Panther Pregame: Cats vs. Lightning

Who’s the dofus that thought a weekend finale matchup of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers was a great idea?  I mean these are two games that will cause most followers to drink heavily, cause actually trying to find the porcelain bowl will be more exciting than this meaningless matchup. 

See guy above.  Still looking for it.

What’s that phrase in an old Beatle’s song:  “Two of us going nowhere”?  That’s what we have tonight as both teams have identical records of 32-36-12 going into the weekend.  If the Panthers win it will be their fourth win in a row over the Bolts, and their second in a row following the defeat of the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.  Florida is trying to finish on a positive note during a season that hasn’t panned out as they thought it would. 

Injuries, inconsistency, incompetence, no skill, no heart, no character, but good goaltending for the most part, has been the description of their year.

All excuses.  And excuses are for losers.

However there are reasons.

Little Stevie was on pace earlier for 35-38 goals.  He’s stuck at 27 and is pointless in his last four.  Certainly could have used more production from him down the stretch.  Rusty Olesz went scoreless in 21 consecutive games. Etc, Etc.

I’ll save the rest of it for my postseason wrap up.  It’s games like this that become one of two things.  A complete slug-fest and penalty filled affair.  Which as we know only prolongs the agony of the game with all the stoppages of play.  Or river hockey where the score ends up being 9-7.  Although it would take the Panthers about six games to accumulate that many goals, so I’d be shocked if it were a goal scoring free for all.

Unless of course you’re on the Tampa side of things where you have a boatload of offence.  Steven Stamkos is on track for 50 goals and needs two more to get there.  Me thinks that this will be accomplished, and he might be able to get it out of the way tonight.  Hey Barry Melrose, hear that new song by The Heavy called “How Do You Like Me Now”?

 Then there’s Martin St. Louis, Vinny Lecavalier, Ryan Malone and Steve Downie who has eclipsed the 20 goal mark while accumulating over 200 PIMs as well as 140 hits.

This will be the third year in a row that Tampahas missed the playoffs, but you have to feel pretty good if you’re a Lightning fan don’t you?  With all that offence, you just need to fix your goaltending and defence a bit and you’ll be on your way.  This will be their highest point total though since the last time they went to the playoffs.

These two team collide again Sunday in South Florida as it’s fan appreciation night in the final game of the season.  Ummm, not much to appreciate this year as a fan huh?  Oh, well that rant comes Sunday.  Although to most of you it probably seems like it’s been going on all year. 

Check out Bolts By The Bay.  Maybe they’re feeling a bit better than me.

We’ll see how we fuck up our draft status too while we’re at it.

Thanks for reading.

Your comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

Cheers

Tags: florida panthers, stephen weiss, steven stamkos, tampa bay lightning