What the Panthers just did is PURE GENIUS... | Florida Panthers News

The Florida Panthers head coach made a decision last night that was pure genius and it got the team to win. I'll go over what he did and there's a guy on the Florida Panthers who's been a thorn in the side of the Toronto Maple Leafs for years. I'll tell you who he is and what he has done to cause the team so much frustration. And guys on the Panthers finally stepped up who weren't stepping up in the first two games. The Stars finally came out last night and Bobrovsky, man did he make some big saves in overtime and he helped get this team the win. We'll go over some of his numbers and how he played last night. Guys what an entertaining game. If you like the Panthers, if you like the Leafs, or you hate both teams it doesn't matter. I would say it's probably one of the most entertaining games in the playoffs so far this year. Guys thank you so much for joining me. I am Greg Andrews. This is Panthers Digest. Hit that subscribe button down below because you need to stay up to date with anything and everything that has to do with your defending Stanley Cup champion. Florida Panthers guys again what a game last night. Exciting from start to finish. I was at the edge of my seat. I just didn't know what I was going to expect next. It was left and right action. Everywhere that I looked on the ice there were hits. There was jawing. I mean it had a little bit of everything last night. Extremely entertaining. Extremely entertaining. Both goalies played great games. They did have a couple lapses here and there but it was an incredible matchup and this is just, I think we're just really starting to get started now because with the Panthers figuring things out of how to play against the Toronto Maple Leafs who have been playing phenomenal hockey in these first three games. We have ourselves a series now. 2-1 in favor of Toronto right now but that could change tomorrow night. Game is at 7 30 tomorrow on Mother's Day so guys mark it on your calendars. So 5-4. Overtime win. Brad Marchand the rat scores. Gets the win. The thorn in the Leafs side and he always has been man. I hate to say it you guys and I feel for you Leafs fans man because uh he was a thorn in the side for the Panthers too. So believe me I feel you but man Marchand and that Lundell Luceranen line has been nothing short of absolutely fantastic in the series. They have been like I said that bread and butter line for the Panthers. They have been scoring the goals. They've been getting the assists. They have been causing havoc for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They just don't really have an answer on how to stop that line when they match up. Exciting but that's the guy. Brad Marchand. He is the guy who has been leading this team in the playoffs so far in this series and it's getting I think he's just warming up now. Really I do. I mean the way he's been skating. The puck handling. His ability to boost up his teammates. He's been nothing short of spectacular. That line has just been gelling. The chemistry has been nothing short of amazing guys. So as we're looking at this. These are the stats from the game. Shots are pretty close to one another but look at the hits. Yes it went into overtime. That's why the hits are so massively high for the Panthers. It's 62 to 43 but the one spot and I've talked about this before that needed to change was the Panthers needed to get that face-off win percentage number up and thank you to some of the Maple Leafs fans who left some incredible comments about hey we've got guys that just win in the face-off circle. That's what they do in Matthews. Especially him. I mean he's got an incredible face-off win percentage not just in the playoffs but also in the regular season. He's just a stud in the circle. We found a way to win in the circle last night. 46% is a heck of a lot better than the 38-39% average we had in the first two games and I said if they were able to bring that up they would have a better chance to win a game and probably win the game and they did. Also the block shots went up. They had 14 in the game and they found a way to draw the Maple Leafs off of that line when they are trying to find some open lanes to shoot on wall. They did and you could see it here because they don't have 25 block shots and in overtime I when I saw this the stat sheet I expected like 30 block shots. To me it felt like the Leafs kept blocking shots blocking shots blocking shots but they didn't get that many blocks. 