The Los Angeles Panthers fooled a lot of people into thinking that their era of dominance from two seasons ago was going to be all the way back after a preseason that saw them go undefeated. Now this is not saying that the Panthers had a bad season as it was objectively very good since they won almost two-thirds of their games. So really their era of dominance is still rolling as they performed exceptionally well last season too, finishing 3rd in the league and right behind the San Francisco pride. That being said, this season, they are playing second fiddle in terms of best Cat-based team in California that plays in the Pacific Division once again, but the gap between the two teams has increased. San Francisco finished 13 points higher than them in the standings, but the good news for the Panthers is that the rest of the Pacific Division was having an off year as well as they will face Calgary in the first round. With this being their third straight season with a top 5 league wide finish, many are wondering if the Panthers will be able to capitalize on their strong players and increasing chemistry.

When the chips have been down this season, there have been plenty of players stepping up to play hero, but it is Derek Martin who has been finding the back of the net in clutch situations as he leads the team in game winning goals. That being said, Prpich and Piastri are right behind him with 6 a piece and a shocking 5 are also coming from the big stick at the blue line Georg N’Zola. N’Zola has been a revelation this season for the Panthers, playing both ends of the ice extremely well with 22 goals, 35 assists for 57 points, a +25 plus/minus, 251 shots (which is third on the team, a team leading 179 blocks and 48 takeaways with the highest Average Time on Ice of the team at 23:30. The one area of N’Zola’s game that we can be worried about is their team leading 71 minutes of penalties. Now, I am contractually obligated to mention Adam Prpich when it comes to LAP and, while the former MVP has not led the league in terms of point production, a 100 point season is nothing to scoff at and we can fully expect this veteran to be leading the Panthers in the playoffs. Bear in mind that this team won the cup not too long ago and top 5 in the league is a prime striking point for the team to make a run in the playoffs. Unfortunately for them, should they come out of the first round, they will likely have to face their California Cat rivals in the Pride. That should be a very entertaining matchup should it come to pass as the Pride have looked great all season, and they have had the Panthers’ number in the regular season series. Can the Panthers solve the Pride?

So how can a team (like Calgary) hope to beat the LA Panthers? Well for Calgary specifically, I would hone in on the fact the Calgary kid unit of Frøya Solberg, Sonja Solberg, Ryland Murphy, Oranj Kohne, and Kaarlo Koivunen are playing exceptionally well. What is more is that this unit can be deployed anywhere in their rotation. I would look to try and surprise the Panthers with where the kid unit is placed and keep them guessing. Even then, I think Calgary will be fighting a very much uphill battle against the Panthers since the Panthers 5 players with as many or more points than the leading scorer for the Dragons and the Panthers have an overbearing playing style that allows them to dictate the pace of play. I will just say that in general the best thing that a team can do against the Panthers is just get pucks on net. Grzegorz has been great for the Panthers, but not invincible. He has let in 3.07 goals per game and only has one shutout on the year. Now, a lot of his not stellar win record can be attributed to the fact that his backup in Stun Gun had a few more of the easier match ups, but a win/loss ratio of less than 3:2 in your starter going into the playoffs is not what you want. So I would say use speed to get pucks deep and on net.

Now for the Silly ways to try and beat the Panthers:
Bring a ball of yarn and see if it takes.
For Adam, see if you can distract him with a picture of a cute dog
For Georg N’Zola, try dangling a letter “e” in behind him to mess with the spelling of his first name.
For Evan Winter, bribe a groundhog to not see his shadow and get that season out of here.
For the team as a whole, I would try to distract those from LA with all the annoying influencers that have taken over that town.

Of course, the Panthers are heavily favored in their first round match up, but we have seen crazy upsets in the past. Will this season give us another one? For the Panthers and their fans, the hope is very much in the no category (at least for the first round). If they can power through the Pride, I think they will very much like their chances to win the whole thing for the second time in three seasons. But we are getting ahead of ourselves and the Panthers cannot just overlook the Dragons as opponents. Tune in to the exciting first round tonight!

Until next time, dear readers!





WC: 954