Work has been really busy and I’m going to try my best to post but I doubt I will be able to post more than once or twice a week until May. That is just how this time of year goes for an accountant.
The Panthers won again tonight, beating Tampa 4-2. I’m happy they came back strong from the Carolina game. They played okay against Carolina but not quite good enough outside of the second period. They need to score more than 1 goal to win games. The Panthers are 3 points behind Philadelphia and Boston. The problem is they need some help because Boston, Philly and Buffalo (who are tied with the Panthers) have a game in hand. The frustrating part of this winning streak is that on the whole the teams from 7th to 12th have played well in the last 10 games. The Bruins aren’t playing that well but they are getting games to OT and getting the loser point. I think the Panthers have to win 5 of their last 6 to have a chance. I had said with 15 games left that the Panthers would have had to go 11-4. They have gone 8-0-1 so far. And it might not be enough. The winning has been fun. This has been different than the last couple of years when the Panthers had strong months of March. Those teams were never really in the playoff chase. It feels different this year. This team is a little better than those teams and have had a better effort level. Other than the soft first goal against Carolina it seems like Vokoun has found his game after a bit of a slump. Hopefully the Panthers can make the playoffs and use the momentum to re-sign Bouwmeester and sign one more top winger to play with Jokinen.
The next game is the 25th in Tampa. Go Panthers! I’m confident they can win the next two because Tampa and Atlanta are playing out the string. I hope they don’t play the spoiler role.
Thanks for reading.
