The Panthers just sent a TERRIFYING message... | Florida Panthers News

The Panthers are doing something that is just criminal. It's been highway robbery, no, highway bobbery. And Sam Bennett has just been a stud in the playoffs. And last night he came alive again. And Paul Maurice's genius as the head coach of the Florida Panthers has been paying off. Everything that he has gotten his players ready for in this series, well, it's paid off. They are up now two nothing in a best of seven series against a team they did not have home ice advantage on, but now they do. They're coming back to Emmerich Bank Arena with a two nothing lead in this series. Guys, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Panthers Digest. I'm your host, Greg Andrews. Hit that subscribe button down below so you can stay up to date with anything and everything that has to do with your defending Stanley Cup champion. Florida Panthers, guys, you need to stay in the know. And please comment, like, and share. I really do appreciate you guys tuning in and liking and giving me some of your feedback on how these episodes are going. What a game. Another shout out for Bob. Another absolutely incredible performance by this team that is doing exactly what they're doing last year, or what they did last year, which is play team hockey. 18 different guys on this team have scored goals. And ridiculous stat. Defense has been incredible. They've shut out a team that was on fire in the first two series, and they've cooled them down. They've just completely doused all of the fire that the Carolina Hurricanes had in their first two rounds of the playoffs. Just unbelievable performance by the Cats last night. I think everybody is looking at the Florida Panthers now and saying they are looking like championship hockey team. Sorry, they are looking like a championship hockey team that could repeat this year, and it's looking more and more like they might if they can keep up this kind of performance for the future. There's still a lot of hockey left until they can actually hoist that trophy, guys. There's still a lot of unknowns. And the Western Conference is a battleground. And Dallas is looking really solid, too. But that is a story for a different day. We're focusing on one series at a time. And right now, we're focusing on the Carolina Hurricanes. Like I said, what a great performance last night. It was all Panthers right out of the gate. In the last episode, I know some of you have said, man, you were right with pretty much everything you said in the last episode of what to expect, except for the fact that I thought Carolina would come out a little bit hotter out of the gates, a little more physical. I thought they maybe would put one on the board, not quickly, but in that first period, and then that would be it, and the Panthers would adjust defensively. Bob would stand on his head again and say, I'm not letting you guys take over this game. But man, the Panthers, just on that four check, it was incredible. The defenders, even on the back check when they were trying to get on their heels, and Carolina was trying to get into that blue paint, and in front of Bob, it did not happen. I told you guys, they needed to stand up for Bob a little bit more, and man, did they ever. They were blocking shots, and we'll get into the numbers and everything in just a minute. And Sam Bennett, what a stud. Two goals last night, nine in the playoffs. He is tied for the most goals in the playoffs right now with Mikko Rantanen. This team's looking really, really good right now. From what I'm saying, I'm not gonna say the Stanley Cup is gonna be theirs. It's too early to say that, but man, they are giving this team a run for their money and not gonna give them an inch in this series from what it looks like, and I think they're gonna keep it up when they get back to Emmerich Bank Arena, and they're just gonna come out just on fire out of the gates and just keep doing what they're doing. It doesn't look like Brendan Moore has any sort of an answer for Paul Maurice and his Florida Panthers squad. So let's just jump right into it, guys. All right, so this is what we got right now. Florida Panthers, five nothing win. Man, were they dominant. Like I said, it was criminal. It was diabolical. It was a clinic so far in this series. It has been nothing short of that. I'm still not gonna say they didn't steal the game one because I still believe they did. Game one in any series when you're playing away, if you win it 10 to one, 100 to one, or two to one, it doesn't matter. That is still a steal in my book, but last night was not a steal. That was a clinic. It was highway bobbery, and they really had the Carolina Hurricanes discombobulated. You can see where I'm going with this. Sorry with the play on words, guys. But they had them just all over the place. They have no idea what to do with the puck, how to do it, how to get by Bobrovsky, how to get by this defense, how to stop the offense. They just don't have answers, especially for our power play, which went two for two last night. So