Florida Panthers lose a close one to Winnipeg Jets 4-3 in regulation

The Florida Panthers lost a heartbreaker to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, as they fell to them 4-3 in regulation after allowing three goals in the third.

Thursday night was rough for the Florida Panthers, as they fell to the Winnipeg Jets 4-3. That’s the only way I can put it nicely. I’ll get to the breakdown of the game in just a second, but let me point out something. Now, I’m a diehard fan and a very positive one at that, but on Thursday, they looked sloppy.

Now, am I excusing Sergei Bobrovsky? No. He could’ve played better as well. And, to be honest, I was expecting Joel Quenneville to put Sam Montembault in after his stellar performance in Boston to get us that crazy win. Our defense needs to cover the net better though. That is certainly an aspect of our game that needs some work.

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Unfortunately, Bobrovsky is averaging four goals against when he’s in net and that needs to be fixed as well. I know I always point out the good in my team because of how much I love them but this is one of those articles where I feel like I need to instill some tough love. We haven’t been able to win more than two games in a row yet. While the season is still very young, the Panthers need to step it up, start finding their rhythm on defense and win more games consecutively.

The Panthers are currently 11th place overall in the league and in third place in the division. While both of those statistics tell a story about a team that is doing historically better than normal, we don’t want to get to the point that we’ve been in multiple times before where we’re depending on other teams to lose their games to help us reach the playoffs.

They determine our own fate. They determine our own destiny. The Panthers can’t depend on one team losing their games at the end of the season to propel us to the playoffs. Now, please don’t confuse this rant for me being some bandwagon fan that only follows and cheers for this team when they win because that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I am a diehard fan. I’m just opening up in my articles to explain the cold hard truths. Now, let’s get to the recap of the game.

The first period came and went with no goals. In the second period, Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey scored to make the game 1-0 for the Winnipeg Jets. Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov came through next on the power play at the 15:08 mark, assisted by Mike Hoffman and Keith Yandle. This brings Barkov’s donation to The Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital total up to $9,600 and making the score 1-1.

The third period opened up and at the 4:28 mark, Nikolaj Ehlers, assisted by Patrik Laine and Mark Scheifele, made the game 2-1 for Winnipeg. At the 7:13 mark, Vincent Trocheck scored to tie up the game for the Panthers 2-2. His goal was assisted by Brian Boyle and Brent Connolly. At the 14:52 mark, Scheifele, assisted by Laine and Connor, made the score 3-2 for Winnipeg.

17:02 into the third period, Adam Lowry, assisted by Andrew Copp and Tucker Poolman made the score 4-2 in favor of Winnipeg. The Panthers would come back with one more goal as Trocheck, assisted by Mike Hoffman and Keith Yandle, would make the score 4-3.

They tried so hard after that goal to tie up the game, earn a regulation point, and head to overtime, but unfortunately were unsuccessful. The next game for the Panthers is against the Rangers, at the BB&T Center on Saturday night.

The Rangers got destroyed by the Tampa Bay Lightning last night 9-3, so we’ll see how that factors into the game, if at all. That’s all for now. Until next time, Let’s Go Cats!!!