Three takeaways: Trio of Panthers deserves praise in 8-7 preseason loss, as does the crowd

What started as an exciting exhibition match between two rival franchises turned into a wild and crazy goal-fest in Orlando on Wednesday night.

The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning played a neutral-site preseason game for the second year in a row at the Kia Center, home of the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears.

Florida and Tampa played a tight game for forty minutes, with the score tied at three, but then came the third period.

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Jonas Johansson stayed in goal for the Bolts while Ken Appleby replaced Chris Dredger in the Florida net, and the goal combined for nine goals from 22 shots, with several goals as ugly as the stat you just read.

Ultimately, it is a preseason game where many young players are trying to show that they are improving and working toward an NHL job.

Let’s look at the takeaways from Florida’s loss in Mousetown, USA.

UNIQUE PUT IT BEAUTIFULLY

It wasn’t just the number of goals scored.

Some of them were strange, some were impossible to stop, and some were just plain bad.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen an exhibition game like that,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “I mean, there were as many goals as there were completed passes.”

MO POINTS OUT A COUPLE OF BOYS

Whether it is a practice match or in the middle of the regular season, a match like this usually gets a one-off treatment.

Unless someone goes out and organizes a four-goal match or something like that, you probably won’t hear the coaches singing anyone’s praises.

That’s why it was nice to hear Maurice mention a few players for positive reasons afterwards.

“There were some things I liked,” he said, “Wilmer Skoog had a nice game for us, and I’m still getting to know some of these young guys and what they can do. I liked Uvis Balinskis tonight. For some guys I don’t look at their decisions, they don’t know them yet, I just look at their fight and their competition. I thought Uvis played like a National League player tonight. I think Jonah Gadjovich found a way there to play a positionally perfect game and completed his checks. So there were some good things,”

GREAT ORLANDO CROWD

It may have been a preseason game with a handful of NHL regulars, but that didn’t stop a large crowd from filling the Kia Center and cheering on their Florida hockey clubs.

There was a solid mix of Panthers and Lightning fans, and boy were they entertained.

“It was loud,” Maurice said. “It was so loud we couldn’t talk on the couch, but it was good. The audience was looking forward to it.”

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