Tonight we played the team that will win the league. Panthers are head and shoulders above any other team this year....and in a rich groove of winning.
Championship winning teams develop consistency and find ways to win in any situation. Again, Panthers were behind 3 times tonight and finished in style. They are superior in every department.
The Devils needed a match-up to gauge how they compare to the Panthers now.
The difference between the two teams is night and day. A bit like the difference between last season's Devils'team and this year's.
That's a very nice thing to hear, especially from a fan of last season's impressive championship team... but I think you might be over-egging it a little... and certainly too early! (we're not even 1/3rd of the way through the season yet...).
The difference between this season's Panthers team and last season's is the 'night and day' that you mention. We have no passengers whatsoever - not one. Every last one of them plays as a full part of the team... even when the team is misfiring somewhat!
"Superior in every department"?? - not the powerplay, that's for sure! LOL
Our PP has occasionally been exceptional, has generally been abysmal... today was the latter. We did actually get one PP goal from 7 attempts... but that was with an empty net! At least you lot managed to get past an actual netminder...
This Panthers team is a delight to watch (most of the time!) and has massive potential... and yes, there is every chance that we could win the league this season. But your lot played hard and well for the first two periods... quite frankly, you were more effective than we were during that time. Maybe the Devils were tired in the 3rd, maybe we wore you down, I don't know... but that's where we capitalised.
They say that the sign of a superior team is that they can win even when they don't play at their best... OK, yes - that's what we did today. So... were we the better team? I'd like to think so, but we can't just assume so.
I for one am not going to take any game against your lot for granted... Panthers/Devils games are rarely easy and never dull... points from them can never be regarded as easy pickings. We'll be hosting the Devils again in 3 weeks... and I expect another hard fight.