[Saqe]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

It's always fun when my two teams play each other.

Look, I think we can all accept that the Panthers are the superior team overall. I just hope the Flames show up defensively after that last embarrassment, and knowing Huska, I suspect they well.

They need to as the Panthers are an aggressive offensive team, putting lots of shots on goal, but also having the skill to score a lot too. The shots are not just to inflate fancy stats, it pays off.

However, the Panthers have also been suspect defensively this year. Bobrovsky isn't having a great year, and Spencer Knight (in his first NHL games in 2 years) isn't doing a whole lot better. Their goals saved above expected is really low (-4.9 and -3.4 respectively). Losing Montour was big as the second pair is now covered by two borderline 2nd pair guys in Kulikov and Mikkola (although they still hold their own). The third pair is Schmidt and Balinskis, and while they add some skill and speed, they are not the strongest defenders out there. The goalies get hung out to dry a lot, but they're also not making a lot of saves either.

Some of the forwards have been weak defensively as well. Verhaeghe, and to a lesser extent, Rodrigues and Bennett have all been caught cheating offensively at times and not taking care of their own end. They still have strong defensive fowards like Barkov, Reinhart, Lundell, and Luostarinen, but they end up doing too much heavy lifting at times.

If the Flames decide to play defense first, and then counter attack by throwing pucks on net with a bit of net front chaos, they could win this one. Fail to do either of those and I don't see how they win. Of course, Wolf could flat out steal a win too...

It's a late start for me, so I may or may not be in the GT. Hope it's at least an entertaining game.

It's been pretty obvious for a while now that the Panthers need to add a top 4 defenseman. When they're not on defensively they allow rush chances against and it's pretty obvious from the puck drop if that's the case.