The Madness Continues. Panthers Fall to Nashville In O.T.

Source: Miami Herald

Yesterday head coach Peter DeBoer referred to the Panthers ways this season as “Maddening”.  I’m going to paraphrase here cause I’m too busy to go look for the exact words, but something to the effect of “We have some guys that give a solid effort every night and then we have a group of guys that constantly need to be pushed”.

Well Petey, it’s a little late in the season to make these and other remarks about the teams inconsistency.  With seven games to go, this type of talking was due way back in the middle of the season.  As usual for the Panthers, this is too little too late.  One thing for sure is that if the Panthers can find a way to lose a game, they will, and last night was no exception as they came from behind to score two goals early in the third to take the lead.  Only to give up the tying goal with 3:07 left in regulation on a goal by Nashville’s Patric Hornqvist (I told you to look out for him in my pre-game), taking the game to overtime.

How about this quote: “It was there for us,” defenseman Keith Ballard said. “But 2-1 lead with five minutes left … this is not the first time this has happened.”  Yes, we’ve seen this movie before, and not just this year, but for about the last 5!  Francis Bouillon scored the O.T. winner just a minute in, giving Nashville the victory and sending the Panther faithful home dejected.  Again.

Or maybe not.  There are some out there wanting the Panthers to continue losing so that they have a shot at one of the first three draft picks and maybe get lucky and be able to draft Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin.  This was Florida’s third loss in a row and gives them sole possession of the 28th spot in the entire NHL after Carolina beat Atlanta last night.

The first period was a “feel each other out” period as the teams combined for a total of ten shots on goal.  That kind of play will continue to put fans in the seats eh! Especially here in South Florida.  But in the second the Predator’s David Legwand got them on the board with his 11th goal of the season.

Keith Ballard, a model of inconsistency this year tied the game at one early in the third and Little Stevie tipped in a Jason Garrison shot about six minutes later giving Florida the lead.  Until Hornqvist tied it up.

Scott Clemmensen started in net for the Panthers and made 22 saves.  Dan Ellis was the winning goalie for Nashville in what probably was a surprise start for him considering the stellar play of Pekka Rinne.

The Rusty Olesz watch: No points and a surprising 8:37 of ice time.  Still too much.

Once again coach DeBoer made the comment that ” It’s disappointing we didn’t get the two points because we did alot of things well in the second half of that game”.

Yea.  If that statement was worth the cost of my seat, every time he’s said that or one of our players had said that this season, my seat would be free.

Thanks for reading.

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Cheers

Tags: fancis bouillon, florida pantehrs, nashville predators, patric hornqvist