The 2016-17 season was a train wreck. I have some theories on why it didn’t work not including injuries because for the millionth time when the wall in the locker room says NO EXCUSES! it means injuries don’t matter. We also had similar injury issues in 2015-16.
1. Lack of Physicality
Man I was naïve. Bone crushing hits create momentum while a blocked shot is actually more likely to go back to the other team. The Panthers played no physical game whatsoever last year and it was costly. It showed you need at least a little physicality to win games. There were several goals that could’ve been stopped if we had used the body.
2. Perfect Shots
The Panthers seemed to shoot from the farthest out last year. Now if they had bodies screening the goalies this would’ve worked. Has anyone noticed that our goalies give up at least one easy goal per game while all of our goals were perfect shots and we rarely got garbage goals. A goal is a goal no matter how ugly it is.
3. Key Players Lacking Production
Several key players such as Reilly Smith and Aaron Ekblad struggled last year and with the two carrying a combined $12.5M cap hit next year they need to play better.
These are some theories. Hopefully next year is better.