Post-Game Talk: Swaggy’s Current bae vs.His Filthy Ex (7PM)—“ Your mountain is waiting, So... get on your way!”

[Chessarmy]

Also, Q needs to change the f***ing first line and put someone who has a modicum of offensive ability on the left side instead of Mason f***ing Marchment.

 

[Prominence Problem]

Look at the NHL Game Flow in Gamecenter...

The Panthers held the Lightning to nothing all night. Other than the first 5 minutes of the 2nd, Panthers outplayed them.

They deserved a better fate.

 

[ViD]

Gusev was pretty bad too. I don’t think he will be back next season. Total cheeks.

You do realize he had not played in a long time ?

even then his advanced stats were okay

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

even then his advanced stats were okay

That's usually the silver lining with bad players who get to play with Barkov.

 

[Chaos2k7]

You do realize he had not played in a long time ?

even then his advanced stats were okay

Will need 5 or 10 games IMO. Looked interesting on the PP.

 

[GrumpyKelly]

Look at the NHL Game Flow in Gamecenter...

The Panthers held the Lightning to nothing all night. Other than the first 5 minutes of the 2nd, Panthers outplayed them.

They deserved a better fate.

Tampa missed the net on many great chances they had. I don't think we outplayed them much at all, it was pretty even. Tampa just does what Tampa does, they score when they need to.

Overall a pretty good game. Goose and Wallmart looked slow, Montour looked pretty decent imo.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

 

[austropanther]

Gusev was trash. Maybe it works when CV is back.

When Gusev, Yandle, Gudas, Marchment were on the ice, that group got hemmed in the zone.

PP1 can't generate zone entries because the players are too f***ing slow and can't handle the puck.

Tippet should be playing on the top line right now, and the top PP unit.

Yandle had one play where he saved a goal, but was f***ing trash otherwise.

No, not all of them are slow. Yandle and Huby are. When the worst skater on the team is the first person to launch the entry, you are in trouble.

Can we please finally score on a breakaway? Anybody remembered the last time we scored on 1? We wasted like the last 10 or so, and each game we usually get at least one. Tampa has 1 and makes it count. There is your difference why we are not a very good team yet -> make your chances count.

Huby with a world class play on the Duke goal. That's what makes him a threat, to be unpredictable. But he actually has to play this way because he is such a slow skater. He never looks like he is skating hard - is he actually capable of it? He looks worse than Ek.

OT is working and skating so hard out there while creating chances. He'd fit so much better with Barky. Let's give him a shot and end this Marchment thing.

 

[austropanther]

Boy, Bill lost a lot of weight!!!

 

[Mogo]

Not even remotely close.

We had multiple breakaways

Outplayed by Hedman and Vasi. They stopped so many goals alone

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

But he actually has to play this way because he is such a slow skater.

Yup. iirc even tho he was on a breakaway but he had to rely on that spinarooni because the backchecking dman caught him, making it impossible for him to launch a Muffin.
So far it looks like Huberdeau is going to keep this level of play for the rest of the season which in turn has to make Zito wonder about what do with him: hope that he becomes a better 2way threat and improves his skating significantly, or let some other team to pay him the big bucks for being able to contribute points but not being a positive factor, let alone a clutch player, for an extended period of time for a team who employs him.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

I’m about to jump on JLDs “I hate Huberdeau” train.

 

[batting1k]

Is it just me or did Gusev look slow like he was skating in mud last night?

 

[sinDer]

Huby with a world class play on the Duke goal. That's what makes him a threat, to be unpredictable. But he actually has to play this way because he is such a slow skater. He never looks like he is skating hard - is he actually capable of it? He looks worse than Ek.

OT is working and skating so hard out there while creating chances. He'd fit so much better with Barky. Let's give him a shot and end this Marchment thing.

I don’t think that Huberdeau is slow. I mean, he’s not the faster skater, but he’s definitely not below average.

He just has the ability to slow down the game. That’s his game as playmaker so he can create plays.

I agree about Marchment, but I’m
not sure Tippet is the solution. I don’t know what you see, but I don’t think that he’s creating chances. He sure is working hard, but he doesn’t look ready to produce offensively at the NHL level.

 

[CatscratchFever]

So when do we stop giving points away to TBL and CAR? I feel as a Panthers fan, the pessimism is so ingrained, there's no way to make it make sense. If we were leading these series, the thought would be, well, regular season doesnt matter in the playoffs. Now, we are behind in the series, the thought is, we can't beat either of these teams in the playoffs. I know not everyone does, but I think this way too often.

 

[Pigge]

What a great game! Awesome to see us roll four lines and skating circles around Savard et al. It may not be enough to beat Vasilevsky this year, but it will be exciting to see if this group can get even better with Bennett in the lineup.

Hopefully Gusev will get up to speed as well. He didn't do a lot, but the few good plays he made suggested next level skills.

 

[ProjectPanthers]

Driedger was average in net. This was his shot to play again Saturday and he wasn't all that impressive.

Our offense was okay, got lots of shots, but no finish. Tippett had a couple glorious chances that he shanked. Huby with an amazing pass to Duke, similar to the one in Carolina earlier this year, was by far our best play of the evening.

Disappointing result given that we had two different leads in the same game. This one was winnable, and we f***ed it up. I'm starting to get concerned about the number of games against Carolina and Tampa that we just can't seem to finish off. Seems like round one exit is inevitable.

LOL I don't know what you want Driedger to do. The guys numbers weren't good in this game but he was left out to dry way more times than the score clock indicates. He made a huge save in the 2nd after barely seeing action for the first 20 minutes. Driedger was completely fine last night.

