CBS4's Steve Goldstein on Panthers hunt to find their game
SUNRISE - The calendar is close to turning to 2023 and the Florida Panthers need to have a sense of urgency less than halfway through the season.
The month of December was not kind to the Cats. Illness, injury, and a lack of production led to the team falling behind in the standings. There is no more margin for error or room for consecutive losses.
Rested and Ready
The NHL takes a big holiday break so the Panthers got a much needed week off. They return to the ice for practice on Tuesday and play Thursday night at home against Montreal, a game that will be raucous with a sell-out crowd.
The Panthers need to find their game immediately, get off to a solid start, play a hard game, and most importantly win. They had many games earlier this season where they should have won, dominating opponents, only to come away with no points. The days of being able to live with results like that are over.
Best be the Best
Between illness, injury, and lack of goal scoring, it's been a rough season for Aleksander Barkov. Add in this team's other big-time players like Aaron Ekblad, Sergei Bobrovsky, Matthew Tkachuk, and others, and the bottom line is, the Panthers need more production and consistency from their best players. The good news is, they are certainly more than capable of doing it, we have seen it before.
Get Lucky
There are seasons in sports where teams just get unlucky. That has certainly been the case for the Panthers so far, with high-quality scoring chances not going in the net, and bad breaks on players getting sick and hurt.
But there are also no excuses in sports as the results are the results. And you need to make your own breaks. This team is more than capable of ripping off a winning streak and that is what it will take for them to get back into a playoff spot. They will need to get healthy and need players to produce more than they have, starting with more consistent goaltending.