20 block shots with an overtime period about 15 minutes of overtime I was expecting more. So the Panthers were able to draw them off that line that's in front of wall where they have bodies there to try to block shots and again I said it's kind of a double-edged sword where you're screening your goalie but those guys stand there big and tall and they want to block the shot so their goalie doesn't have to do it. You know put that body in between the offensive player and their goaltender you give yourself a better shot to not allow the other team to score goal. So giveaways takeaways pretty even I mean the rest of the stat sheet I'm you know there's not really much to say but the blocks and the faceoff percentage are better than they have been and I think that was one of the keys to the game that helped the Panthers get the W last night but the biggest thing I want to talk about guys in a second is this. So Jonah Gatchevich scored his first goal in his in his playoff debut last night. Third skater in Florida Panthers history to tally their first season post-season excuse me post-season game since Owen Tippett wow and Peter Worrell and the one thing I want to show you here guys is that name is not that familiar to anybody right now because they changed the line that fourth line was changed there was no Sam Miscavige or Sturm or Bovequist those guys were taken out in comes Greer Nosek and Gatchevich they came in Gatchevich had the goal they played their great energy they had some great forward checking they did great as a fourth line and they put themselves out there and they really helped their team but the genius that happened last night was Paul Maurice changing up the lineup matches with Toronto's it wasn't line one against line one line two against line two he got sneaky after that wraparound goal that happened everything changed guys Barkov's line instead of going against the Matthews line they switched Paul Maurice's mindset was I want to see what'll happen instead of having Reinhardt and Barkov and Rodriguez skating all over the place and chasing Matthews and chasing Nyes and chasing Marner they didn't do that instead they were against Pacioretty they were against Nylander and Tavares and it worked it worked guys that line that's switching that up and they also went against the Domi line and they scored there Reinhardt had a goal against that Barkov had the goal he did have the goal against the Matthews line and he was falling down and got and got a little bit lucky because it went off the stick of the defender but still the changing of the lines made a big difference because that second line for Toronto didn't have an answer for the Barkov Reinhardt line especially because Barkov and Reinhardt the selkie award winner not award winners like Barkov has won it twice maybe the third time this year and it looks like he will win it again but those two guys are in the running for it this year together so defensively that line did a phenomenal job to stop that Tavares Nylander line and and they really shut him down last night they did a great job defending that and then when they switched up everything and the Bennett Kachuk line you know just switching everything up made the difference for this team Toronto did not have an answer and the biggest problem for the Panthers last night was the same thing they've been facing this whole series turnovers odd man rushes how many times were there breakaways or odd man rushes again last night that again has been the Achilles heel of this team those first two games and it almost was again last night especially in overtime but thanks to Bob I think he had two stops I believe that were pretty much breakaways one was Nylander I can't remember who the other one was so uh excuse me for that but two ginormous saves in overtime by Bobrovsky that helped his team get the win so Marchand's OT winner because of that Cardover Hagee now has seven career postseason overtime points he's the only Patrick Kane has eight he's got one more in the league right now for active NHL players pretty big number Cardover Hagee is a stud he's kind of been quiet in the series but I think he's going to start heating up again I do think these lines how they match up together Paul Maurice has started to see what lines can skate and keep up with the Matthews line that line is so fast so quick their passing is deadly every time I'm watching these games I'm seeing these ultra crisp beautiful passes by Toronto Florida looks a little bit sloppier with their passes they were a hundred percent behind in that first five minutes of the game yesterday and I think every Panthers fan was biting their nails and just shaking their heads oh god 27 seconds in the game first goal a few minutes later another goal with the wrap around I mean it's just it was hard to watch that first five minutes but again this team has been resilient for the last three years and they were again last night and it was awesome to see I never faulted on it yes I was a little worried but the thing is I had faith in this team it's been pretty incredible to watch and I think game four will be a very similar style of hockey they to game three and it's gonna be ultra physical again and there were some kind of bad calls by the refs or missed calls Lundell got a clear stick to the face and by the NHL rules should have been called a penalty and the referee said that you know it was a follow-through clearly wasn't a follow-through because the puck was in midair he took a swipe at it and missed and hit Lundell on the face and they didn't call anything so horrible missed call there horrible missed call guys and you can't tell me otherwise it was clear as day look at that stick to the face look at his look at his head turning to the side you guys can't tell me that's