By the Numbers: Panthers 2, Red Wings 1 (OT)

**REMINDER: No pregame/postgame material today as I’ll probably be drowning my Michigan Wolverine sorrows in Leinenkugels all day. Back to normal on Sunday.

The roller coaster ride continues and it doesn’t look like the end is anywhere in sight for the Detroit Red Wings. One week it’s boatloads of scoring and strong defensive play, and the next week they can’t find the back of the net with a flashlight and a road map. It’s unbelievably frustrating when the team fails to score, and even more so when it happens against backup goalies named Alex Auld and Scott Clemmensen.

The real problem with this team right now is a complete lack of consistency from each position over 60 minutes. If the forwards are grinding, the defense is lax. If the defense has tightened up, the forwards aren’t back checking. It’s happened all season and tonight was no different. I promise you that there will be quite a few folks that say “Well, the Wings really outplayed the Panthers” and that’s true to an extent. Yes, over 60 minutes we probably outplayed the Panthers. We dominated in shots, fore checked like crazy and generally took it to them. It was a nice effort.

But the Panthers did everything right when it mattered. Their gameplan worked and it worked to perfection. Yes, they got buoyed by some remarkable goaltending, but sometimes you have to bank on the intangibles to be in your corner if you think you stand a chance at winning. For the Panthers, the goal tonight was to come in and consistently chip away at the Wings for 60 minutes. Why? Because they know that the talent of the Wings is something they couldn’t match, but that the mental breakdowns the Wings are prone to making were their ticket to staying in this game. It’s the proven recipe for undermatched teams against the Wings this season. Phoenix executed it to perfection earlier this year and Florida followed the plan perfectly.

Don’t agree with me? Tune into the FS Detroit broadcast and listen to Mick and Ken talk about how the Panthers “rocked the Sabres to sleep” the other night. And how Murph noted how “dangerous” it is to leave a team like this hanging around. Unless you jump on a team like Florida early and often (see “9-1 Win Over Blue Jackets, Columbus”) you HAVE to play solid hockey at every position on the ice for the entire game. Otherwise all the chipping and grinding these teams do is going to expose a point of weakness and then exploit it. Tonight the Panthers did just that, positioning themselves to go into OT with a Wings team that has been awful in the extra session this season. And guess what? Peter DeBoer’s gameplan worked to perfection. He rope-a-doped the Wings into believing one goal would be enough and then punched them right in the mouth. That’s called coaching.

Grind, grind, grind. Stick to the gameplan and wear them down. Well, it’s working. I can already feel myself getting worn down and tired from watching this inconsistent play.

Here’s your numbers from the game:

**The season totals are updated here and here.

Line Production

Special Teams Production

Tags: Florida Panthers