GDT: 2/28/13 "Take A Slice" - Sabres VS Panthers

[Panthers Rock]

Tonight Your Defending Southeast Division Champion Florida Panthers take on the Buffalo Sabres! Game time at 7:30 EST live from BB&T Center!



Slice It


TV: Live on FSFlorida and Center Ice/Gamecenter.
Internet/Radio: Listen Live on NHL Gamecenter

VS

Standings Florida: Conference Position Wins Losses OTL/SOL Total Points 13th 6 9 4 16 Buffalo: Conference Position Wins Losses OTL/SOL Total Points 15th 7 12 1 15

Injuries Buffalo: Player Date Of Incident Status Injury Ville Leino 2013-01-18 on injured reserve strained right hip Jordan Leopold 2013-02-18 out indefinitely upper body Alexander Sulzer 2013-02-24 on injured reserve lower body Florida: Player Date Of Incident Status Injury Michael Caruso 2013-01-23 on injured reserve and is out indefinitely broken wrist Sean Bergenheim 2013-01-17 undisclosed undisclosed Ed Jovanovski 2013-01-31 on injured reserve knee Scottie Upshall 2013-02-01 questionable for Thursday's game against Buffalo ankle Kris Versteeg 2013-02-15 questionable for Thursday's game against Buffalo upper body Filip Kuba 2013-02-24 day to day upper body Stephen Weiss 2013-02-26 expected to play missed last game for personal reasons

Line Combinations (Subject To Change) Buffalo: LW C RW Thomas Vanek Cody Hodgson Jason Pominville Steve Ott Tyler Ennis Nathan Gerbe Jochen Hecht Kevin Porter Drew Stafford Marcus Foligno Mikhail Grigorenko Patrick Kaleta LD RD Robyn Regehr Tyler Myers Andrej Sekera Christian Ehrhoff Adam Pardy Mike Weber Florida: LW C RW Tomas Kopecky Stephen Weiss Tomas Fleischmann Jonathan Huberdeau Drew Shore Peter Mueller Scottie Upshall Marcel Goc Shawn Matthias Jack Skille Jerred Smithson George Parros LD RD Brian Campbell Mike Weaver Dmitry Kulikov Erik Gudbranson Colby Robak Tyson Strachan

Expected Starting Goaltenders (Subject To Change) Buffalo: Ryan Miller GP W L OTL GAA SV% SO 18 7 10 1 2.83 .916 0 VS. Florida: Scott Clemmensen GP W L OTL GAA SV% SO 7 2 1 2 3.62 .876 0

Team Leaders Buffalo: W Ryan Miller 7 L Ryan Miller 10 GAA Ryan Miller 2.83 G Thomas Vanek 12 A Thomas Vanek 15 +/- Christian Ehrhoff 3 PIM Steve Ott 38 Florida: W Jose Theodore 4 L Jose Theodore 6 GAA Jose Theodore 3.52 G Tomas Kopecky 8 A Tomas Fleischmann 9 +/- Drew Shore 4 PIM Tomas Kopecky 24

Special Teams Buffalo: PP% PP Rank PK% PK Rank 11.1% 29th(tied) 80.7% 18th Florida: PP% PP Rank PK% PK Rank 20.0% 10th 73.5% 29th

News And Notes "We're a desperate team and we needed it," former Sabres defenseman Brian Campbell told the Panthers' official website. "We can fold up and not compete but there's a lot of fight in this team. We have a ways to go but we're working on getting better." http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams/fla George Richards' Blog of the Miami Herald:Your Source For Reliable, Early Panthers Info!

Primary Target Cody Hodgson, part of the big trade with Vancouver last year, has made a strong impact for the Sabres in his first full season. He's second in scoring only to the dynamic Thomas Vanek. Unfortunately it hasn't been enough to help pull the Sabres out of the Eastern Conference basement yet but few are blaming him.

Red Hot Cat Of The Night Tomas Kopecky, who scored a hat trick last game, has 6 points in his last 4 games, tied for the team lead in goals with 8.

Last Game VS. Sabres


Last Game Played


Tonight...

