Post-Game Talk: Panthers Show The Strength Of Family: 5-1 Victory

[Prominence Problem]

Who put money on Bob being our best player the first two games?

No comment

 

[floridada]

Who won the raffle?

In a surprising twist it was......n't me

 

[InTheBiz]

Ovi looked gased and was visibly upset in the 2nd. I’m here for this.

 

[Panteras]

I feel like we started off slow again.
Caps were much better early on. Once again stifling our offense which kept us to almost a dump and chase tactic. It was frustrating.

Nevertheless, we started to hold our own and started to keep things simple and do little things right. Just play fundamental hockey. Good things happen when you take shots and that’s how Ekblad was rewarded. That was huge. We needed that first goal. Then some Huby and Barkov magic was bound to happen.

The second period was building in all the things we did right. But Marchy gave me flashbacks of last year’s playoffs. Just can’t afford to act stupid in the playoffs. It can literally mean the series. We did great in killing the double minor.

Needless to say, Bob stood on his head up to that point and third period was cruise control. Complete dominance and everything was going great for us. We were stifling almost all their offensive rushing it seemed. Almost no mistakes.

 

[FlaPanthers11]

This is first period only but good view of the adjustments and how it paid off

 

[Chessarmy]

I'm really excited about Bob's play thus far. If he can keep this up it'll be HUGE for our chances. A lot of teams are struggling to find good goaltending around the league - Bob has been great.

 

[pantherbot]

I just think some are misunderstanding that us not dominating the 1st wasn't us playing bad. It was clear Washington wanted to get an early lead and tried to do what they could to do that. So we let them make the mistakes, lose the momentum eventually and then turn the tables. Somebody earlier had a stat on the crazy amount of Washington turnovers early in the game which reflects just that.

Hockey is such a momentum game, you're not always going to be going one way. So you have to adjust you the other team. If they're pressing, let them, eventually they'll tire, make mistakes, and things swing the other way.

It's like how when a team is down by a goal in the third, they usually look like the better team because they're pressing. But they can't do that all game, it wouldn't last. That's why people talk about score effects, makes a big difference on how a team plays.

Really happy with how the team played today. Kudos to Bruno and the team for adjusting.

 

[Gentle Man]

I hate that the Saturday game is so early since we historically play so poorly.

If we can manage to take Saturday I think we finish this Wednesday

 

[Felidae]

I'm really excited about Bob's play thus far. If he can keep this up it'll be HUGE for our chances. A lot of teams are struggling to find good goaltending around the league - Bob has been great.

He doesn't even need to be as good as these past few games. He had 80s goaltender stats last postseason and we gave the cup champions a good fight. If he can skirt around average to above average and we bring our offensive game, I can still see us contending with most teams.

 

[BB88]

I don’t understand why they broke up a working thing on their pp.

Also didn’t like their start, 8-2 shots for Was and halfway through the game 22-10.

Otherwise a great win and they need to build on this and they need to be ready to start game 3 because Was will be in front of home crowd

 

[FrolikFan67]

Most of the 1st was really boring, so many stoppages it was hard to get any flow going. Icings, goalie freezings, high sticks, offsides, etc. just constant breaks in play. Then we got that first Ekblad goal and everything changed. Huberdeau with an incredible individual effort on that Barkov goal. Yes we were outshot but bob held on and we finally opened up the playing field to play our style. And once they did, it ended exactly how it typically does. A 5-1 score, now that’s more like it! That’s the response we were looking for. Surprisingly Washington is better actually on the road, we now have a feeling of how to execute against them, and if Wilson is still out or not 100% combined with ovy not looking like himself we gotta continue the way we played today. We looked mortal and it was scary there but they responded like we knew they were capable of, and seeing them do it is reassuring.

Marchment is suchhhh a valuable commodity, he’s our biggest pest. Just please cut down on the secondary penalties like the additional slash to make it 4min or saying stuff that gets him a 2, etc. he’s been fantastic otherwise. And Hornqvist, despite being pretty slow in a playoff setting, when he tracked down that one guy in the 3rd and laid that hit…I’ve never seen him skate so fast, I was like oh god horny’s gonna kill someone aaaaaaand there it is

 

[letsgrowcactus]

Good and necessary win. Fingers crossed they can build on it.
On to the matinee game! Apparently WSH also does badly in those... so which team shows up more?
It'd be nice if Wilson stayed out for a couple more games...

 

[austropanther]

Special shout out to Ben Chiarot. He was perfect last game, calm, physical presence, always in a good spot, zero mistakes, good puck handling and passing accuracy, good chemistry with Montour. Exactly what we need right now

Add: great bounce back by Weegs. Kept his game simple, short passes, strong on the boards and that gave him confidence. Way to go!

Verhaege had a fantastic game. All over the ice, engaged, forcing errors, much deserved goal.

Won't see much Lombo in this series except if somebody goes down. We need the size, experience and physicality by Acc and Horny against this WSH team.

Hated the 1st period. We did not win any o-zone board battles. Much better in the 2nd and 3rd. The team looked like it remembered how it has to play. Is the beast finally awoken?

