OTTAWA–Two experienced pros lead the way Saturday night as the Florida Panthers raised their record to 9-8-1 with a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators.
With the retooled clumsy Florida Panthers defense in front of him, Roberto Luongo only hd to make 39 saves, including a dozen spectacular stops in limiting the Senators to one goal. At the other end of the rink Jaromir Jagr enjoyed his best game of the season, scoring 25 seconds into the game then adding assists on goals by Jussi Jokinen and Derek MacKenzie to raise his season point total to 9 (2 goals and 7 assists ) Jagr’s big night leaves him tied for fourth on the team.
Also coming to life was Aleksander Barkov, who collected two assists to raise his season point total to 10. Jagr and Barkov, two superior puck carriers, have spent a lot waiting for passes that never come from the Panthers defense corpse, which spends a lot of time imagining they are Eric Karlson or Kris Letang. They aren’t. But more than any game this season they let the Panthers skilled forwards use their speed and skill to cause fits for Ottawa in the Senators defensive zone rather than play the chase game unskilled players utilize.
The opening minute tally was Jagr’s 751st career goal and the two assists put his career total at 1126. Put those two together and Jagr now has 1877 career points and needs 10 to tie Mark Messier as the NHL’s second leading all-time point producer. While three point games are rare Jagr seems to have a knack for melting deficits on the NHL’s scoring charts.
Lots of Jagr in Saturday’s highlight package from nhl.com detailing Florida’s 4-1 win at Ottawa.
https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/fla-vs-ott/2016/11/19/2016020265#game=2016020265,game_state=finalThe The TheT
The Panthers are 2-1-0 are their current road trip, which concludes Sunday at Madison Square Garden with a game against the New York Rangers. Jagr was captain of the Rangers during his run with the team and hold the club record for goals (54) and points (124).
The updated Jagr-0-Meter as the NHL heads into Thanksgiving week.
Due to technical problems we were unable to publish following the Panthers OT win in Montreal and their drubbing at Toronto.
Recap of Thurs. Nov. 17: Panthers at Toronto
https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/fla-vs-tor/2016/11/17/2016020247
Recap of Tues. Nov. 15: Panthers at Montreal
https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/fla-vs-mtl/2016/11/15/2016020234#game=2016020234
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