LET'S GO PANTHERS!!!!!!!!!!

[Benched]

Cool GDT. Hopefully Clem and Kopecky can stay hot and we can win *gasp* more than one game in a row against a pretty beatable team.

[freakstar]

Boys better bring it tonight. Great game last time (Except Theos meltdown), entertaining and we came out with a win.

Hopefully Kopeckys hotstreak continues.

[Steel Panther]

Clemmer with the shootout, no doubt in my mind.

[Kettu]

Because our division sucks we still have chance to win it. GO PANTHERS!!!

[Boooooth10]

I'll be going to the game tonight with some Sabre fans. Please make them do the walk of shame tonight, Panthers

[PanthersHockey1]

Ill be there start of spring break better dont ruin it Panthers!

[dbhislife]

Originally Posted by PanthersHockey1

Ill be there start of spring break better dont ruin it Panthers!

As a former Gator myself, please enjoy these years bud. Having moved to DC since graduation last May, you start to envy spring breaks in Florida. Mine is a week after UF's (which I know because my gf is still there), and ITS STILL FREAKING SNOWING OCCASIONALLY HERE. You mention beaches on spring break, and people look at you funny...

Ok rant over. GO CATS GO!!!!! I expect Hubs to give us one of his potent offensive showings tonight. 4-2 Cats Kopecky with a goal and Hubs with 3 peoples (a goal from each player on the line).

[Rick Rypien Farts]

Only one sure-fire bet..

Vanek gets at least a point or two.

[MillarWithASave]

I say we lose tonight, don't have high hopes for this one, but then again I don't have high hopes for any game really.

Great GDT PR.

[RainingRats]

We play Buffalo, Carolina, Carolina, Winnipeg, Washington, Winnipeg, Montreal, and then Tampa in the next couple of weeks. This is definitely our last chance at salvaging this season by dominating the division.

The entire month of March is a pretty much all teams we need to jump or need to jump us to make it into the playoffs.

[RainingRats]

Originally Posted by Rick Rypien Farts

Only one sure-fire bet..

Vanek gets at least a point or two.

Vanek with a 5 point night, Panthers win 6-5.

[Haj]

Relentless: The Tomas Kopecky Story



TNT Knows Drama.

[Rick Rypien Farts]

Unleash the Tomas Ko-PEST-cky

[Boothinator]

Clemmensen with a great game in goal ! I believe!


Goldie:

Looks like Clemmensen starts, Kovalev, Versteeg scratched.

Also, Kuba + Weiss expected to play...Robak has to take a seat

[Laus723]

Originally Posted by Haj

Relentless: The Tomas Kopecky Story



TNT Knows Drama.

Lmao, nice!

[Madhatter73]

Originally Posted by Rick Rypien Farts

Unleash the Tomas Ko-PEST-cky

My friends and I have been calling him SoPesky since last year...

[k2737]

One of the 2 nights a year I wont be walking into BBT with a Panthers jersey on. Hopefully the Sabres put on a better performance then last time.



Good luck cats fans!

[Panteras]

Tomas JoePesci with another hat trick tonight I hope

[FlaPnthrsPunk]

There is absolutely no reason to lose this game after the big win on Tuesday night. Now is our time to get back in the race with a comparative easy schedule over the next week or so.

I agree completely with starting Clemmensen as he's played well in his last two appearances. I understand why Kuba is playing over Robak as he's the veteran that Dineen is hoping gets back on track, but Robak has played so well that I don't want him sitting.

Here's hoping for a great game! Lets Go Panthers!!!

[Cats Kneading Goals]

Is Steeger planning on playing any hockey this season? His point production could help.

[CatscratchFever]

Let's go Panthers!

[Coolburn]

For whatever reason, Buffalo always plays us tough too, no matter how they are playing. I expect another close game against them.

[Howboutthempanthers]

Just win baby.

[Laus723]

Originally Posted by Coolburn

For whatever reason, Buffalo always plays us tough too, no matter how they are playing. I expect another close game against them.

Agreed. Guess we'll see another Parros-Scott bout, too