 

[austropanther]

Most of the 1st was really boring, so many stoppages it was hard to get any flow going. Icings, goalie freezings, high sticks, offsides, etc. just constant breaks in play. Then we got that first Ekblad goal and everything changed. Huberdeau with an incredible individual effort on that Barkov goal. Yes we were outshot but bob held on and we finally opened up the playing field to play our style. And once they did, it ended exactly how it typically does. A 5-1 score, now that’s more like it! That’s the response we were looking for. Surprisingly Washington is better actually on the road, we now have a feeling of how to execute against them, and if Wilson is still out or not 100% combined with ovy not looking like himself we gotta continue the way we played today. We looked mortal and it was scary there but they responded like we knew they were capable of, and seeing them do it is reassuring.

Marchment is suchhhh a valuable commodity, he’s our biggest pest. Just please cut down on the secondary penalties like the additional slash to make it 4min or saying stuff that gets him a 2, etc. he’s been fantastic otherwise. And Hornqvist, despite being pretty slow in a playoff setting, when he tracked down that one guy in the 3rd and laid that hit…I’ve never seen him skate so fast, I was like oh god horny’s gonna kill someone aaaaaaand there it is

Spot on. This guy can do it all, but he needs to smarten up. I pray we can keep him.

The Horny hit and also his deflection chance in front of the net showed why we need him. Pretty quiet throughout the game but then come the big plays. I was about to say that I'd like to see Mamin in to bring in some more skill on the 4th line. Horny proved he still is able to be a big factor although age starts to show.

 

[GigaChad]

Thank god we won!
Didn't expect Bob to be this good. Keep it going!

 

[austropanther]

Game could have gone a completely different way if Oshie had scored shorthanded... what another f***ed up play by us! We were so lucky. This kind of play happens to us at least once every game, 1st game it cost us the game... not many - if any - SC winners came away with these types of happenings on a regular basis

 

[CatscratchFever]

The lessons learned from game 1 were obvious here. WAS is not going to open up until you build a lead on them. I hope that gave the Cats the confidence to stick with the hard working dump and chase and board battle patient game because WAS sees that as their only chance. In game 1 we made it until halfway in the 3rd with the lead. Can this squad continue to play the right way up or down only 1 goal? We shall see. It's a chess match out there.

 

[Gizmo Tkachuk]

This is first period only but good view of the adjustments and how it paid off

I was told we don't know how to do adjustments

 

[needforspeed]

Saturday is going to be a fight, that´s for sure. We are the better team, convinced on that, especially now when Wilson is out and Ovi doesn´t seem 100%. My hope is that Caps opens up the game just a little bit more in home ice and that will give us more room to operate.

Especially as there were quite early attacks towards our Selke winning & league top 10 PPG producer on his performance I´m happy that Barkov stood up once again in important moment. Plus I think they all, core included are just learning what it really takes to play a winning game in playoffs. Good teams grow as they go and I´m starting to have a feeling that it´s going to be a deep run for us this spring

 

[PSLguy]

And let me guess, you were FOR the 5-forwards unit ?

As for the Baby in my name, nice catch… You’re probably too young to have the reference and I won’t bother explaining it. lol

Glad you saw the smiley going with the « tough » part and understood it as good as the game.

Too young? Maybe too old!

At first I was concerned about the 5 forward power play but after watching Barkov play the blue line better than Yandle I was all for it to continue.

Are you sure you're not related to Vendetta the way you tell posters to watch the game? What next, learn hockey and have insider information?

 

[Little Bobby Boo]

Weegar was visibly much less bad tonight. Made safe, easy passes. He joined the rush.

More of this.

 

[Ghoste]

Acciari had a great game. I’d say he gets Game 3.

-ghoste

 

[Chaos2k7]

Acciari had a great game. I’d say he gets Game 3.

-ghoste

Against the Caps we should run

Lomberg, Acciari, Hornqvist IMO

Lundell and Luo are having difficulty in the circle.

 

[scholl]

I hate that the Saturday game is so early since we historically play so poorly.

If we can manage to take Saturday I think we finish this Wednesday

I love it because 8 pm start is primetime.
Honestly don't want to stay awake every second night when games start something like one or two hours after I went to bed.

 

[pb1300]

I don’t understand why they broke up a working thing on their pp.

Also didn’t like their start, 8-2 shots for Was and halfway through the game 22-10.

Otherwise a great win and they need to build on this and they need to be ready to start game 3 because Was will be in front of home crowd

They really had a problem with Lavi's 1-3-1 scheme, clogging up that neutral zone. I know they are super skilled, and think they can always walk around someone, and skate the puck in, but they can dump and chase too. They have the size and speed for it to work.

I dont understand why we have to overload our PP. We dont need every star on the 1st unit. And Ekblad QB'ng the PP is useless. He should be on one of the wings because of his slapper, just like TB with Stamkos, Ovie with Washington, etc. The PP and defensive pairings are really the only thing that Bruno does wrong. I think we'd be so much stronger on the blueline, if Chiarot was with Weegar or Ekblad, and Forsling was with the other. Give us that LD/RD duo in the top four, and spread the wealth a bit. But no, the Ekblad/Weegar duo had to get back together immediately, even though Weegar had great success with Forsling, when Ek was out.