Panthers 5, Hurricanes 0

#17 is not to blame for the pitiful display last night. His +/- was 0 which was a star performance for this team considering the fact that several key players were -4 and -3 for the night. If you want someone to blame, look at those guys.

And then I got stuck in a traffic jam after the 2nd period.  Seriously, it was like the end of the game.  Cars pouring out of the lot.

Call me a bad fan, but for my 3 years of season ticket games, I have stayed to the bitter end.  After the 2nd period of this game, I was numb.  "The Office" was on at 9PM, and was looking forward to some entertainment.  It certainly wasn't at RBC.

Actually, let me say this.  It was.  Hand it to the Panthers.  They were sharp.  They jumped on every opportunity.  Before Wardo's head could "turn on a swivel", the puck was already bouncing off the back of the net.  They buried every opportunity they had.  As a disconnected hockey observer, it was entertaining to watch a team make such good use of their opportunties.

But I didn't want to be entertained like that for 20 more minutes.  I'm not a Panthers fan.  5 of those was enough to fill up my generic hockey fan quotient.  It was time to leave.

I need to shake this off, but right now, I'm not a happy camper.  This team is distressing to watch.

Not to be too nitpicky, and I understand this was a frustratingly bad loss so judgement/clarity might be a bit off in a rush to post, but...

Rod only missed two games on the west coast swing - he played in Vancouver, the one we lost.

And unless you were expecting something to break out on the way to the buses, not sure how they could have played more physical "in the fourth".  BUt I understand your point completely.

This was a very disappointing effort from the Cane's overall. Once Florida got that third, and quickly after that a fourth, goal the Canes just seemed to pack it in.  Sure, you might not come back from 4-0 down, but you also need to show a little more heart and fight than that on home ice in front of full house.

But I think you are on to something about the chemistry factor.  This team seems to thrive on the jump and spark provided by the call ups, at least over a short span of games.  I do not understand bringing Brind A'mour back for this game when you've just played two of your best games of the season without him.  I for one would have preferred to see Petrusalek flying around for 6-7 minutes on the fourth line, stirring the pot and hustling, as opposed to watching Roddy skate through quicksand.  But hey, that's just me.  Call me crazy.

Still, you can't hang all of this on Bring A'mour.  He was not on the ice enought to screw up that badly (besides, perhaps, the whole chemistry thing). Walin was terrible tonight.  Gleason was a non factor.  Ward never knew what hit him.  Staal grew visibly more and more frustrated as the game wore on (can't say that I blame him really). With the exception of the Cullen line (and maybe Ruutu) in the first period, no one seemed to skate with much passion.  The defense as a whole seemed to be out of sorts, though I thought Corvo and Rodney were, at times at least, our most solid players on this night.  I have not looked at the stats to back that up, just the impression I got watching the game. We did get off over 40 shots on goal. Vokun was solid, and even spectacular on a few, but a lot of those shots were not exactly grade A chances. Florida basically cashed in on all of their quality chances.

Sigh.  Let's just hope we put this one behind us immediately.  There's still a lot of hockey to be played in a  crowded lower half of the Eastern Conference.  This team has shown what they can do when they bring the effort and intensity for 60 minutes. I guess that's what's so frustrating. This was a huge two points against a team that we only get one more crack at.   The clock is ticking.

-m

Laviolette should not have been fired if a retread of a past failure was the best option...JR should be next to go and the sooner he and Mo are gone the better.