Summary:
For one night, the Florida Panthers owned the best rollercoaster ride in the State of Florida. Tuesday night’s epic 20-round shootout win was one for the ages and won’t be soon forgotten by the Panthers faithful. Now, it is on to the City of Brotherly Love to take on the Flyers. We won’t likely see another epic shootout and our hearts will thank us for that. That said, the Panthers must find a way to keep the ball rolling forward in an increasingly tight race for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. What do the Panthers have in store for their encore performance? On to the game!
Know Your Enemy:
Panthers All-Time Record v. Philadelphia: 31-42-5 with 7 ties
2014-15 Season Record v. Philadelphia: 1-1-0
Last Game: 11/6/14 @ Wells Fargo Arena (Philadelphia, PA), Panthers lost 4-1
The Philadelphia Flyers have had a rough run of things since their November 6 victory over the Panthers. They have gone 5-9-3 in that span, on the back of a 6-game winless streak from November 24 to December 3. However, they have points in 5 of their last 6 games, the lone exception being their last game, a 3-1 loss on home ice to the Tampa Bay Lightning. A large contributing factor to their slide has been a lack of goal scoring. Since beating the Panthers, the Flyers have scored the 5th fewest goals in the league. Only New Jersey, Carolina, Boston, and Edmonton have scored fewer goals over the same span. Outside of Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Brayden Schenn, and Wayne Simmonds, the Flyers offense has been spotty over the last 17 games. Sean Couturier had a six game point streak snapped Tuesday against Tampa, which saw him collect 7 of his 8 points in the last 17 games. Matt Read has just 2 points in his last 11 games. Michael Raffl has 2 points in 10 games since returning from injury. The goaltending of Steve Mason hopes to keep the Flyers afloat though. He is posting a .923 save percentage in his last 13 appearances, including a stellar 46 save shutout against the New York Islanders on November 24 that went to waste as the Islanders won in a shootout. However, Mason has been rocked a few times in those 13 games. The Panthers must be ready to pounce on opportunity, and not allow the Flyers to get back on track.
The Rundown:
Panther Leaders & Special Teams
Goals: Nick Bjugstad (12)
Assists: Aaron Ekblad & Jussi Jokinen (13)
Points: Nick Bjugstad (19)
Shot Attempt (Corsi) Rel: Sean Bergenheim (+7.7%)
Shot Attempt Differential: Sean Bergenheim (+84)
Power Play: 13.5% (25th)
Penalty Kill: 80.2% (T-19th)
Flyers Leaders & Special Teams
Goals: Wayne Simmonds (14)
Assists: Claude Giroux (27)
Points: Jakub Voracek (37)
Shot Attempts (Corsi) Rel: Michael Raffl (+12.2%)
Shot Attempt Differential: Jakub Voracek (+84)
Power Play: 24.3% (4th)
Penalty Kill: 75.0% (29th)
*Shot Attempt (Corsi) Relative calculated at 5v5, having played at least one half of team’s games.
The Hat Trick:
1.It is the elephant in the room. Tuesday night’s shootout was a remarkable feat, and left many impressions on the hearts of Panther fans, and in both the NHL and Panthers record books. Let us detail all of the records and firsts that occurred in the shootout:
– Most Rounds in an NHL Shootout (20)
– Most Saves in a Shootout – Roberto Luongo (15)
– Most Goals by a team in a Shootout – Florida Panthers (6)
– First NHL Player to shoot twice in a shootout – Nicklas Backstrom
– First NHL Player to be stopped twice in a shootout – Nicklas Backstrom
– First Panther to shoot twice in a shootout – Jussi Jokinen
– First Career Shootout Attempt – Dylan Olsen, Willie Mitchell, Aaron Ekblad, Brian Campbell, Erik Gudbranson, John Carlson, Brooks Orpik, Nate Schmidt, Michael Latta, Karl Alzner, Tom Wilson
The only record that wasn’t set, it seems, is first NHL player to score twice in the shootout. Moby Dick still lurks out there.
2. That’s not all. There are common links between this 20-round monster and the previous longest shootout, a 15-round epic on November 26, 2005. The biggest one: both shootouts saw the Washington Capitals lose on the road. In the 2005 shootout, it was the Capitals falling to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden off a highlight reel, between the legs goal by hulking defenseman Marek Malik. Three players who took part for the Washington Capitals in that shootout also appeared in Tuesday night’s shootout. Alex Ovechkin and Brooks Laich both appeared for the Capitals. Who is the third participant? The Panthers’ own Tomas Fleischmann, who was able to enjoy the winning side of an epic shootout this time around.
3. The man of the hour: Nick Bjugstad. His shootout winner was the 3rd of his career and his first winner on home ice. Heck of a way to pot your first shootout winner on home ice. Speaking of Nick, we return to where he got his mojo going for the season. It was in the Panthers last game at Philadelphia where he scored his first goal of the season and began to unleash the terror of his goal scoring prowess. Since then, he has switched into overdrive. In 19 games, including the last tilt with the Flyers, Bjugstad is scoring 3 points per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play, behind only Vincent Trocheck among players who played a majority of the games. Also, he is scoring 1.8 goals per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play, which leads the team. He has drawn five more penalties than he has taken, which is tied for the team lead with Jimmy Hayes. Additionally, he faces the 2nd toughest competition at 5-on-5 of any Panther player, behind only linemate Jonathan Huberdeau. Bjugstad also starts a little less than 50% of his shifts in the offensive zone. Big Nick is getting it done and doing it against the best the Panthers face. He is undoubtedly the best player this team has to offer so far this season.
Projected Lineup:
Florida Panthers
L1: Huberdeau | Bjugstad | Fleischmann
L2: Bergenheim | Barkov | Boyes
L3: Jokinen | Bolland | Hayes
L4: Kopecky | MacKenzie | Upshall
D1: Campbell | Ekblad
D2: Mitchell | Kulikov
D3: Olsen | Gudbranson
SG: Luongo
BG: Montoya
Philadelphia Flyers
L1: Raffl | Giroux | Voracek
L2: B. Schenn | Laughton | Simmonds
L3: Umberger | Couturier | Read
L4: Rinaldo | VandeVelde | Bellemare
D1: Grossmann| Streit
D2: Schultz | Coburn
D3: MacDonald | L. Schenn
SG: Mason
BG: Emery
Courtesy of Daily Faceoff (Accurate as of 10:00 am)
Closing Thoughts:
