All signs point to THIS... Perfect Florida Panthers Update

All signs are pointing to this for the Florida Panthers tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. The return of Jacob Markstrom. We'll be talking about that as well as how Akira Schmid held down the fort during Markstrom's absence. Who else has also stepped up? Like Seth Jones. Spotlight on him again. And we're going to talk a little bit about the matchup tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. Hopefully this will be another W for the Cats. We're going to look over the standings in the Atlantic Division. A little matchup details. Take a look at the jerseys they're going to be wearing tonight. A lot of mixed emotions out there in terms of, I like it. Oh, I hate it. Oh, it's just, I mean, we're going to talk about it a little bit. I already went through this the other day. But I want to talk about it one more time since they'll be wearing them for the first time this evening. Against Detroit, Hometown Remix Sweaters, interesting, kind of growing on me a little bit more and then I keep seeing them. I saw one in person and I was like, actually, it looked pretty good. So we're going to get into this headfirst. I'm your host, Greg Andrews. This is Panthers Digest. Comment, like, share, subscribe, hype of the video. Appreciate all you guys tuning in, supporting me, the Panthers and this channel. So where are we going to start? Well, a pretty easy one. Jacob Markstrom. He will be in net tonight, according to Paul Maurice, 7 p.m. Yeah, he's back significantly earlier than what I think we all had thought. And what we were hearing, we're hearing 10 days to two weeks, more than likely two weeks. Then the last time I reported on this, they were saying, oh, maybe around 10 days now. So guess what? He's back tonight. Awesome news for the Cats. Schmid was amazing. But let's take a look at Jacob Markstrom's numbers so far on the season. They've been good. He has gotten better as the season has gone on. Same thing with Schmid. There are Markstrom's numbers this season. 2.21 goals against average, a 3-1 record, .897 save percentage. Pretty good. I'm liking it. All right. Does have the one shutout to start the season, so let's not forget about that. Yeah, sorry, 3-1-1. Excuse me, 3-1-1. That was my fault. So the one shutout came in the very first game of the season against the Carolina Hurricanes, who have been on a tear lately. Completely. But. Their schedule, I'm going to say, when I'm looking over a lot of the teams that are in first place in their divisions, respectively, not exactly the most demanding of schedules to start the season against teams that have phenomenal points at the start of the season. A couple of games here and there, but strings of bad teams that they're playing. Now, the Florida Panthers have been somewhat similar to that, but we've been on the road a lot. Yes, I know Carolina's been on the road a lot as well. We've battled more injuries than they have battled, especially with two of our top players being out. Then our starting goaltender goes out. Yeah, we've had a little harder time than the Carolina Hurricanes. And they have one goaltender who has just been dynamite. Still undefeated, I believe. If I'm wrong on that, I do apologize. Comment down below, guys. Let me know how you feel about Jacob Markstrom returning tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. In his absence, this young man was amazing. The one game against Ottawa was just, did not go our way. Just the whole game, it was not, it was bad. It was really bad. But I am not going to say that it was entirely his fault that the team just looked terrible in that performance against the Ottawa Senators. But look at his numbers now. 2.86 goals against average 889 save percentage. He's 5-2-1 in the season. Good numbers for this young man. And I think it's starting to click for him. I think it's starting to click for this team. So look for his numbers to get better. I think our goaltending tandem is going to be improving as long as Markstrom can stay healthy. And that's the thing, everybody knock on wood. Hopefully he does, and he keeps playing the way that he was. He's made some big saves. I know a lot of you keep saying he's still garbage. He's not. Guys, you are not looking at the full body of work. You've not seen what's been happening in front of him. If you're not paying attention to that, about the five players that are in front of him skating around, and you're not seeing how they're doing defensively, the turnovers they're committing, where they're committing them, their positioning, the penalties that are being drawn, where they're being drawn, that has a lot to do with how a goaltender will perform. If they're constantly trying to save pucks, being down a man, that's on the guys in front of him, not so much on the goaltender. He's let in a couple bad ones, but Schmidt is letting in some bad ones. Bobrovsky's having a terrible year right now. Not terrible, but he's been very shaky as of late. But anyways, Schmidt held down the fort. He's been awesome in his last four games since Markstrom's injury. 