yeah, let's get into some of these numbers. Five to nothing, guys, big time. Big time, big time, big time. This is something I want you guys to look at. Seven different defensemen have scored for the Florida Panthers this postseason. Look at those numbers. Seven guys, three for Ekblad, three for Schmidt, three for Jones, one for Kulikov, one for Forsling, one for Mikula, and one for Valenskas. These guys are on fire. The team is on fire. 18 different plays have scored on this team. For all of you who do know hockey and know how many guys sit on that bench, excluding the goalies, almost the whole team has at least scored one goal in this playoffs. That's crazy to think about, guys. Really sit on that one, do your statistical work, and look at other teams in the playoffs and see how many guys have scored on their squad, how many defensemen have scored. Look it up. These numbers are incredibly impressive. Here's another impressive number. Here's Sergei Bobrovsky by the numbers of these playoffs. He actually has 10 wins right now in these playoffs. That's ridiculous. Ridiculous, obviously he has 10 wins because he had to win four, four, and two, so that's where they're at right now. The seven and two record, that's, I mean, this is just ridiculous. I don't know why that number is there, but he has been playing lights out. That number went down in terms of his goals against average. Safe percentage has been way up. I'm not gonna get into all the numbers there. We know Bob has been incredible. I don't need to keep telling you guys that, especially after the last episode from yesterday. We went through some of his numbers for the last couple of games, or last three games. He's just been great. There's nothing less to say about the man. He has been a wall. He has been, when I say unstoppable, I would say he has been the stoppable-est, the best at stopping, he's been stopping everything. No matter what has been thrown at him by this Carolina Hurricanes team, he has been able to pretty much stop everything. Unbelievable performances by him. We are lucky to have him. This is the definition of a championship goaltender, the numbers that he's putting up, and the three shutouts he now has in the playoffs is a Fran Chai's record, guys, big, big numbers. So, just to let you know, before we get into these numbers, last four road games for the Panthers, they've outscored their opponent 22 to four. Like I said, Bob's three shutouts, Fran Chai's record. Carolina, in the first two series, they only let in 18 goals in total. In these first two games of this series, they've let in 10. Their goaltending has been abysmal. They have not been able to stop a beach ball right now. They've made Anderson, who has had great numbers since they met the Panthers, since before they clashed, he was putting up some terrific numbers, looking like he was probably the goalie, best goalie in the playoffs. He was looking spectacular. We're now making him look like Swiss cheese. But I can say it's wholly his fault that defense of the Carolina Hurricanes, who in the regular season was one of the best and coming into this series was one of the best, is now looking like one of the worst. So, it's looking a little bit raggedy for them at the moment, but hey, guess what? Good for the Panthers. This is good for us, but again, I don't think that this is all gonna be just easy pickings for the rest of the road moving forward for the Panthers in this series. I think Brendan Moore will have his team adjust somewhere. And one thing I will say about Anderson, their goaltender, yeah, you're in trouble if you're already putting your back up into the net after he's let in as many goals as he has in the last two games. That's not good. I think his psyche is shaking a little bit because the Panthers have just been able to dominate on the ice, on every facet of it, offensively, defensively, neutral ice, forechecking, backchecking, you name it, scrums, getting the puck in the corner and trying to fight for it to make a play happen, winning in the face-off circle. You can see right here they did a much better job in this game compared to game number one. Two for two on the penalty, on the power play, excuse me. 19 block shots, unbelievable numbers, and they were physical, really physical. The Panthers were throwing their bodies around. There were some big hits. I was gonna try to find some videos here to go over some of those hits, but man, I don't even need to. I'd rather just, I wanna go back and watch the game again, and if you guys wanna see the hits, go back and watch the game again. It was phenomenal. What a performance, dominating, just dominating performance, and let's hope the Panthers can keep this up. Again, face-off winning in the circle. Let's keep that percentage higher. If they're able to get those block shots, this is really gonna go in the favor of the Florida Panthers if they're able to dominate, and just their power play has been incredible. The penalty kill has been incredible. There's nothing bad to say about this team right now, even though Paul Maurice, we'll