Exorcising More Demons

In a season that has been anything but ordinary for the Florida Panthers, yet another improbability occurred. Listen carefully as I state the following set of facts.

Florida beat the Carolina Hurricanes by 5.

With a shutout.

In Carolina.

Anthony Stewart scored.

I threw in that last part in case the first set of circumstances didn't take your breath away. The Panthers played an outstanding game, and Tomas Vokoun was masterful in becoming the first goaltender to shutout the Hurricanes this season. In the Battle of Eighth Place, it was the Panthers coming out on top, and putting a slight cushion betwixt themselves and the playoff line.

Now Florida has to come home and play the rested New York Rangers on a back to back tonight. The BankAtlantic Center should be as raucous as it's been in years, and I am beyond excited for the game. You can't expect the boys to be perfect on no rest, but a win tonight would be mammoth in the standings.

If everything goes right tonight, the Panthers could be tied for 6th place, with an inside track to the 5th spot.

I can't believe I just typed that sentence. Tell me I would have when the Panthers were at the bottom of the league a few months ago, and I call the men with the white jackets on you.

Florida's victory in Carolina was just the second one in the last 19 games there. Or, one could be more positive, and say the team has gone 2-1-1 there in their last four games. Perhaps the demons from the dive pool in Raleigh are finally being exorcised. Speaking of that, hopefully Florida isn't visited by any spirits tonight on Friday the 13th.

My current thoughts:

-Doesn't it seem like Kamil Kreps just can't buy a goal? He rang one off the iron last night, and had two glorious opportunities in front of the net, and blew them. I'm not saying he is playing particularly poorly, but right now it's him or Brett McLean for our weakest link award.

-How many people out there still want the Panthers to trade Vokoun and make Anderson the starter? I'm not taking anything away from Craig. He's great. But Vokoun is the only goalie that keeps us in the running to do anything in the playoffs, if we get there, in my humble opinion.

-Does anyone else wonder how amazing our defense would be this year with Bryan Allen instead of Jassen Cullimore? We already have one of the most impressive defenses in the NHL, and that's without one of our best defensive defenseman. While not being awful, Cullimore has clearly been our weakest defenseman, and I do wonder how Bryan Allen would be doing. We wish Bryan a full recovery and a chance to do wonders with us next season.

-An interesting stat on the broadcast last night -- the Panthers last 10 goals have come from the forwards. That's a huge statistic, as we were definitely relying far too much on the blue line to score. If we want to continue to have success, the forwards are going to need to keep this up.

-Just to show you how far this team has come, anybody remember the first game of the season? Florida, in Carolina, was up 2-0 after the first period, just as they were in last night's game. If I remember correctly the game was tied by the first few minutes of the second period. This game, Florida grabs a 5-0 lead after two periods. This team has come a long way.

-It feels nice to finally have trust in the coach and the GM at the same time. With Jacques Martin as coach, or Mike Keenan as GM, I really didn't feel comfortable. Now I have faith that Pete DeBoer behind the bench and Martin in the front office will make the right moves to help this team.

Hopefully the Panthers can post another strong effort tonight and move closer to their ultimate goal of the postseason.

Panthers playoff chances: 75.9 (Trending Up)

Playoffs or bust.