2.5 goals against average, a .904 save percentage, and 3-1. He's only lost one out of his last four, and that was against Ottawa, but he's been great. So like the way that he's looked again, here are his numbers show you guys that right there. So I put up the last five just so you can kind of see where he's at. So if you take away that Ottawa game, his numbers are even better than what I just stated. That Ottawa game really hurts the goals against average and the save percentage, but he has been great. Let's not deny the fact that he hasn't been, okay? He has gotten good. He's looking more comfortable. I think the team is starting to find their stride. Yes, we're going to start getting tested. In about a week or so, I can't remember exactly what our schedule is looking like right now, but we do have a tough one coming up, guys. It is not going to be easy. So we've got Detroit at home, then Chicago on Wednesday, then Saturday we are away. It's Washington, then a back-to-back against Boston. So Washington Saturday, Sunday Boston, Tuesday Columbus. And then we're back home against Detroit and then back on the road for two, then back at home for three, then back on the road for one, then back at home. It's such a crazy schedule. I don't understand why the NHL did this to these guys. But the hard ones are going to be Washington, Boston, and, well, Columbus. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see. We'll see. But it gets harder after that. The middle portion of November is tough. St. Louis, at St. Louis, at Dallas, at home against Edmonton, Buffalo, Ottawa. And then away at the Capitals and at home against Tampa Bay. That should be a big one. So tough schedule for November. Remember, um, Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how this team fares. But the biggest test right now will be Boston coming up soon. Same thing for the Capitals. They always seem to give us a little bit of fits when we're on the road. But hopefully we can hold the fort down and maybe, just maybe. In the middle of that, middle of this month, we'll start to see if Marchand is ready or if Barkov is ready to come back. I would say, obviously, Marchand first, then a few days later, maybe Barkov. But anyways, that's a topic for another day. No major updates on them. I already told you guys a few days ago. Marchand is three weeks out. Barkov is around four weeks out. Could they be back sooner? Yes. I know a lot of you are like, no, let them take their time. I agree. If we're winning, we're playing good hockey. Keep it there. We start going on losing streaks, bring them back. But right now, three in a row, four out of the last five. I'm sorry, not four out of the last five. Whatever. It doesn't matter. We're playing great. I'm sorry I said four out of the last five because I was looking at Akira Schmid's. Numbers right there. So anyways, another guy who's been heating up and just being relentless offensively and great defensively is this guy, Seth Jones. Just ridiculous. In his last five games, a goal, seven assists, plus two rating. One power play goal. That's the lone goal that he has. And five power play assists and one game-winning goal in the last five games. 1.29 points per game. Excuse me. 15 hits, 14 blocks, 7 takeaways, 37 shots on goal. Man, he's been awesome in only 2 penalty minutes. Very smart with the puck. Great on the forecheck. He's finding his teammates. Once again, do you think he's going to be up for some hardware at the end of the season? I think so if he keeps up this play. Absolutely. Absolutely. Let's take a look at his numbers. These are his last 5 games, guys. Look at those numbers. Just unbelievable. T.O.I. is still up there, you know, been putting it around, let's call it about 24 and a half minutes. That's pretty much his average since he's been a Florida Panther. Thank you, Panther. Yeah, it's been tough. He's putting in the numbers, but he can do it. Paul Maurice has said, you know, he's one of the most athletic guys on the team. His endurance is spectacular. That's why he's got him out there more than anybody else on the roster. He's been great. Look for him to continue his success as he's already done that. I mean, look at that. Last game against Winnipeg, a goal and two assists. So he has a goal and five assists in his last two games. Just ridiculous. Let me know what you think about Seth Jones this year, especially all the guys, all you guys out there who are hating on him. Hating on him. Oh, he's so overpaid. Remember, we're not paying $9 million