Home sweet home! The Cats are back in Sunrise for a homestand, and it opens with the Atlantic Division rival Boston Bruins in town. Its a battle for second place, and its sure to be a game full of tension.
The Numbers
Team Breakdown
| Florida Panthers | Boston Bruins | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 36-21-8 (2nd Atlantic) | 36-23-7 (3rd Atlantic) |
| GF/60 (5v5) | 2.3 | 2.5 |
| GA/60 (5v5) | 2.0 | 2.3 |
| CF/60 (5v5) | 48.7 | 55.3 |
| CA/60 (5v5) | 51.2 | 57.4 |
| PDO (5v5) | 101.5 | 100.6 |
| Power Play | 16.4% - 37 for 225 (27th) | 21.1% - 41 for 194 (8th) |
| Penalty Kill | 81.4% - 175 for 215 (15th) | 82.2% - 180 for 219 (10th) |
Individual Leaders
| Florida Panthers | Boston Bruins | |
|---|---|---|
| Points | Jaromir Jagr - 48 | Patrice Bergeron - 57 |
| Goals | Jaromir Jagr & Reilly Smith - 21 | Brad Marchand - 33 |
| Assists | Jussi Jokinen - 35 | David Krejci - 36 |
| P1/60 (5v5) | Jaromir Jagr - 1.87 | Ryan Spooner - 2.02 |
| iCorsi/60 (5v5) | Nick Bjugstad - 12.9 | Matt Beleskey - 17.1 |
| CF% rel (5v5, SA) | Jussi Jokinen - +6.6% | Patrice Bergeron & Brad Marchand - +7.9% |
| PenD (5v5) | Aleksander Barkov - +9 | David Pastrnak - +5 |
Goalie Matchup
| Roberto Luongo | Tuukka Rask | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 27-16-6 | 26-18-6 |
| Sv% | .924 | .919 |
| AvgShDA (feet) | 32.02 | 35.39 |
| ReboundAg/60 | 2.25 | 1.48 |
| RushShotAg/60 | 2.01 | 2.17 |
| GAA | 2.26 | 2.50 |
* – Stats are courtesy of Corsica.Hockey and Hockey-Reference.com
Projected Lineups
Florida Panthers
| #11 Jonathan Huberdeau | #16 Aleksander Barkov | #68 Jaromir Jagr |
| #36 Jussi Jokinen | #21 Vincent Trocheck | #18 Reilly Smith |
| #24 Jiri Hudler | #27 Nick Bjugstad | #92 Kyle Rau |
| #42 Quinton Howden | #48 Logan Shaw | #22 Shawn Thornton |
| #7 Dmitry Kulikov | #5 Aaron Ekblad |
| #51 Brian Campbell | #44 Erik Gudbranson |
| #46 Jakub Kindl | #6 Alex Petrovic |
| #1 Roberto Luongo |
| #35 Al Montoya |
Boston Bruins
| #63 Brad Marchand | #37 Patrice Bergeron | #20 Lee Stempniak |
| #39 Matt Beleskey | #46 David Krejci | #88 David Pastrnak |
| #21 Loui Eriksson | #51 Ryan Spooner | #11 Jimmy Hayes |
| #29 Landon Ferraro | #55 Noel Acciari | #14 Brett Connolly |
| #33 Zdeno Chara | #86 Kevan Miller |
| #47 Torey Krug | #44 Dennis Seidenberg |
| #26 John-Michael Liles | #54 Adam McQuaid |
| #40 Tuukka Rask |
| #50 Jonas Gustavsson |
The Hat Trick
Seriously, Stop Worrying: Saturday night brought the disappointment of a 5-1 loss to the Coyotes, along with an 0 for 5 run on the power play. Naturally, a boatload of pessmism was expressed by Panthers faithful. I took to Twitter yesterday to rail against this vast over-reaction, and I will continue to do so today.
Today’s Stop Freaking Out Fun Fact: Every team that has given up fewer than 150 goals against, and accumulated 80 points through the first 63 games of the season, as the Panthers have done, has gone on to make the playoffs. In fact, to find a non-playoff team giving up less than 150 goals, you have to go back to the 65 point 2001-02 Edmonton Oilers.
Nick Shootstad: If you have been thinking, “Gee, Nick Bjugstad has been looking better lately,” that’s no coincidence. Nick is someone known for goal scoring and creating his own oppotunities. In lieu of a long winded explaination, I leave you with the below chart. The line represent’s Bjugstad’s 10 game rolling average, the spike you see at the end means Bjugstad is shooting more recently. I would imagine that’s from some combination of playing with Kyle Rau, who he’s very familiar with, and playing less with players who do not complement him, like Logan Shaw. This will need further exploration.
Trouble Bruin: Its an Atlantic Division clash tonight, with standing implications on the line. At current moment, the Bruins sit one point behind the Panthers for 2nd in the Atlantic, behind 1st place Tampa Bay. You can bet that both teams will be coming in tonight, hungry for victory. Of course, the Panthers would do well to avoid losing this game. They already give away the tiebreaker on ROW to both Tampa Bay and Boston, falling behind would be even less advisable.
It won’t be an easy task. The Panthers will have to find a way to contain Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. The duo do a lot up front for the Bruins. They lead the team in scoring, and they have the best relative marks in shot metrics. That’s not all that will need to be looked at. The Bruins also possess David Krejci, who is having a fantastic, bounc back year after being muddled with injury last season. They also elected to keep Loui Eriksson at the deadline, while adding journeyman Lee Stempniak up front, and John-Michael Liles on the back end.
Closing Thoughts
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