Why did Florida come up short in 2023?

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

we did beat the screw job in every game except the last Canes game so I can't argue that

I really feel Florida had pretty favorable reffing throughout lol. Aside from vs Vegas (Barkov game 3, Hill 100 penalties no call) and not getting calls vs Boston, Florida got away with quite a bit, and most of the penalties they took were obvious. Like the theme all year is how braindead they were, tbh I'm not expecting different this year, don't think Zito is either which is why he brought in so many good pkers

I also think blaming the refs is something a Leafs fan would do, happy to see most here are giving credit to Vegas (iamgine losing 4-1 and thinking you were the better team, they're delusional)

 

[Gentle Man]

Injuries and being overweight apparently.

 

[CHGoalie27]

I really feel Florida had pretty favorable reffing throughout lol. Aside from vs Vegas (Barkov game 3, Hill 100 penalties no call) and not getting calls vs Boston, Florida got away with quite a bit, and most of the penalties they took were obvious. Like the theme all year is how braindead they were, tbh I'm not expecting different this year, don't think Zito is either which is why he brought in so many good pkers

I also think blaming the refs is something a Leafs fan would do, happy to see most here are giving credit to Vegas (iamgine losing 4-1 and thinking you were the better team, they're delusional)

Bullshit. Only game refs favored us, and very clearly, was game 4 vs Carolina. The whole vegas series was a hose job.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

Bullshit. Only game refs favored us, and very clearly, was game 4 vs Carolina. The whole vegas series was a hose job.

I'm not really going to get into a back/forth but I'll just say it's crazy to blame losing the Vegas series on the refs, they were clearly the better team by a wide margin (which is fine, it was a "rebuild" year)

 

[CHGoalie27]

I'm not really going to get into a back/forth but I'll just say it's crazy to blame losing the Vegas series on the refs, they were clearly the better team by a wide margin (which is fine, it was a "rebuild" year)

You know ill do a game by game to make my point.

What was the penalty minute ratio in the Vegas series?

Whistle blows then puck goes in, good goal?

Yeah. Crazy.

 

[HockeyRulez]

Depth

 

[RogerRoger]

It's a time and place thing. Panthers matched great against the Bruins, better than any team in the league. Sadly, Vegas matched the Panthers very well also and it showed.

The very physical play style of the Panthers really wore them down and you could see, regardless of injuries, how hurt they seemed to be. Comparing how they attacked the players in the Bruins series compared to Vegas, the impacts were not there. I don't blame them, I think they just couldn't anymore, it wasn't for lack of will. Plus, Vegas had a less physical playoff run and they can be very physical. They were ready and it wasn't pretty for us.

During the East playoffs, games were reffed like it was the playoffs and the Final was reffed like the regular season game and the team didn't adjust.

I'm not sure how to phrase what I want to say about Bob. In truth I can't say anything but praise him for his playoff run.

 

[Mogo]

Injuries and being overweight apparently.

God damn Barkov

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

It's a time and place thing. Panthers matched great against the Bruins, better than any team in the league. Sadly, Vegas matched the Panthers very well also and it showed.

The very physical play style of the Panthers really wore them down and you could see, regardless of injuries, how hurt they seemed to be. Comparing how they attacked the players in the Bruins series compared to Vegas, the impacts were not there. I don't blame them, I think they just couldn't anymore, it wasn't for lack of will. Plus, Vegas had a less physical playoff run and they can be very physical. They were ready and it wasn't pretty for us.

During the East playoffs, games were reffed like it was the playoffs and the Final was reffed like the regular season game and the team didn't adjust.

I'm not sure how to phrase what I want to say about Bob. In truth I can't say anything but praise him for his playoff run.

Game 1 where he played well but not like the last 2 rounds was honestly the only game where a vintage Bob would have won them the game, game 2 and 5 no one was winning in front of that garbage team performance and he did everything he could games 2 and 3. Even if they hypothetically won game 1, they weren't winning 2 of 3 without Chucky. When he got hurt game 3 it was over.