a year for him. Chicago's retaining, I think it was, what, 22 roughly percent of his contract. So the $9 million, we're only paying $7 million for him each year, AAV for him? Not bad. That's a solid deal, especially for a guy who looks like he could, like I said, getting some pretty hefty hardware at the end of the season. Massive. So he's been great. I'm excited about tonight's game. We're going to talk about the jerseys in a second, but first, let's just take a really quick look at the matchup. Here we go. Detroit, Florida, we are pretty much in favor. We are, sorry, our numbers are better pretty much all along here, except for shots four per game, but who cares about that right now? Penalty minutes, we draw, sorry, we commit a lot of penalties, but so do they. We'll see which team gives up more in this one. I don't think that's going to be the... Oh, okay, whichever team commits more penalties is the one that's going to lose. I don't think so. Our PK has been dynamite. You see that? Almost 85% on the PK, 24% on the power play. That's just going to keep going up because our power play has just been awesome. PK has been great, too, but we've got to stop committing stupid penalties. I mean, I know we can do it. I know we can handle the PK, but when we get to the better teams that have a higher percentage for their power play, it's going to change. Stop with stupid penalties, all right? But everything's in favor for the Cats to win tonight. I'm hoping that they will pull this one off pretty handily like they have in the last two. This is what they're wearing tonight, guys. You already know that. They've kind of grown on me a little bit. I do like them. They're saying it's not pink. They're saying it's coral. Okay, whatever. I get it, trying to change it up because we know Inter-Miami already runs the pink show and that is pink. This, yeah, it is coral. But I do like the jerseys now. They're growing on me a little bit more that I keep seeing it and I saw it in person. I like it, it's pretty cool. I do enjoy looking at these things and some of the rankings out there that other insiders are putting out there are other... Um, platforms are saying, you know, ranking these things. This is actually the third ranked Jersey or fourth. I can't remember what I was looking at, but, uh, it was on X, can't remember what account it was, but they were ranking jerseys. They said that this one was like the third or fourth. They loved it. It really is Florida. I mean, Paul Marisa said he loves this Jersey too, because it's not your quintessential Jersey like everything else. It really stands out. It's very South Florida. He loves it. I think the team loves it. This is what they're wearing tonight. So hopefully, hopefully. It goes well, and these give us good luck for the season, because we're going to be wearing a lot. Anyways, goaltender matchup, here you go. Looky, looky, looky. Daniil Tarasov, who's actually having a pretty solid year in terms of his numbers. Only one win, two overtime losses, but 1.4 goals against 940 save percentage. I have a feeling it's going to be Gibson, but Markstrom will be in net. Interesting to see what will happen tonight. And then here are the standings just to kind of finish things off for this episode. There you go. Florida Panthers at 18 in a very, very, very, very tight Atlantic division, Atlantic Conference division, whatever you want to call it. So it's so close. I'm not going to say there's any one team I would say is the standout alone best team. In the Eastern Conference right now, unfortunately, the Carolina Hurricanes are the best team in the East, but it's a long season, guys. We're 14 games in. We still got 70 more to go. So, we'll see what happens. Love what we're going to be doing tonight. I have a feeling they're going to keep this ball rolling. The power play will keep killing it. The penalty kill is going to be great. Our special teams has been just lights out. And I do believe that Markstrom between the pipes will ignite this team even more. And it's really going to start to click against the Detroit Red Wings. So, that's it for this episode, guys. Tune in tonight, 7 p.m. Check out those jerseys. I mean, they're going to probably burn my retinas because they're so bright. But, like I said, they're growing on me. Tell me what you think about that. Markstrom's return. How Seth Jones is playing. Akira Schmidt holding down the fort. Do you think he's going to keep up the solid goaltending as well as Mark Strom Hopefully he comes back and looks incredible tonight. And maybe, I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it. I was going to say he's going to play great, but I didn't want to say how great. But anyways, that's it. Comment down below, guys. Let me know what you think about all this stuff. Until next time, guys, go Cats.