not that's not a high sticking call come on come on guys even you Toronto Maple Leafs fans you can't tell me that should have been called a high stick just like a lot of you have agreed and said yeah up here in Toronto we also think the Rodriguez embellishment call was total BS because it was the referees have been really really hard on the Panthers and I think that's because of their physicality and they're trying to stop any sort of injuries I get it they're trying to stop you know this ultra style of you know trying to fist the cuffs and you know there haven't been a lot of scrums and things like that it's a little bit different style hockey but it's not what I think we're used to seeing like in the regular season against these two teams I mean this is physical playoff hockey it's fast it's brutal but it's it's cerebral that's what I love about this game when we're watching these two teams go against each other it is a dogfight but it's putting those certain pieces together and matchups man and it has been so great to watch these two coaches go against each other as well a lot of fun guys but that my goodness was ridiculous so I wanted to show you guys the stat line this is from game number two I circled the plus minus because look at all those little dashes in front of the numbers in the plus minus category those minus signs aren't good you guys all know what the plus minus means and look at the TOI for Seth Jones and Forsling look at the amount of ice time there Seth Jones has always been on the ice for more time than any other defender on the Florida Panthers but pay attention again for that plus minus I'm going to switch over to last night's game look at that plus minus one guy was minus one everybody else was positive or at zero and then look at the assists there were 10 assists in last night's game that is more than game number one for the Maple Leafs in total and game number two for the Maple Leafs in total I think there was eight respectively in game number one and nine respectively in game number two if I can recall when I did the the research on this the Panthers had 10 assists last night that's an incredible number and then look at the TOI for Seth Jones almost 31 minutes yes there was overtime but 31 minutes on the ice and then Forsling 28 minutes that's insane for defenders that's insane amounts of time to be on the ice but those guys work so hard they've helped this team grind out to get that big time win and man I think they're gonna keep cruising they gotta stick to what worked last night I think Paul Maurice might make a couple other lineup changes but things worked pretty well again he's got a match speed for speed or physical play I said it they were physical last night and it picked up as the game went on and just got more physical they were body on body they were really throwing the hits at the Toronto Maple Leafs I mean 62 hits is a lot even with overtime without overtime it's a lot they were probably somewhere I would say probably the mid to low 50s for the hits before overtime started but awesome game last night even if you're a Leafs fan you hate the the Panthers you cannot deny the fact that that was probably one of the best games you have seen in the playoffs this year incredibly exciting guys and so brings me to this guys even John Tavares said the Barkov and Reinhardt line facing those guys wow are they tough great instincts great sticks they knock pucks down they tip pucks they just make it difficult to make plays that's the challenge of playing in the playoffs and playing against the top players and top teams finding a way through that and guess what they weren't able to do that that Barkov Reinhardt line those two guys together are just that's hell for these guys to go up against when you're trying to put the puck in the back of the net and make some sort of offensive passes do something generate offense they stop them in their tracks Paul Maurice second period was the first block of time in this series that we looked to our identity correct they did he switched up those lines and they looked like the Panthers that are the winning that play their winning style of hockey like they did in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning absolutely and Brad Marchand on the overtime game winner you could tell they were tired they were just kind of sitting back really just trying to change the angle and get a better shot in overtime there's no bad shot and man he was right again he did get lucky because that did knuckle in there because it bounced off of a defender but hey doesn't matter it still went into the back of the net guys so huge shot by him my goodness I was I didn't think that was going to go in because I saw it I just didn't I didn't really see it go into the back of the net until I saw people behind jumping up and I saw the light go on so I had no idea that it actually went in and Brad Marchand on the bonding and chemistry of being part of this Florida Panthers team remember guys he's been here since March coming in everybody embraced me and welcomed me I feel like I've built some really really good friendships already in a very short period of