get into that in a little bit, had a little bit to say about his team, but obviously, Paul Maurice is gonna be hard on them because he expects perfection from these guys, even though he does have a little bit of that sarcasm to him which is one of the many things that I love about him being the coach of the Florida Panthers. So, here are the numbers for this team. Last night, guys, what I wanna look at first isn't all the stuff on the left-hand side of your screen. It's the stuff on the right, kind of in the middle there. The time on ice. Obviously, Sam Reinhart, injured. Lower body injury. We'll go over what happened to him in just a second, but look at the time on ice for the defenders. The defensemen, I like the fact that those numbers have kind of been in that lower 20s, upper teens for certain guys, like Jones has been on, I mean, he's averaging, I think, somewhere around 27 or 28 minutes in the playoffs right now. Those numbers are down. So, it's helping him get a little bit more rest, and I would say it's gonna really benefit if we make the Stanley Cup Finals for him to have a little bit more rest, be able to really get on the ice and just put his body out there. I mean, in the last series, he got pushed around a lot. In this one, he seems to be doing the opposite and having a lot more control over the big hits, over guys trying to get to him and put hits on him. He's just been all over the place on the ice. He's been spectacular, as he always has been in his playoffs, and it's just good to see him not on the ice for 28, 29 minutes per game, and hopefully, he can save some of that energy and the Panthers can save some of that freshness that he could have going into the Finals. We don't wanna see him run out of gas too soon. So, when we look at this, look at Carter Verhage, three assist guys, Matthew Kachuk, I told you guys he was gonna goal an assist, and man, he played great. His presence on the ice, you knew he was there this time. All of you were saying, dude, you calling him out like he's got seven assists and three goals. Dude, his presence on the ice was what I was talking about, not his inability to score, his inability to assist. I know he can assist, I know he can score, but he wasn't doing enough on the ice. Outside of that, those intangibles that are there that he brings, you weren't really looking for him on the ice. Yeah, the camera was on him, but what was he doing? Now, last night, he was everywhere. He was everywhere. He was really, really creating these plays. He was talking up a storm on the ice. He was getting guys' faces. He was more effective. He was a presence. That is what I was talking about when I said, where was Matthew Kachuk so far in this playoffs after those first three games against Tampa, excuse me, in the first round? He has showed up. I told you, I think this is gonna be that turning point for him. So, we also look at Sam Bennett. Two goals, one assist. That line, Bennett, Kachuk, and Verhege, eight points last night. That is what we're looking for. And what I'm telling you is, I was gonna go through all the lines and go through the numbers about their goals and their assists, hits, all that stuff. Everybody's sharing the wealth on this team, and I love it. Everybody's putting in the work. Everybody is making plays. Offense, on defense, in the neutral zone, they are working as a team. There is nobody on this team that is greedy. Not a single guy on this team is. I love it. That is championship hockey. Let's keep moving forward, guys. So, Carolina Hurricanes, look at the numbers for the goaltenders on the bottom first. A 75% save percentage for Anderson. Oh, man, that's not very good. And an 80% save percentage for their backup. Not very good numbers, guys. And Svechnikov, look at that. Look at the plus minus for that man. Minus three and a cheap shot. Roughing penalty on him for the hit to the head. Yeah, I know, guys. All of you who are Carolina fans, you could say, oh, boy, you got cross-checked in the back. Okay, they all do it to each other in the game, but you don't go up behind the guy, push him into the boards near the bench, and then clock him in the back of the helmet. It's dirty play. You don't need to do that. Same thing as firing the puck at an opponent. You don't do that, man. This is hockey. You don't do that crap. You really hurt someone with that thing, with the intent to injure it, because you can use the puck as a weapon. But I digress. The lines that I drew here, are the guys in that first line. Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing there. Even look at the shots. There's nothing. There was nothing. I mean, Bobrovsky had to stop 17 saves. There were a couple of times, like two or three times, where you're like, okay, that's a hell of a save. But they really didn't do much. They really didn't do much. I mean, their defensemen did more, in terms of shots, and trying to create chances, than their guys, their centermen, and their forwards. Just look at the numbers. Look at the shot attempts. Speaks for itself. Let's keep moving forward. Goal tending this postseason. I brought this up, because I want you guys to see a couple of things. The Florida Panthers, their goals against per game is 2.2, on the lowest in the playoffs right now. Shows you how great their defense has been. The save percentage is only at 91%. But, remember some of the other games, where it was those real tight games, a lot of scoring in that second round series against Toronto in some games. And that doesn't help your numbers. But again, it's gonna be off-putting, but a little bit untrue. Those numbers are a little bit false there, because it's not really telling the whole story. Excuse me, I got something in my eye. Of what has really been happening on the ice. Bob has been playing great. He's been getting better every series. And even when he has faltered a little bit in loss, and maybe four or five went pie him, he comes back and he's able to rebound, and get his psyche back, and just refocus on what he needs to do, to help his team win a game. As well as the defense of the Panthers. They readjust, recalibrate, get back on track, and just make sure they're doing what they need to do. Stick to the game plan that Paul Maurice has, because it works. I've said this before. Everything that he has done for the Lions in this playoff, is getting rid of Nico Sturm. Okay, Sam Miscavige is out of there. It has worked. I'm not doubting those guys. I think they're both phenomenal players. Sam Miscavige is gonna be a great player for the future, that will help build on this team for the future. Excuse me, because he's young. He got some experience in the playoffs. Maybe they do bring him in. We'll see what happens, especially with the Reinhardt injury. Let's see who comes up. I have a feeling, I don't know. I don't wanna say anything yet, because I want Paul Maurice to say it first. There's too much speculation around what is happening with his injury. Save percentage, they're fifth in the playoffs as of right now. But again, let's keep moving forward. Here's the injury. This is something that could be a little bit worrisome, but when he was out, he only played about what? A little over five and a half minutes? He was out, everybody else stepped up. It was like he wasn't missed. The Panthers were able to do what they needed to. Next man up, they all played great. It wasn't a big deal that he was out, but we have to see how bad was that injury, and let's actually go over it right now. Let's take a look, guys. So here is what we were looking at, excuse me, here is what we were looking at with that hit that happened to Sam Reinhardt. Here we go, it's hard to see right there. You can see the guy's coming in trying to do a hip check, but it's going right at his knee. And here we go, oh, excuse me. There, the knee bends in. I mean, of course, the camera's moving following the puck to watch his knee. Right there, ouch, ouch. ACL, MCL, who knows? But a fall to the ice doesn't help either, but still, that was just a brutal, go one more time, a brutal-looking injury. I mean, let's hope he's okay. Let's hope it's not even a strain or a sprain. Whatever the hell they're gonna say and they diagnose it as, let's hope he's all right and he can come back into the series in his worst-case scenario into the Stanley Cup Finals because he is going to be missed. Even though this team has been playing lights out, I still think it's a worry for this team only because he is such an integral part of that offense on that first line with that chemistry with Barkov and with Rodriguez right now. But we'll see who is gonna take his place on that first line if he doesn't play. But we will know more, let me get back to this, we'll know more on Saturday. So, status for game three versus Carolina will be updated on Saturday tomorrow, so right now, who knows, who knows. So, I hope he will be fine, but who knows right now. So, this is where the Panthers are right now. This is where they stack up in the postseason in terms of all the different rankings. Complete leaders, goals, excuse me, Sam Bennett tied for first with Nico Rantanen, nine goals. Look at the plus minus, bottom left corner, guys, four out of the five top guys are Panthers. And look who the three top guys are. That is everybody on the third line for the Florida Panthers. That is Lundell, Marchand, and Lestrana. And number four, none other than Gustav Forsling, the plus minus man himself. All right, so that's really good news. It's just showing how great this Panthers team is playing. And then you see Sergei Bobrovsky, third right there in goals against average. And then he is number one and wins with 10 now after last night's win. So, impressive, impressive to see. And if you guys really wanna look at those stats in terms of the player rankings right now in the playoffs, the Cats have just a bunch of guys right there at the top. But that's also because they played a lot of games, a lot more games than the other guys. So, you're gonna see a lot of those players be at the top. But still, impressive to see those guys there, especially in that plus minus