouldn't be too expensive imo.
Getting Vatanen, Nemeth, or DeMelo would be great, but unrealistic imo. (My guess is that you'd like Dillon, but he's very physical but he takes too many penalties and we are going to play against teams with fantastic PP)

 

[RainingRats]

Agreed but it has to be also acknowledged that high scoring offense and tight defense almost never happen at the same time because offense and defense aren’t independent of each other.

I disagree. Our offense isn’t a result of risky plays. We don’t trade chances There are teams that score a lot and have much better GAA not named Toronto. A lot of the GA are individual mistakes, bad decision making or crappy effort, not related to our offensive prowess, imo.

we need a better PK and a better Bob and GA will come down to a more respectable level. Add in better decision making and we can have a much better GAA.

 

[austropanther]

I disagree. Our offense isn’t a result of risky plays. We don’t trade chances There are teams that score a lot and have much better GAA not named Toronto. A lot of the GA are individual mistakes, bad decision making or crappy effort, not related to our offensive prowess, imo.

we need a better PK and a better Bob and GA will come down to a more respectable level. Add in better decision making and we can have a much better GAA.

We have the skill and depth up front, execution is good, Dman get involved, our grinders provide scoring regularly - all ingridients for an overall offense to be effective.

I still find we give up too many high danger chances and Bob is not lucky enough to save all of them - look at last game where he managed to save some, but others just trickled through, but the shots came from prime scoring areas from the slot. Just a little bit tightening up in the front of the net and a bit more luck for Bob, and we could really be on to something...

 

[GrumpyKelly]

I'd get Kyle Clifford and Ben Hutton. Both are really solid defensively and wouldn't be too expensive imo.
Getting Vatanen, Nemeth, or DeMelo would be great, but unrealistic imo. (My guess is that you'd like Dillon, but he's very physical but he takes too many penalties and we are going to play against teams with fantastic PP)

I don't like Dillon, I don't think he'd be much of an upgrade. He's a bottom pairing guy who isn't very realliable from what I've seen.

Ultimately I think one of Yandle/Math has to go, not sure that's a deal that can be done mid-season. We need a clear, top4 D upgrade.

Agreed but it has to be also acknowledged that high scoring offense and tight defense almost never happen at the same time because offense and defense aren’t independent of each other.

Then we're talking championship level team... but yeah I'm not expecting them to be top 10 defensively but just middle of the pack would be enough. Being bottom five is unacceptable if this team has any aspirations in the playoffs.

 

[austropanther]

I don't like Dillon, I don't think he'd be much of an upgrade. He's a bottom pairing guy who isn't very realliable from what I've seen.

Ultimately I think one of Yandle/Math has to go, not sure that's a deal that can be done mid-season. We need a clear, top4 D upgrade.

You don't think we would be set with Weegar? I think we look really good when healthy, especially with Stillman improving with big steps (and we still got Brown or even Pysyk that we can put on the 3rd pair in the worst case)

 

[GrumpyKelly]

You don't think we would be set with Weegar? I think we look really good when healthy, especially with Stillman improving with big steps (and we still got Brown or even Pysyk that we can put on the 3rd pair in the worst case)

We've been healthy before and it hasn't moved the needle much. Too many unreliable parts. Yandle, Math... Weegs is playing top4 for the first time so he gets a pass from me but he wasn't very good (maybe do to concussion) before he went down. Stralman has been ok but not great. Brown is what he is.

But I do think getting one, reliable top 4 guy would make a difference. The problem right now is one of Yandle/Math is asked to play big minutes and they fail at it. And I don't know if Dale has the patience to wait another year with Math trying to figure it out.

 

[austropanther]

We've been healthy before and it hasn't moved the needle much. Too many unreliable parts. Yandle, Math... Weegs is playing top4 for the first time so he gets a pass from me but he wasn't very good (maybe do to concussion) before he went down. Stralman has been ok but not great. Brown is what he is.

But I do think getting one, reliable top 4 guy would make a difference. The problem right now is one of Yandle/Math is asked to play big minutes and they fail at it. And I don't know if Dale has the patience to wait another year with Math trying to figure it out.

I guess nobody would complain if we acquired an established top4-Dman at a reasonable cost. Who would you have in mind, and who would you be willing to give up (that Dman is not going to come cheap)?