But Vasy was amazing. Although I do question his game a bit considering how many times we've made Nedelkjovic, Khudobin, Saros, Rinne, Bernier and Greiss all look amazing at times this season.

These guys really struggle to finish opportunities. There just isn't nearly enough natural shooters on this team and it's been evident all season. Missing a guy like Hoffman who can just pick a corner with ease.

There just isn't that level of talent on this squad. They do so well because they work hard and create a lot of chances for themselves but they need that little bit of top end offensive talent to push them over that level of making average goalies look incredible.

Gusev was all but invisible last night. Showed up on the PP opportunities but completely forgot about him 5-on-5. Didn't even notice him out there with March and Barky at all last night short of the one pass to Barkov. If he keeps this play up he'll be back in Russia before the end of the calendar year.

Liked what I saw in Montour and Wallmark looked good as well. Both played a solid game and Wallmark looked much more engaged than here last season.

Keep this effort on Saturday and they'll have another chance. They really dominated the Lightning but the Bolts are still really talented and can make chances for themselves out of nothing. I'd say outshooting the defending Cup champs by 20 shots is a pretty big positive, but you have to get the W and they just didn't get the goals they needed despite getting a ton of shots. A common theme in losses for this team this season.

 

[ProjectPanthers]

Tampa has better finishers than us.

Vas let in a stinker on the Horn goal, but made up for it the rest of the game. Stupid line change cost us and bad shot by Weegs/lazy backchecking in OT, but again, Tampa has better finishers than us.

Hornqvist's goal was anything but a stinker. Vasy got beat by a great play, very simple. Backhander is the hardest shot to read and Horny came in quickly and blasted a wicked backhand almost immediately. Definitely a difficult save to make, don't discount it.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

they need that little bit of top end offensive talent to push them over that level of making average goalies look incredible.

Zito has to find some mainstay RW for the 1st line instead of relying on waiver wire pick-ups or cheapo FA acquisition i.e. Duke, Mush, Goose...
Verhaege was a diamond in the rough but I'm very skeptical of Zito being able to repeat that. Since Q doesn't believe in Tippett as a potential first line guy then Zito should trade him before his value drops to zero.

 

[austropanther]

I don’t think that Huberdeau is slow. I mean, he’s not the faster skater, but he’s definitely not below average.

He just has the ability to slow down the game. That’s his game as playmaker so he can create plays.

I agree about Marchment, but I’m
not sure Tippet is the solution. I don’t know what you see, but I don’t think that he’s creating chances. He sure is working hard, but he doesn’t look ready to produce offensively at the NHL level.

Once he gathers some speed he is an ok skater I find. But his acceleration is bad, so he never really gets to top speed. You hardly ever see him outracing a player for the puck. Almost all players on our team are faster than him - at least among the forwards, and even Weegs and Fors are faster.

I agree with you that OT is definitely not a sure thing to succeed on Barky's wing. But he never got a shot yet whereas March already played many games already on his side. OT's passing is underrated, and we know that he is a scorer so rather needs to be fed with pucks. And most important point: he doesn't have to deliver already as a rookie. We can have patience with him. But he should improve faster when teamed up with some skilled players

 

[Pigge]

Once he gathers some speed he is an ok skater I find. But his acceleration is bad, so he never really gets to top speed. You hardly ever see him outracing a player for the puck. Almost all players on our team are faster than him - at least among the forwards, and even Weegs and Fors are faster.

I agree with you that OT is definitely not a sure thing to succeed on Barky's wing. But he never got a shot yet whereas March already played many games already on his side. OT's passing is underrated, and we know that he is a scorer so rather needs to be fed with pucks. And most important point: he doesn't have to deliver already as a rookie. We can have patience with him. But he should improve faster when teamed up with some skilled players

In just short of 13 minutes on the ice with Barkov and Tippett together, the team has on goal for and three against. Small sample size, but also nothing that indicates that Tippett should beat out the competition for that spot. He's pretty much in the same spot that Vatrano is, with simple north-south ability that will have to be proven in the bottom 6 to earn more fancy assignments the hard way. I think Tippett had an excellent game on the fourth line and if he can keep doing that consistently the production will come, and eventually he may move up the depth chart. He doesn't look like the kind of player who deserves a shortcut, and it wouldn't necessarily be good for his development anyway.

Marchment has earned his position by overperforming on the lower lines and playing well on the top line. My favorite stat from last night's game was Marchment's 8 absorbed hits, which didn't seem to bother him much.

 

[Little Bobby Boo]

That's usually the silver lining with bad players who get to play with Barkov.

Seth Griffith!

 

[violaswallet]

That's usually the silver lining with bad players who get to play with Barkov.

That’s true: Barkov has this great ability of lifting up players: old Jagr, Bjugstad, Dadonov, Verhaege, Duke and so on

it’s also a unique gift of Barkov: note that McDavid hasn’t seen his wingers (often of similar caliber ex ante) explode.

 

[Chessarmy]

I also thought Gusev was invisible, but I think we need to give him a little more time to get settled in.

 

[Crossbar]

Hornqvist's goal was anything but a stinker. Vasy got beat by a great play, very simple. Backhander is the hardest shot to read and Horny came in quickly and blasted a wicked backhand almost immediately. Definitely a difficult save to make, don't discount it.

I completely agree, backhands are difficult to determine where the puck will end up.

My reasoning is, I think because there was no other Panther in the vicinity and Horn was forced wide/Serg closing the gap from the middle, that Vas should have done a better job in his positioning cutting down the angle and leaving room on the stickside. Maybe Vas was expecting Horn to continue carrying the puck and driving hard to the net? IDK. Regardless, I think Bob would have been crucified again on these boards for that goal and expected to at least get a piece of the puck before going in.