The Panthers just put the NHL on NOTICE...

The Florida Panthers just put the NHL on notice and they should be terrified after the performance last night against the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Panthers. It wasn't just about Jacob Markstrom's shutout in his first game back as a Florida Panther since 2013. It was a total team effort. We're going to get into all of that on this episode of Panthers Digest. I'm your host Greg Andrews. As always, comment, like, share, subscribe, hype up the video. Appreciate all of you guys tuning in and supporting me and the channel and the Florida Panthers. So what a game last night. I mean that was playoff atmosphere to the nth degree for the first game of the season. It was awesome to watch. Obviously a lot of nail-biting moments. Markstrom pitched a shutout in his very first game back like I just said since December of 2013. That game in 2013 was a loss. I believe it was 5-3 or 5-1. It wasn't very good performance by Markstrom but he is back. He looked very good and I hope, I know it's only one game, but I'm hoping he's putting some of your minds at ease when you're thinking he was not the right guy for us to get or you're having your doubts. He made some big saves at key moments especially the breakaway opportunity that Ajo had. Man, he looked good but it's not just about him. So we're going to actually start off by taking a look at some of the stats from last night because there's some big stuff that I need to tell you guys in terms of how great this Panthers team actually did play especially when you compare it to what went down in some of the other games last night. So let's start it off right now. 1-0 overtime victory for the Florida Panthers. Gustav Orsling with an absolute rocket that went past Busse. Busse looked unbelievable last night by the way. I'm not going to take anything away from him. Obviously I had this conversation on the Big C show where we were talking about, you know, unfortunately the Florida Panthers had Busse in their hands and they decided to waive him over Tarasov. Mistake? Yes. But hey, this is where we are today. Could have been our guy. Not. He was obviously in the Bruins organization as well. So good for the Hurricanes. Not good for the Cats. But hey, we're going to be all right guys. Sonny's 1-0 win. Gustav Orsling with 4.3 seconds left in overtime to win it. Unbelievable shot. Great job by the Cats to win it. So let's take a look at the team stats. It was, most of the time the puck was in the Panthers' offensive zone. They had Carolina on their heels. There's a lot of phenomenal opportunities and Busse literally was great last night. The game, had it not been for Busse, some of the saves that he had made, a dinger that went off the post by Sam Reinhart, it probably could have been a three, a 2-0 or 3-0 win for the Cats. Markstrom, I'm not going to deny, had a couple of big saves as well, but I think the ones that were made by Busse were just a little bit bigger. So 20 shots to 15 in favor of the Cats. We had two more hits. Unbelievably physical game. I liked how Imamah played. You know, we had the one fight, but I don't know why the Hilda Carolina player was like celebrating. Like he didn't really do any damage. Imamah didn't really do any damage. It was more like they were throwing fisticuffs, barely landing anything, but hey, whatever. It is what it is. The problem I see here, the only thing I'd say, all right, that's a little bit of a, let's take a look at this, where I circled. Face-off win percentage, 58.6% win percentage in the face-off circle for Carolina over the Cats, but Carolina is a very good face-off team. But with Barkov in there and all those guys, I thought we could do a little bit better. That is the only thing I would say I'd be a little concerned about, but hey, it's game one. I think things will get better, but the Cats were great. Overall, as a team, they played phenomenal, especially defensively. They were great, only allowing 15 shots, and I'm going to get into that in a minute. Total penalties, there were a lot of them because of the physical style of play that both teams have. A couple of them I think were a little bit questionable. I do know there was one that I think was early on in the game that Gustav Forsling was called for. The guy embellished a little bit, but hey, it is what it is. Both teams were spectacular on their PKs. I mean, it was great, but I do think the Panthers definitely had the edge on their power play. They looked better, stronger, faster. But in terms of block shots, give it to the Carolina Hurricanes. Takeaways, they had more. Giveaways, we had less, they had more. So anyways, that's the team stats. Let's take a look at the box stats now. The one thing I really want you guys to look at here is Barkov is back. He had the second most TOI right after Sam Reinhardt, who was on his line, and you can see where I underlined