category. Post-season stats, this is what I wanna show you. First in assists, second goals for per game, and almost for it, 3.93. Los Angeles Kings are up there at number one, but guess what? It doesn't matter, they're not in anymore. So, first in assists, first in points, second in power play goals, fourth in power play percentage, first in penalty kills. Dare we say they're the best team in the playoffs right now, statistically. I might even say the best team overall right now from what I see anywhere. Dallas looks really good too. Edmonton looks pretty solid. But if you're just doing the eye test about just what you're seeing on the ice, I'm gonna have to go with the Panthers right now, guys. I have to. So, let's get back to this. I was telling you guys before, so there was one quote I wanted to show you guys, and I love this quote from Paul Maurice. It was the only little tiny bit of negativity that he had about game one, and then the switch over to game two, and how he felt about game two performance more, pretty much zeroing in on that Bennett Kachuck and Verhage line. This is what he had to say. I thought I saw a really veteran game out of those guys, because a lot of what we gave up in game one, they were on the ice for. They gave up an awful lot on the rush, mostly out of aggressiveness and trying almost too hard. They settled their game a bit, and let the four checker be aggressive, and they kind of read off each other. They were very, very good tonight. So, a little bit of that negative. He had a little bit of, you know, I didn't like what I really saw out of that line, because they were the reason why we let in a couple of goals, but hey, they played phenomenal hockey last night. They were the line in the game last night, so an unbelievable performance by that second line. Let's hope they keep it up, and I told you guys, oh, sorry about that. I told you guys Kachuck was gonna have a great game. Bennett looks like he's really getting back on track with those two goals last night, and one of the things we'll talk about in the future, I don't wanna do it now, is some of those guys that are gonna be free agents at the end of this year, like Marshan, like Bennett, will we see them stay as a Panther? Are they gonna be willing to take less money and say, you know what, I wanna be a part of a championship contender? Can we make this team a team that will keep, every year, for maybe the next three or four years, a perennial championship contender, dare I say a dynasty? I've said this before in past episodes, I'm not gonna say that, because one championship doesn't make you that. Even if you make three years in a row into the Stanley Cup Finals, and you win one of them, that doesn't mean it. If you win two back-to-back championships, you're still not a dynasty. Look up the definition of it, guys. I'm just saying right now, if these guys take less money, I mean, I do think Sam Bennett, can he be a $10 million a year kinda guy? Possibly, he's playing like it. One of the top paid guys in the league? I don't think so, but he looks really good in the playoffs. He's had a really standout year this year, and he knew it, too, because he knows he wants to get paid, he wants to be recognized as one of the best guys out there right now, he's just been throwing the puck at the back of the net like it's easy pickings for him. And then Marchand, we'll see what happens. But guys, exciting stuff, what a great game last night. One thing I did wanna say, one of my favorite parts of last night, I'm gonna give you Greg's moment, was Sebastian Ajo, after one of the plays, was getting a little shovey, gave a little shove to Mikula, started talking into his face. So Mikula, being as big as he is, slowly gets into his face, skates towards him, and Ajo wanted nothing, he just went, no thanks. Skated backwards, wanted nothing to do with Mikula. That, to me, shows that the Carolina Hurricanes, they're scared, they have no idea what to do, and they are frustrated. That's why there's a lot of penalties by them, stupid penalties, not a lot. But a lot of hits that I saw were a little bit dirty in the last two games, they're showing their frustration, they're wearing that frustration on their sleeves, especially with the hit to Kachuk, that roughing call, that showed frustration, sheer frustration. And I do love the fact that Marchand did get a little retribution with that little cross-check, that hard cross-check at the end of a play where the whistle was blown. I love it, I love it. But anyways, guys, I'm not gonna digress anymore. Sveshnikov, again, frustrated, the whole team is frustrated. Who knows what they're gonna do to adjust? I don't think it's gonna be possible for them to do it. But anyways, guys, what a great game last night. Got another one coming up. Keep your eyes peeled, more videos will be on their way. Guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button down below, and like, comment, like, and share, excuse me. Again, I'm Greg Andrews, thank you for joining me on Panther's Digest, I will see you guys next time. Go Cats!