For the past few years, I’ve been noticing a trend with the Florida Panthers. Whenever the expectations are high, the team falters. Two prime examples are 2016-17 and 2018-19. Now the 2016-17 failure can be blamed on a variety of things. You can say that the Jonathan Huberdeau injury or the offseason moves or the Gallant firing were the issues. I’d disagree. While I think all three had some impact, especially the Gallant firing, I think the biggest thing was the team faltered under expectations. Expectations were high in 2016-17 and the Panthers didn’t live up to the hype. Earlier this season, the Panthers expectations were to make the playoffs. They struggled miserably. Once the team lost to Boston, they knew they weren’t gonna make the playoffs. Now the recent win streak can be based on a variety of factors. You could say that Sam Montembeault has been phenomenal or the play of all of the skaters has helped this team. Honestly, I think it is playing with nothing to lose. The Panthers aren’t expected to do much down the stretch. The Panthers are a young team and sometimes young players don’t perform well under pressure. But this year that isn’t the case. The Panthers young guns have been fine. Their goaltending has been lackluster until Sam Montembeault arrived. The truth is this team doesn’t perform well with lots of pressure. It’s all in their heads.

 

Note: Yes I know this post wasn’t very good but it’s 11:38pm on a Saturday night and I felt like writing something.