Brady Kachuk. He only had 16 minutes 30 seconds TOI. What's the reason there? I'm a little concerned, but I'm not because Barkov is on the PK. Reinhardt was on there, I think, a couple extra times when Brady Kachuk wasn't. I'm not overly concerned. Brady was okay. There's no injuries, no nothing. But look at Lundell leading the team in shots with three. Sanis Vilmanis had three block shots leading the team. Seven hits by Bennett led the team with that. Brady Kachuk had the second most with five hits, so they were very physical. And you see Emama there right there in the middle at six minutes and three seconds TOI. You know, he's not going to get a ton of minutes, but when he's out there, he's very physical. You can see he's out there doing what he needs to do. But I have a feeling we're going to see Hathaway come into the picture probably a little quicker than we think. I know it's only one game, but if we go on 10 games here and he's really not doing that much production, it's more he's getting in the penalty box, then I think they might have to make a decision on, okay, maybe you send him down, you bring up Hathaway, and you kind of go back and forth with the two through the season. But Emama looked strong, skated well, was good on the four check, stood up for his teammates. I mean, I think this was, it was a good move by the organization to have him be that last guy on the fourth line. Faceoffs, you can see there. Barkov, Bennett were all 50%. Same thing with Lundell. If Lundell is at 50%, along with Barkov, who's one of the best in the league, you're going up against a team that's very talented in the faceoffs. Vilmanis won his lone shot in the circle, and Brady Kuchuk, when he was pushed in there, won his two as well. So a good showing there for those two guys. Very small sample size, but hey, whatever. Overall, great team effort. Really happy with that. Defensively, our pairings did great. And look at the workhorse, Seth Jones, almost 29 minutes of TOI. That's unreal. Gustav Forsling leading the way defensively with three hits. Two block shots each for Forsling, Kulikov, and Mikula. Good stuff there. Gustav Forsling with the lone goal in the night to give the win for the Florida Panthers. But 30 shifts for Seth Jones, and then 22 minutes, 40 seconds for Gustav Forsling. But man, Jones is out there. He's a workhorse. I think all of you guys who say that he's overrated need to eat your words. He's such a workhorse. He had some big plays yesterday, some very smart ones. Gustav Forsling was knocking pucks away as well, making good plays with the stick. Seth Jones was coming back on defense, doing some solid work there on the back check as well. So I think overall, it was a phenomenal team effort. That's all I'm going to say. Now let's get into the man of the hour, this guy. First shutout, not first shutout, I should say first win as a Panther in years. Shutout win, to say the least, to start the season against the defending Stanley Cup champions. I don't think you can make any more of a statement than what he did last night in terms of not allowing many, I mean, again, we had a couple of mistakes. Like I said, the AHU breakaway, but Markstrom was big. He had a couple of big time toe saves, one couple that came off the shoulder. I mean, he was as big as he is, I think he's six foot six. He made some unbelievable stops last night. He came up massive for the Florida Panthers. He is not the reason why we won last night, but a massive reason why. And I'm telling you now, it's the guys in front of him that helped him get that win. They were impressed with his performance and he was impressed with how they played defense. So here we go. Markstrom makes big statement in return to the Florida Panthers with that shutout victory, facing 15 shots. What I want to tell you right now is that a lot of the insiders are starting to write, especially if you go on ESPN and take a look at who now is the real favorite to win it. It's the Florida Panthers beating the defending Stanley cup champions. And remember everyone's fresh. That's game number one. Like I said, playoff atmosphere. If you disagree, put it in the comments down below, but that's, that's playoff atmosphere last night, a hundred percent. So let's take a look at this from hindsight in terms of the 15 shots that he faced. Didn't let a single one go in. I'm going to show you right now how unbelievably good the Florida Panthers defense is. And I said this in previous episodes where I said, Markstrom is going to be better than everyone thinks because of the guys he has in front of him because they all play remarkable defense. So he faced 15 shots, Bussie faced 20, let one in. So he went 19 of 20 for his saves. I'm going to show you the other four games that happened last night and the amount of shots that each goaltender faced. Here is number one, Montreal versus Toronto. Bob faced 28 shots and he lost by the way. Then 24 shots from, sorry, he faced 24 shots and then the Canadians goalie faced 28. I'm just going to read off the shots. It doesn't matter how many saves they made or whatever, but also look at the hits. Our game was the most physical game out of them all. And that's sending a big message. So 24 and 28 shots respectively. And then the hits, still our game had more hits. Then the Rangers and the Bruins, the Bruins ended up getting a shutout. 