Shot Straight Through The Heart. Bruins 4-Cats 0

Rask stopped 41 shots in all not only winning his first game of the season, but getting a shutout to boot.  Rask was a brick wall that the panthers couldn’t break through, even as David Booth the Panther forward who was questionnable for the game, took 14 shots on goal including one that took the headgear off of Rask, who continued to play on.  It seemed as though Booth just kept shooting, but the Panthers never had anyone in the right spot to pick up a rebound.  A classic problem of a struggling team.

Tomas Vokoun on the other hand was strong in goal again, giving up only a goal in the first period to Milan Lucic that was assisted by Lazy Ass.  Until 14:42 of the third period when Lucic got his second of the game, and within two minutes the Panthers found themselves down 4-0 as the Bruins struck quickly.  Three goals in total for Lucic, three assists for the Lazy Ass, and that was the shot in the heart.

Darcy Hordichuk who dressed for the game instead of Michal Repik, fought Bruin tough guy Shawn Thornton in a pretty decent match after the first Lucic goal.  Darcy has a nice shiner to show for it and Thornton has a third period goal.  Ouch!  By the way,  was dressing Hordichuk to add some toughness to the lineup (I guess) worth it?  Darcy has 2:54 of ice time.  Poor Repik, he never gets a fair shot.

The power play remains powerless, or as I put it, the PP stands for piss poor.  Zero for five last night and ranked 29th in the NHL. The Panthers have scored five goals on the power play this season.  How does Jim Hulton still have a job? Head coach Pete The Bore blamed last night’s woes on Rask saying that the Panthers had their chances, but that Rask was stellar.  Maybe, but if you had some finishers, just one shot could have gotten through to change the complexion of the game.

I don’t understand what the problem on the PP is.  Sometimes I see a lot of standing around, and sometimes I see fancy passes to guys that are completely covered by an opponent’s sweater, or giveaways as we enter the offensive zone.  Still, no net presence to screen the goaltender.  Still not enough slap shots from Bryan McCabe at the point.  McCabe has only one goal so far this season.

Speaking of goals and points, the Little Stevie point projection is back down to 40, as the little weasel was invisible for most of the game with a horrendous -3!  Ok, for all the crap I give this guy, someone tell me why I should let up?  does he have some sort of nagging injury that no one is talking about?  Or is he that off his game because he’s missing a tooth?

Rusty Olesz left the game after taking a puck to his hand and did not return.  I have no idea about his condition and if he’ll be in Saturday night’s lineup against the New York Islanders.  Which hopefully means that either way, we need to give Repik a shot Saturday night.  But Pete, please don’t stick him on the fourth line.  Egads, that’s the worst thing you can do for this kid.  He’s not an energy guy, he’s a player that likes to shot the puck and has some offensive ability.

Give him an honest chance.  otherwise you’re just wasting talent.  Something you seem to be good at.

That’s it for this one.  Check back later today, or at least by tomorrow as I will have something to say about that jackass, Jack Edwards and his comment last night.

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