time and he has these guys respect him if any of you are follow the Panthers on x or you follow Jamison Olive he's the beat writer for the Florida Panthers you will find a video on there it seems like every night he gets Brad Marchand gets the puck and he's handing it to one of his teammates to put on that wall of the wins the winning wall he seems to be the guy that they hand the puck to every time and that to me is awesome he's been accepted into this team and for me I know he's aging but you cannot tell me the guy still does not have a hell of a lot of talent from what I'm seeing on the ice the way he skates the way he controls the puck the way he leads his team the energy he brings his style of hockey is Panther hockey yes it was Bruins hockey it was Bruins hockey it is now Panthers hockey he belongs on this team I hope he stays after next year and has another couple years left in those skates because man he's been such a big time bonus for this team and he's just boosted morale on this team so on top of that Marchand is the oldest player to score an overtime goal for the Florida Panthers in the playoffs at 36 years and 363 days awesome achievement and you've only been on the team for a few months not even a few months which is which is pretty remarkable just a couple of months excuse me so a lot of things happen in that game a lot of pucks bounced in the favor of the Toronto Maple Leafs for instance one of the goals that was a coming out from the blue line just a wrist earth but one thing that Toronto does so well is just throw the puck at the net and hopefully it will go in and bounce off somebody and it did twice one of them was thrown towards the net it was deflected by one of their own guys and then it was going to look like it was going to go wide then it went off of Forsling's glove and into the back of the net and the greatest thing that I saw and they even said it on the broadcast that Bobrovsky gave his guy he was forcing a little tap on the shin just be like hey man you know what hey it was not your fault you know it's going to happen those bounces didn't go our way and I love seeing that instead of getting in his face saying what are you doing whatever he's supportive of his guys and that's the one thing I love about Bob he's not going to throw this on his teammates he's going to say you know what we're going to move on we can come and get this one back that's awesome the next one was again another just throw the puck at the net they did it went off of Seth Jones skates I think once or twice I think might bounce off the right foot left foot and then went in the back of the net was redirected like I said this game is a game of how the puck bounces and it's luck and sometimes that's just how it rolls and unfortunately for the Panthers in the series it's done that on several different occasions but we're not talking about luck and then also referees and stuff I don't like talking about that because you know what the referees are not going to be the ultimate game decider because there's other things outside of panel not missed calls or penalty calls that will cause your team to win or lose it's the same thing in any sport there are many plays that can that can be the reason why your team won or the reason why your team lost last night it was just solid physical play getting on that four check again having a great goaltender between the pipes that made big saves when he needed to guys that is pretty much how it's been and the best line again has been that third line that Lundell loose drain in has been nothing short of just fire on the ice two goals three assists uh sorry excuse me not two goals and three assists that was the Barkov Reinhardt Rodriguez line last night excuse me they had two goals and three assists last night combined it was one goal by Barkov a goal and assist by Reinhardt and two assists by Rodriguez so they stepped it up which was great and um yeah it was just an entertaining game I loved it I can't wait for game number four tomorrow on Mother's Day so guys again the Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs we've got ourselves back into a series two to one we are down I have a feeling it's gonna be 2-2 heading back to Toronto and the scary part of this is if Paul Maurice has really figured out how to match up against this Toronto Maple Leafs team line for line what he did last night and if he keeps doing that and throwing these these knucklers at the Toronto Maple Leafs the Leafs are going to be in trouble they're battling back and man are they fast but when the Panthers start playing physical and they get those lines matched up well with Toronto and they know how to stop them defensively it is not going to be easy for Toronto to keep doing what they did in games one and two but I can't wait for tomorrow night but guys thank you again for joining me I'm Greg Andrews subscribe comment like share I want to hear from you guys please be respectful again I'm going to say it every single time I'm on I'm doing my uh episodes be respectful and comment I will get back to you guys thank you so much for joining me and listening talk to you guys later and go cats