Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Panthers 0 - Capitals 3


Awful. Embarrassing. Incredible. Amazing. Ridiculous.

Did I miss anything? I mean for @#$%'s sake. Losers of their last 3, you would think Florida would come out with a strong, aggressive, hard fight, right? Forget it. I'm going to do my best to forget about this one as soon as possible.

Zero @#$%ing shots in the 3rd period. ZERO. ZERO. You have to be kidding me. A desperation game. Out of the playoffs by a single point, the 8th place team has the night off. Every other team is playing, and you have to assume most of them will win. What do the Panthers do? Squadoosh. Nothing. Washington could have pulled their goalie the entire 3rd period and still posted a shutout. Unbelievable.

Can you think of a time when you thought, just maybe, the Panthers might have scored? Not me. Their best "chance" tonight came when Karlis Skrastins, the most defensive of defensemen on the roster, had a semi-breakaway. Other then that, I could have played in Washington's net and earned my first NHL shutout. Unreal.

Now to be fair, the Capitals need to be given credit. They gave a fairly lackluster effort last time out against Atlanta, a 5-1 Caps loss. Tonight, they played one of their best games in a long time. Who cares. Florida could have been playing Washington Community College, it wouldn't have mattered. What playoff race? You mean this wasn't a pre-season game in Saskatchewan?

Let's include some good news in this post, shall we? Congratulations to Martin Brodeur, who broke Patrick Roy's record tonight for most wins by a goaltender. Oh, and Carolina didn't play tonight, so Florida still trails the 8th seed by just a point. Buffalo also lost, so the Cats are still in 9th. Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils host Carolina tomorrow, so us Panthers fans are hoping (praying) that the Devils can keep the 'Canes from earning any points.

Florida's next game comes Thursday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. God willing, Florida may realize they are actually in a fight for a playoff spot. All this "no reason for panic yet" talk needs to hit the shelf. It's panic time. It's all or nothing time. It's desperation time. It's ridiculous. I need a drink.

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