And yeah it was clear about halfway through game 1 the refs were calling it different but they never adjusted whatsoever.

 

[Ratsreign]

injuries exposed the lack of depth. Luostar going out seemed to throw the whole bottom 6 off. And the defense was beat to hell.

 

[mcostan]

Minimal depth and too many injuries to key players.

 

[IceManCat]

I want to blame injuries, but it begs the question; If they were injured then why were they able to beat Carolina in four games? And aside from that, they had a chance to rest for the Vegas series whereas with Carolina they didn't rest much at all. You may make the argument that they got injured during the Carolina series, but according to reports most of the injuries occurred in the first and second round. Not sure if the injury argument holds up.

 

[KW]

I want to blame injuries, but it begs the question; If they were injured then why were they able to beat Carolina in four games? And aside from that, they had a chance to rest for the Vegas series whereas with Carolina they didn't rest much at all. You may make the argument that they got injured during the Carolina series, but according to reports most of the injuries occurred in the first and second round. Not sure if the injury argument holds up.

I think Luo getting injured in game 4 against Carolina and Tkachuk injured in game 3 of the finals demonstrated how little depth we had. Without those, we might have been 2-2 heading into game 5.

 

[IceManCat]

I think Luo getting injured in game 4 against Carolina and Tkachuk injured in game 3 of the finals demonstrated how little depth we had. Without those, we might have been 2-2 heading into game 5.

I'm not really convinced that one middle six player can have that much of an impact on the overall team. Chucky took a hard hit but that was in game 3, we were already down 2-0 at that point. I'm sure the two aforementioned would have helped us win more games, but I wouldn't count that as the primary reason why we didn't hoist the cup.

 

[Laus723]

I'm not really convinced that one middle six player can have that much of an impact on the overall team. Chucky took a hard hit but that was in game 3, we were already down 2-0 at that point. I'm sure the two aforementioned would have helped us win more games, but I wouldn't count that as the primary reason why we didn't hoist the cup.

You're right, injuries to guys in the first few rounds, all the adrenaline that was built and going into the next round right away instead of sitting and resting, Vegas being largely healthy comparatively. Doesn't hold up.

 

[Gentle Man]

Let's be honest. We didnt need the playoffs to show how ass the depth was lol.

Our record was bad without Barkov and Or Bennett.

The team waded water while Duclair was gone not attaining a 3 game winning streak till the team got healthy. Then Luostarinen going down just discombobulated the bottom 6 altogether. Could not find a 3LW or even a replacement for the 4th line winger that moved up.

Had Lyon not had a magical run and the Penguins had a laughable collapse, we honestly SHOULD NOT have survived the Bennett death.

Depth was ass.

Game 4 Tkachuk was pretty much dead from the G3 injury. Could the outcome have been different with a healthy Tkachuk in G4? We will never know

 

[KW]

I'm not really convinced that one middle six player can have that much of an impact on the overall team. Chucky took a hard hit but that was in game 3, we were already down 2-0 at that point. I'm sure the two aforementioned would have helped us win more games, but I wouldn't count that as the primary reason why we didn't hoist the cup.

I didn’t and I’m not saying we would have won the cup. I’m only saying that we might have been able to pull off game 4 if we’d had just Eetu and Matthew ready to go. That game was close enough that we might have been able to pull it off. Who knows.

 

[Laus723]

Let's be honest. We didnt need the playoffs to show how ass the depth was lol.

Our record was bad without Barkov and Or Bennett.

The team waded water while Duclair was gone not attaining a 3 game winning streak till the team got healthy. Then Luostarinen going down just discombobulated the bottom 6 altogether. Could not find a 3LW or even a replacement for the 4th line winger that moved up.

Had Lyon not had a magical run and the Penguins had a laughable collapse, we honestly SHOULD NOT have survived the Bennett death.

Depth was ass.

