ShareRejoice! Its another edition of matinee hockey! The Panthers are in the Buckeye State to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. Let’s see how CBJ is doing under Tort’s Law.
The Numbers
Team Breakdown
| | Florida Panthers | Columbus Blue Jackets |
| Record | 35-18-7 (1st Atlantic) | 25-29-8 (8th Metropolitan) |
| GF/60 (5v5) | 2.4 | 2.2 |
| GA/60 (5v5) | 1.9 | 2.4 |
| CF/60 (5v5) | 47.8 | 52.3 |
| CA/60 (5v5) | 51.2 | 57.5 |
| PDO (5v5) | 102.0 | 99.7 |
| Power Play | 16.6% - 34 for 205 (27th) | 17.6% - 33 for 188 (22nd) |
| Penalty Kill | 81.4% - 162 for 199 (15th) | 80.8% - 173 for 214 (16th) |
Individual Leaders
| | Florida Panthers | Columbus Blue Jackets |
| Points | Jaromir Jagr - 44 | Scott Hartnell & Brandon Saad - 39 |
| Goals | Jaromir Jagr - 20 | Brandon Saad - 23 |
| Assists | Jussi Jokinen - 30 | Brandon Dubinsky - 23 |
| P1/60 (5v5) | Jaromir Jagr - 1.87 | Brandon Dubinsky - 1.72 |
| iCorsi/60 (5v5) | Brandon Pirri - 15.2 | Cam Atkinson - 16.7 |
| CF% rel (5v5, SA) | Jussi Jokinen - +6.4% | Nick Foligno - +5.7% |
| PenD (5v5) | Aleksander Barkov - +9 | Alexander Wennberg - +11 |
Goalie Matchup
| | Roberto Luongo | Joonas Korpisalo |
| Record | 26-14-5 | 11-7-4 |
| Sv% | .925 | .919 |
| AvgShDA (feet) | 32.92 | 33.65 |
| ReboundAg/60 | 2.12 | 2.73 |
| RushShotAg/60 | 2.06 | 2.00 |
| GAA | 2.26 | 2.61 |
* – Stats are courtesy of Corsica.Hockey, War-on-Ice.com, Puckalytics.com and Hockey-Reference.com
Projected Lineups
Florida Panthers
| #36 Jussi Jokinen | #16 Aleksander Barkov | #68 Jaromir Jagr |
| #48 Logan Shaw | #27 Nick Bjugstad | #92 Kyle Rau |
| #21 Vincent Trocheck | #17 Derek MacKenzie | #18 Reilly Smith |
| #28 Garrett Wilson | #41 Greg McKegg | #22 Shawn Thornton |
| #7 Dmitry Kulikov | #5 Aaron Ekblad |
| #51 Brian Campbell | #44 Erik Gudbranson |
| #3 Steven Kampfer | #6 Alex Petrovic |
| #1 Roberto Luongo |
| #35 Al Montoya |
Columbus Blue Jackets
| #43 Scott Hartnell | #41 Alexander Wennberg | #20 Brandon Saad |
| #38 Boone Jenner | #17 Brandon Dubinsky | #13 Cam Atkinson |
| #11 Matt Calvert | #25 William Karlsson | #71 Nick Foligno |
| #21 Kerby Rychel | #9 Gregory Campbell | #18 Rene Bourque |
| #27 Ryan Murray | #3 Seth Jones |
| #29 Cody Goloubef | #58 David Savard |
| #51 Fedor Tyutin | #47 Dalton Prout |
| #70 Joonas Korpisalo |
| #30 Curtis McElhinney |
The Hat Trick
Two In A Row: The Panthers power play recently went back into a lull. After scoring eight times in five games, the power play went scoreless for six straight games. The unit had been slowly creeping up the league rankings, but has since slid back down to 27th. However, it is worthy to note that it has picked back up, minorly at least. The power play has converted two games in a row. The Panthers are 17-5-2 when scoring a power play goal.
Trouble With The Kill: Meanwhile, the other special teams group has struggled for the Panthers. They have held opposition power plays without a goal just twice in the last ten games. This has caused the Panthers PK to plummet from a Top 10 ranking to the middle of the pack. I have not had a chance to dig deep, but I will point out that this coincides with Erik Gudbranson leaving the lineup. I smell a fun little research project coming up!
Last Foligno: The Blue Jackets are coming off a hot effort on Thursday night. They routed the New Jersey Devils 6-1 on home ice, and captain Nick Foligno was the center of it all. He notched his second career hat trick en route to their eight win in the last 13 games. It just goes to show that, even if a team is in the mix for a top draft pick, they can still hurt you.
Closing Thoughts
The trade deadline looms. Keep your head cool, and stay tuned here. We won’t break the news, but we will fix it!
Don’t forget to donate to #CatsForACause!
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