24 and 23, 37 hits, 36 hits. So our defense was amazing because we only faced 15 shots. Let's keep going here. Canucks and the Oilers, 23 shots and 37 shots. Only 13 hits to 38 hits. Our game was bigger. Go to the last game of the day. Blackhawks and the Vegas Golden Knights, 26 and 37, 14 hits to 23. And this is what Markstrom faced, 15 shots. Even strength saves seven, power play saves seven, shorthanded saves one, rounds out his night. This man was awesome. The guys in front of him were awesome defensively. And they sent a message loud and clear to the NHL, we're back. Our goaltender is going to be great. Our defense is going to be the elite level that it has been. I'm going to say probably the best defensive front fronts, top four lines and defensive pairings as a team in the league. They showed it last night, only allowing 15 technically shots on goal. That's not total shots. Even the ones that, you know, well, well wide in the net, those do count as, you know, BS ones, but whatever he faced 15 shots, guys, that's it. Look at the other games that the next closest person was bussy, the guy who was going up against who faced 20 shots. And here was Markstrom on the performance last night from him and his team. I thought, I thought we played a great game. Everyone, the whole lineup, all four lines, all 60 players really good and made my job a lot easier. This was great. We played a great game. Good win. Good two points. Yeah. Unfortunately going to overtime, we only get two, not three points. So bummer for that. Here's Paul Maurice on Markstrom's play. It was good and difficult to do. One of the adjustments he has to make is having stretches where he's where there's not a lot of action. It was a beautiful ceremony, but there were some, there was some time on it. Then you go another 20 minutes where there's not a lot of action. Next thing you know, you're sitting on a five on three for almost two minutes. That's tough. And he handled it like a veteran. Yes, guys, there was only one shot on goal for the Carolina hurricanes in the first almost 18 and a half minutes of the first period. That should say something about our defense. Defense will win championships, ladies and gentlemen, the physical style of play that the Florida Panthers played with last night will win championships. The goaltending doesn't need to be elite, but it needs to be very solid. It needs to be great, not elite, but let's see. Can Markstrom keep this going? Can the defense keep this going? Can they make him feel super comfortable in net and they help each other out, make his job easier. That's going to let us win a championship. Here's Gustav Forsling talking about Markstrom. He felt very calm back there and made some incredible saves. I'm really happy for him. A great start. Absolutely. Let's come back and just take a look at this man. Awesome night. I don't think we could have started the season any better. Now we have a huge matchup tomorrow in the West Coast against the San Jose Sharks game is 10 p.m. tomorrow night. Let's see how the Florida Panthers can handle things on the road going to the West Coast. It's going to be really challenging because going from Raleigh all the way out to San Jose, that's a hell of a trip. How tired are they going to be after putting up what they did last night? The amount of time, the effort, it was, man, what a great game. I'm sure they're tired, a little beat up, so let's see how they're able to react after that win and come back and have another big time game. Getting on the road now for a few games and it's going to be tough, but if they can pull this one out and start the season really strong and do exactly what they did last night against teams that are that are beneath the Carolina Hurricanes, it's going to be a big start for the Florida Panthers making a massive statement and this game one is a big statement, but it's only one game. So guys, anyways, comment down below, let me know what you thought about the Panthers performance last night. How comfortable are you with Jacob Markstrom in net after what you saw, especially with the guys in front of him absolutely blowing out Carolina defensively. Let me know what you think, but until that time, guys, I'll have another episode coming out to preview tomorrow's game as well as talk about anything that's been happening, if there's any injuries, any updates news-wise, stuff like that. So I'll let you guys know new episode tomorrow. Until then, Go Cats!