Panthers end Canes Streak, 4-2

Who had the most hits? lol

According to the official scoresheet, Wallin did.

Sad. I still think staal isn’t firing on all pistons. The Brindy line is pathetic. I will also disagree that Ray’s penalty was the high/low light. I still hear that clang of Ruutu’s shot on the post. I think that would of set them back on thier heels. Oh well, 1st period was pretty good, 2nd was eh and most of third was crap. They needed an agressive good third and will need one EVERY game. Rod needs to be put on IR or something. He’s not making the grade for even a 4th liner. Boychuck was a better player while here along with several others. I like Rod alot, but he just isn’t able to play at the NHL level, let alone center a first or second line. Williams looked off, too. I wonder if it isn’t because his center is throwing the timing off?

That damned Booth owns us. I wonder if JR can pick him up?

Yea, right.

A

Florida dictated the game all night. Their forecheck was what this team used to look like in 2006. Staal looked good for 3 shifts in the third. There were a lot of missed passes and over skating coming out of our zone. The number one thing this team needs to fix in order to make it into the playoffs or get through the first round is the penalty kill. The answer isn’t taking fewer penalties, it only takes one shot on one powerplay to win a game and the Carolina penalty kill is dreadful. Rod doesn’t play physical anymore, he doesn’t win the boards and he seems to give up on plays a lot easier than he used to. It’s a shame to see him as a shell of his former self. Whitney can be a bit predictable with his passes sometimes and it was picked up by the Panthers all night. Seidenberg was solely responsible for the empty netter, that little backhand along the boards when youv’e got two trailing forecheckers is D league at best. For them to be one goal down in the third says more about the Panthers lack of offense than how Carolina played.

When is the last time we scored on pulled goalie 6-5 man advantage? Have we ever scored when we pulled our goalie?

It seems like on the rare occasion we attempt this, we haven’t a clue how to set up.

The Whitney penalty was crap in light of what they were letting go up to that point. The PItkanene penalty had to be called, but what whitney did was being done all agem to that point. BS officiating in the NHL, and in other breaking news the sky is still blue.

I think that while we can single out individual players for their mistakes (whitney penalty, seidenberg empty net, second line, etc.), the bottom line is this was a team loss. You win as a team and you lose as a team. Doesn’t matter if you can single out one player, one line, or 7 players; the team loses the game. For the Canes to win, they will need a better effort on the PK and a better team effort overall. While they did lose, we still have to remember that this is a team going from a run and gun offense to a defense oriented system and there are going to be bumps along the way. This bump hurts though as it was a divisional game against a team that is chasing us.

Let us hope for a better effort on Saturday.

The key will be at least being in the game vs. Boston tomorrow. If they’re not, it could be a serious blow to their confidence.

For the short time that I actually did watch the game, it looked like Booth was playing in a higher gear than anyone else on the ice.

Marc – That is the way Booth looks every night. The kid can fly and he usually is. I don’t know many players that can keep up with him. Think he needs to get laid out just once and maybe that would slow him down.

When we win the neutral zone, we win the game. Last night we let them fly into our zone, and we lost. Brindy is S-L-O-W

I’ve been saying since we brought him back that I expected big things from Babchuk. Since that preseason game when he shot the puck purposefully off the boards behind the net and it bounced back perfectly for whoever was on the doorstep and led to a goal. The guys got some offensive talent, passing and getting himself into the slot. Hes got a MONSTER shot, and like you said with his +2 last night, hes pretty sound defensively. I still think that in a couple of years he has the potential to be a great D-Man. Can you imagine if he played up to his size and started slamming people around?

Im okay with last nights loss, it hurts but NJ got smoked last night too, and the Rangers are falling off, so thats good. Saturday is gonna be HUGE. If we can at least win 2 lose 1 win 2 lose 1 the rest of the way, we’ll be gravy. NOW ITS VERY INTERESTING!!

GO CANES

simply looked to me like the energy, effort and skating were not there for most of the game. Cam kept them in it for a while but the first 4 minutes of the 3rd the effort and energy by Florida was just not matched and they took over the game right there

Well…. you win some and you lose some… I don’t think it was a horrible game… it’s just that Florida brought it a little more than Carolina did…. Plain and simple…. and it happens to almost every team…

There are a couple teams (San Jose, Detroit) who can take a night off and still pull wins out of their back-sides… And maybe put Boston up there too… but every other team in the NHL is going to get beat if they take a night off… no matter who they are playing… And every team takes a night off every now and then…

I think looking at the big picture we are still in good shape… we have lost one of our last five… Gleason going down is a huge blow, but it makes room for someone to stand up and show what they can do…

It’s just a loss… and we couldn’t go the rest of the season without one… maybe we can pull one off in Boston on Saturday…

What do you think?

Agree or disagree?

http://www.carteretnewstimes.com/articles/2009/01/09/news-times/sports/doc4964e001c7277735183748.txt

May have cherry picked some stats and have a slant, but not a bad read. I agree with alot of it. I think one important stat there was the goals. We just ain’t wearing out the twine like we should and I think, can. I was hoping last night we were gonna set the net on fire and the first period looked like good hockey. I dunno, one thing I think he may be right on is the desire for a high dollar sniper. I don’t see it happening with losing some good guys. I think he hit on the fact that Ruutu looks like he likes here, alot. I don’t see any commitment from the front office and his publicity is minimal. He is a magnet and this team should keep him and have his butt all over. His brother is a mean pain in the ass, our guy plays mean hockey. I’d sell a testicle to be a bug on the wall in JR’s office. I’ll repeat, I think there is gonna be one of JR’s special “trades”. I just don’t see what we could get without giving up more.

hell, I dunno, I hope the ’Canes go on a rampage so I can quit thinking about the business side (the dark side).

A