Hey Doc,
Looking like the Panthers have (so far) shown the League that making changes from a President's Cup-winning team can yield big results. Tkachuk brought some natural gas with him to South Florida and Coach Maurice seems to be showing how not to screw up a very good team. Looking (not so much rooting) for Panthers to get it done, but Carolina's pride will find a way to lead them to a win tonight (imho).
Must have been the 2nd intermission on Saturday night where Jon Cooper seemed to be defending Coach Brind'Amour playing Anti Raanta. The game was going well, and Coop pointed out that Raanta had a very good year between the pipes and pretty much matched Freddie Andersen's production. But Freddie had a great series against New Jersey, and the 4OT result in Game 1 wasn't because of his work on the ice.
Regular season...sure, you're gonna switch up if you have two very solid net minders, but just my feeling that Coach B kinda overthunk what needed to be done before Game 2. And I've been on the Panthers, so not like I'm grousing. But what if Carolina got the OT game winner...do you stay with Raanta or switch back to Steady Freddie, and then the media has a story to chew on.
Conference finals time (not regular season lunch pail grind) and Freddie has more than lived up to his nickname. Coop's stats and metrics comments were spot on if you want to compare notes, but that's box score stuff. Stuff you don't need to be rattling around in players' heads...just my opinion. And Raanta was better than good; just some players puck watching and forgetting where they needed to be and - wham/bam, Tkachuk's skating off the ice before everybody knew what happened. (Smart move by Matthew to just head for the exit and celebrate in the hallway.)
To quote the immortal Mr. Buddy Holly (hey, Rustie...buddy...check out this segue apropos of yours and Doc's in-season "Come Monday" quips)...thinking "not fade away" will be the headline in the morning for Doc and the Canes !
Cheers and BOL 
Not a diss or anything but how do canes show up tonight when last 2 games they have been lazy and lost because of it. Lazy game 1 in OT cost goal with 30 seconds in the period and game 2 leaving panthers attacker wide open for goal in period 2. i can't take this team seriously right now
@accountant4life
Legit question and not offended. I just think they are a professional and led by one helluva coach that will expect a better effort. Now, will that be enough? I think the Canes problems are the front office. They made no moves to bring in a scorer after Patch went down. Their D and G are still possibly the best left playing but as i stated, you have to score to win. Can they get off the mat tonight? Who knows but I am going to bet they try. Besides, both games could have gone either way. My biggest question is can we see 3 straight OT games in this series?
hoping for OT and Florida win tonight Canes blew it game 1 and 2 if they win tonight with help from Refs. GL
Established in 1995,
I win a prop bet....been losing everything but win a prop bet. 
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