I believe a lot of issues on the D are linked to Yandle being Yandle (Math does screw up too but not in such a crazy obvious fashion) and players still getting used to the system. Ek, Weegs, Strals, Stillman provide a really solid backbone that should get even stronger over the rest of the season

 

[Crossbar]

I think the only goal that was weak by Stalock was the Tro goal. All the others were difficult tips with screens out in front of him (especially the GWG tipped twice) and he was also screened right before the pass was made to a wide open Yands point blank. The Barky goal was a thing of beauty, highlight reel type goal (Barber already has it up on IG comparing it to McDavid), that move gets by majority of the goalies in the NHL.

 

[Gentle Man]

Last night was great.


I want a W more tonight. Do this for Q and Kitch

 

[floridada]

Im surprised nobody has posted the beanbag boys interview yet

 

[GrumpyKelly]

I guess nobody would complain if we acquired an established top4-Dman at a reasonable cost. Who would you have in mind, and who would you be willing to give up (that Dman is not going to come cheap)?

I believe a lot of issues on the D are linked to Yandle being Yandle (Math does screw up too but not in such a crazy obvious fashion) and players still getting used to the system. Ek, Weegs, Strals, Stillman provide a really solid backbone that should get even stronger over the rest of the season

I think Math is running out of runway with Q. This is the second or third time he's gotten benched? Dale may be desperate enough to move him before the trade deadline. Then spend assets on a UFA like Vatanen.

 

[pb1300]

I disagree. Our offense isn’t a result of risky plays. We don’t trade chances There are teams that score a lot and have much better GAA not named Toronto. A lot of the GA are individual mistakes, bad decision making or crappy effort, not related to our offensive prowess, imo.

we need a better PK and a better Bob and GA will come down to a more respectable level. Add in better decision making and we can have a much better GAA.

Decision making, decision making, decision f***ing making!!! It’s like this team thinks making the easy play to get out of the zone is actually the risky play. Just getting the puck out of the zone, even if it turns into losing possession, would improve our GA number.

Yans needs his TOI reduced. I think that we can improve our D just by getting Weegs back. Have Yans more as a PP specialist, pair him with Weegs, while sitting Brown more, and I would think our D improves. Even then, it still comes down to them making the smart, simple play to get out of our own zone.

 

[GrumpyKelly]

I believe a lot of issues on the D are linked to Yandle being Yandle (Math does screw up too but not in such a crazy obvious fashion) and players still getting used to the system. Ek, Weegs, Strals, Stillman provide a really solid backbone that should get even stronger over the rest of the season

I don't know, seems to me it's mostly dumb plays or mistakes. Yandle at least can provide offense to compensate. Math on the other hand, I can't figure out what it is with him. He can look great for a while but then makes the dumbest play you can imagine out of nowhere.

 

[Gentle Man]

I am pretty ok with Stillman on the 2nd pair.

I think he and Weegs could be solid.

Yandle could use Stralman with him. Although Stralman hasnt been his best, putting him on the 3rd pair could reduce their ice time and have Yandle paired with a stay at home guy. But my goodness, thats about 12M for a 3rd pairing D.

Matheson is like Reimer. He seems to have solid stretches then disaster stretches. I dont know with him. Flashes of Norris caliber play, then crashes into oblivion.

Pysyk has been awesome with his hybrid role and I hope he stays there. I love him as a winger, and being able to step in for situations as D is great.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

Man, I was celebrating like they had just won the Stanley Cup when that puck went in.

One point I'd like to bring up, looking at the big picture, they are all buying in. Even Yandle and Hoff, and it's nice. They're playing a simple, smart game just like Q has been coaching them to. And because of that, their skill is not bringing a lot of high risk, but at the same time, doesn't stifle any of their skill at all. And they still can get better. And I think it will continue progressing.
Huge win.

 

[GrumpyKelly]

^
Vatrano-Toni-Hoff has been really good. Hopefully Hoff found a home on that line.

 

[Chaos2k7]

I have the same birthday as Stillman take it for what you will, lol

 

[zeroG]

I disagree. Our offense isn’t a result of risky plays. We don’t trade chances There are teams that score a lot and have much better GAA not named Toronto. A lot of the GA are individual mistakes, bad decision making or crappy effort, not related to our offensive prowess, imo.

we need a better PK and a better Bob and GA will come down to a more respectable level. Add in better decision making and we can have a much better GAA.

individual mistakes/bad decision making and risky plays are not mutually exclusive concepts.

also, solid team defense mitigates individual mistakes. we often don't see those defensive "layers" from the panthers.

we need better decision making and better team defense then all of our goalies' GAAs will come down.