[Cali Panthers Fan]

Watched this one online late last night. I really didn't like their play in this one. Where they were tenacious the last game, they were tepid tonight. Didn't battle hard for pucks, didn't make quick plays, didn't control any of their zones very well, and didn't try anything creative in the offensive zone.

I'm going to chalk it up to being on a back to back on the road with travel against a very rested team, but it was a pretty ugly game overall. Still giving up glorious chances because of poor defensive coverage/awareness. They fixed their neutral zone a little in the 2nd and on, but the 1st was terrible. Markstrom held them in it tonight...again.

Still plenty of things to improve upon, mostly consistency. I'm still reserving judgement until about game 10, but they still have so many Sutter habits offensively that it's driving me crazy. Unlearn those habits and they may be able to score by committee, but I'm just not sure they have the talent to bury it when they create their chances. What sucks is that they players have lost the defensive game that Sutter preached, and they kept his horrible offensive strategy as part of their habits. Lose-lose. It needs to get fixed.

I will say I like Huska as a coach. You an see he makes adjustments in games pretty well and identifies problems right away. I just hope he gets them playing to his system more effectively soon.