Daily Pucking Grind. A Decade Is A Long Time. February 3

Today’s music selection is A Decade Under The Influence by Taking Back Sunday.

In a game that the Florida Panthers needed to win, they couldn’t.  It wasn’t for lack of effort mind you, but a bounce here and a bounce there that didn’t go there way was the difference in the game against the Montreal Canadiens.  The teams were tied up at one apiece after two periods of play until a puck bounced off of Stephen Weiss in the goal crease, giving Montreal the lead.  Then moments later Brian Gionta put the ultimate game winner past Tomaas Vokoun at that point giving the Canadiens a 3-1 lead.

Head coach Peter DeBoer realizing the importance of the two points at hand, pulled Vokoun with slightly over two minutes left in regulation which gave the Cats the extra attacker and it worked.  Stephen Weiss picked up a rebound of a shot by Michael Frolik and had a wide open net to shoot at.  He made no mistake as he put the puck in the net, giving the Panthers some life, and maybe some hope.  But as we’ve become accustomed to they came up short, and lost a very important game, and lost ground in the standings.   The Panthers are in the 11th spot seven points behind Atlanta who didn’t play.

In the good news bad news department,  rookie Scott Timmins picked up his first NHL goal as he buried a shot past former Panther goaltender Alex Auld who wasn’t able to slide back into position for the save.  Timmins who was coached by DeBoer in juniors has played well in his two games and was able to get some ice time on the top lines for a bit as well.  For the bad news, forward Evgeny Dadonov left the game with an apparent hand or finger injury and did not return.  Dennis Wideman who took a puck to the face during the game was nowhere to be found in the third period.  Benched?  Hurt? Don’t know yet, but if you’re into plus/minus ratings, Dennis is a -17.  Here’s the TSN Boxscore.

Some interesting stats which will cause you to pull out your hair: When a final score is 3-2, the Panthers record is 2-7-2.  11 of the last 12 games have been one goal contests, and their record is 4-3-4.  Also they have been involved in 29 one goal games this season.  The most in the NHL.  The record in those?  12-11-6. Thanks to Harvey Fialkov for providing those numbers.

My analysis of these two games kind of puts the season in perspective.  The Panthers are working hard no doubt, but hard work without timely goal scoring, without good passing and good decisions, won’t get you anywhere in this league.  The group that is in the room is different and better than what we have had recently.  But additional skill players are desperately needed that can lead this team to the next level.  We can’t blame injuries since every team suffers from them.  We need players that can close the deal.  Plain and simple.  Ten years of no playoffs is a very long time.

Here are a few Thursday links:

Starting off with some humor, if you didn’t see this Houses of Hockey video by Down Goes Brown and Bloge Salming, you better check it out.

Spector’s Hockey has some great insight into the salary situation of the NHL.

Four Habs Fans rings in Groundhog Day in such a CHarming way.

Keaton Ellerby of the Florida Panthers lays the boom on Andrei Kostitsyn of the Canadiens. NHL.com

A goalie fight last night between Rick Di Pietro and Brent Johnson.

Puck Daddy’s Three Stars for Wednesday.  Johan Franzen gets five goals.

Thanks for reading.  We welcome your comments, or rants.

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