It’s not that the Florida Panthers haven’t faced adversity in their run to the playoffs. They were down 3–1 to the Bruins. But then again, nothing was expected of them, so it’s not like they had much to lose. They certainly do now, so close to the parade, and they certainly appeared intent on losing it all in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, getting pummeled 7-2 by the Vegas Golden Knights.
And it was in a way that we all expected for it to arrive a month or two earlier, if not the entire season. better late than never. While Paul Morris has been lauded by the hockey world for his defensive revolution not really happening, their history suggested that they would face the same problem as the Knights and a 1–0 deficit in the series, with the unimaginative, well-traveled hockey coach stratagem of “More Hits” and “More Penalties”. And boy did it!
The Panthers looked determined to emphasize their physicality in Game 2, which is one thing the Knights didn’t seem to respond to. Which led to them chasing the Knights all over the ice and being so out of position across the ice that one wondered if they were playing with enough players.
Take Knights’ second goal, The highlight isn’t quite the start, but the Panthers were in good position. Sasha Barkov has Alec Martinez pinned in his own corner for a puck fight. Anthony Duclair is closing down the lane, and Anton Lundell is cutting his way into the back of the net. It’s one-on-one with the Panthers in the corner and is in good position if the puck bounces either way. Duclair goes for a completely unnecessary hit on Martinez while paying no Focus on the puck, Vegas offers one lane for breakouts, and you can follow the rest from there.
This was the story the whole night. Brandon Montour took a ridiculous penalty when Jonathan Marchesault was already pinned against the board and was no threat and Montour decided to brainwash him from behind. The Panthers’ constant rushing around left their defense either unwilling or unable to connect with their own blue line, and Knights constantly ran into the Panthers. Zone like they were normal towards Cheers. wreak havoc.
Somehow, Maurice and the Panthers haven’t picked up that the Knights are tearing apart their highly sought after Throwing the puck either as part of their coverage or just in their bloodletting to get a knight head on a pike and become an automatic target just to weaken the puck through that.
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Like this,
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here you can see Panthers surrender their blue line like cartoon Frenchmen.
sergey bobrovsky fell back to earth
Somehow the Panthers could not get hold of any of it. and they could still be okay If only Sergei Bobrovsky hadn’t plummeted back to earth with a dinosaur-killing sound. He missed three goals on three shots either side of the first halftime. his savings percentage was of .692 in Game 2, which ties in nicely with the .879 from Game 1. While this would be regarded as a major turn of events, Bobrovsky does not have a track record of playoff heroics, whatever his paycheck might suggest. He has a series against the Lightning in 2019, and has often been more terrible than good in the postseason (career .908). He’s been spectacular this spring, but it was never too far beneath the surface, and he’ll be burying it again if the cats pray in this series.
None of this stopped the Panthers from engaging in the greatest of hockey nonsense, messaging when you’ve already got your ass kicked. He took out a penalty on 84 minutes with Matthew Tkachuk About his only contribution to the series so far, 22 is racking up his own.
All season long we’ve waited for Bobrovsky and Maurice to return to their natural selves. Water always finds its level, people.
CBS Miami reporter has to keep fans away from his stand-up shot
Hey, at least someone from South Florida got their physicality right though:
yordan alvarez crushes outerspace one
Anyway, want to send baseball to Jupiter to Yordon Alvarez?
A’s hit snag in vegas trick
On the opposite side of baseball, how’s the A’s stadium in Vegas doing?
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