After the shellacking by Tampa Bay the other night (8-5) the Panthers held a players only meeting led by Ekblad to air their grievances. Lots of talk tonight of a better effort, especially defensively (Panthers are 30th in goals against despite being 9th in goals for). The big question mark this season was supposed to be the offense, but the team has scored a lot of goals led by the Barkov line who have 42 points as a line so far (3rd best in the league). Surprisingly, the defense has been a major sore spot, with normally dependable guys like Pysyk having some really bad games here and there, but it's a team defense thing.
So far so good tonight. Panthers are up 1-0 early over Columbus (goal by Pysyk of all people) and have only allowed 1 shot on goal for the first 7 minutes. We shall see if it holds up over a full game, which has been the problem for most of the early season.
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"You know, that's kinda why I came here, to show that I don't suck that much" ~ Devin Cooley, Professional Goaltender
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