Game 4 Tkachuk was pretty much dead from the G3 injury. Could the outcome have been different with a healthy Tkachuk in G4? We will never know

Our team was bad due to the cap constraints, that trickled down into everything. We played several games a man short, Colin White was mediocre everywhere he went, Balcers did nothing while here, no kid rose up, etc. I thought Horny was kinda falling on the sword and we'd see him in the playoffs, but he retired instead.

And I agree with Tkachuk, the Panthers still a had game left to play after the Pittsburgh-Chicago game. He thinks they would've gotten the job done, I'll take him at his word there.

Everything clicked in the playoffs, what Mo was preaching and trying to put into place, guys understanding what it takes...imo the depth completely killed us, the time off killed us, and the injuries killed us. Luostairinen going out did hurt as that 3rd line was terrific, Tkachuk going down hurt obviously as well, and Vegas just didn't allow our aggressiveness to interfere with their game AND they were healthy. Even Stone, who will apparently rise up like the Undertaker to surprise everyone JUST to play in the playoffs. And maybe some games during the season.

To summarize, we lost due to lack of depth, injuries, and cap circumvention.

 

[Laus723]

Lmao, @The90 , can’t not creep around. So wounded.

 

[Egblad]

Lmao, @The90 , can’t not creep around. So wounded.

I dealt with him.

 

[FinlandPanther]

Lmao, @The90 , can’t not creep around. So wounded.

It’s great lmao. Even funnier now that they all thought Matthews would take a discount. What a loser team

 

[Dread Clawz]

Let's be honest. We didnt need the playoffs to show how ass the depth was lol.

Our record was bad without Barkov and Or Bennett.

The team waded water while Duclair was gone not attaining a 3 game winning streak till the team got healthy. Then Luostarinen going down just discombobulated the bottom 6 altogether. Could not find a 3LW or even a replacement for the 4th line winger that moved up.

Had Lyon not had a magical run and the Penguins had a laughable collapse, we honestly SHOULD NOT have survived the Bennett death.

Depth was ass.

Game 4 Tkachuk was pretty much dead from the G3 injury. Could the outcome have been different with a healthy Tkachuk in G4? We will never know

We still almost pulled it off and made it 2-2.

 

[austropanther]

Because Cousins failed to put the puck into an empty net to make it 2-0 in game 1 of the SC finals

 

[I am not exposed]

Our team was bad due to the cap constraints, that trickled down into everything. We played several games a man short, Colin White was mediocre everywhere he went, Balcers did nothing while here, no kid rose up, etc. I thought Horny was kinda falling on the sword and we'd see him in the playoffs, but he retired instead.

And I agree with Tkachuk, the Panthers still a had game left to play after the Pittsburgh-Chicago game. He thinks they would've gotten the job done, I'll take him at his word there.

Everything clicked in the playoffs, what Mo was preaching and trying to put into place, guys understanding what it takes...imo the depth completely killed us, the time off killed us, and the injuries killed us. Luostairinen going out did hurt as that 3rd line was terrific, Tkachuk going down hurt obviously as well, and Vegas just didn't allow our aggressiveness to interfere with their game AND they were healthy. Even Stone, who will apparently rise up like the Undertaker to surprise everyone JUST to play in the playoffs. And maybe some games during the season.

To summarize, we lost due to lack of depth, injuries, and cap circumvention.

Thank God. He was a detriment to whatever line he played on at the end of his tenure.

Because Cousins failed to put the puck into an empty net to make it 2-0 in game 1 of the SC finals

Vegas were far the better team. They would still have won in 5 or 6. The difference between the two teams was quite notable.

 

[austropanther]

Vegas were far the better team. They would still have won in 5 or 6. The difference between the two teams was quite notable.

Of course I am not 100% serious. Vegas was clearly the better team.

But you cannot deny that this could have given the whole series another dynamic. Imagine we win game 1, Hill is not the superhero, maybe some doubt creeps into the Vegas squad and the pressure shifts to them even more...

It would not have improved our overall odds drastically. But Vegas would have sweat a lot more