Southbound and Down: Steaming into New York City ... Thursday: Florida Panthers @ New York Rangers ... Tomas Vokoun IN ... Results, Scoreboard Watch

AMTRAK ACELA EXPRESS TO NEW YORK CITY – Good morning from somewhere in Massachusetts. Boston would be in my rear view mirror, although these fast trains don't have mirrors so much as I can tell. I do know it's back there somewhere.

The Panthers returned to the scene of the crime for Wednesday's practice, taking to the Boston Garden ice before leaving for the Windy City – New York. ''Practice was uneventful,'' Pete DeBoer said. ''We're just moving forward.''

Rough night for the Sunrise Six last night, the team just not clicking from the get.

Thought that game was going to be a disaster early. The defense left Craig Anderson out to dry, but eventually he got things going and the Panthers looked to tie up the game at 2 in the second period. That never happened. Anderson got beat on a sweet deflection by fourth liner Byron Bitz to make it 3-1 and that was all she wrote.

Listen, the Panthers were due for a stinker and it may just turn out to be a good thing. They didn't lose much ground in the playoff dealio last night, so everyone can just relax. They get a good game in New York and all is well, once more, with the world.

-- Tomas Vokoun back in net Thursday against the Rangers. DeBoer says he doesn't blame Anderson for the first two goals last night, saying ''those were mental mistakes we made.'' He did say Anderson might have played better late in the game. ''The third, fourth goal. We need a save there.''

DeBoer says they haven't talked about what the goalie rotation for this weekend will be. Panthers play at New Jersey Saturday at 1, then Washington at 3 on Sunday. DeBoer did not rule out going with Vokoun in both.

''We're in playoff mode,'' he said. ''We're going to go with whatever guy we think can get us the win.''

-- Today's Florida Lynx:

* David J. Neal talks trade deadline.

* Panthers get beat by Red Sox 6-1 on Mike Lowell's seventh inning grand slam at Fenway

-- Planing on checking out Stan Van Gundy's Orland Magic tonight at the Garden. The Van Gundys stunk it up against the Bulls last night in O-Town, so we should see a pretty inspired bunch tonight. Should be fun. Haven't been to a Knickerbockers game in the Garden since hot dogs cost a nickel!

-- Good to see old buddy Cory Murphy pot a pair of goals last night in Calgary.

-- Tuesday's Scores (and how they affected the Panthers): Anaheim helped out the Floridians by winning 3-2 in Buffalo; Panthers and Bison still tied for seventh with 68 points. Ottawa helped keep Carolina down with a 4-2 win in Kanata. On the flip side, Philly moved two points away with a win over Washington, and Montreal got a big win at home over the Luongos.

-- Today's Games (and who the Panthers would be rooting for if they weren't all taking in Broadway shows tonight)

Kings @ Flyers, 7: Florida needs the Flyers to lose here or Philly picks up another two and leads by seven.

Sharks @ Wings, 7:30: No playoff implications here, but a darned good matchup. I like the Wings. You know this.

Rangers @ Leafs, 7:30: The Leafs are the Panthers of old, as in, an embattled coach loses to the Leafs and gets canned. Tom Renney's last game as coach of the Blueshirts came Sunday, an overtime loss to the Leaves. Tonight marks the debut of one John 'John' Tortorella behind the New Yawk bench. Panthers are a point behind the Rangers, so they should root on the Leafs. Not telling them what to do, just suggesting.

Isles @ Pens, 7:30: The Isles have 42 points, by far the fewest in the league. That said, the Panthers would like to see them get two more tonight. Penguins are four points back of the Cats. Florida would like to keep it that way.

The Standings (presented by Amtrak and Spam-a-Lot; courtesy of TSN.ca/nhl)

Eastern
Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	Last 10	Streak
1	Boston	61	41	12	8	90	206	138	20-4-4	21-8-4	4-4-2	Won 1
2	Washington	61	38	18	5	81	203	176	24-6-1	14-12-4	6-3-1	Lost 1
3	New Jersey	60	38	19	3	79	182	151	19-10-1	19-9-2	6-4-0	Lost 1
4	Philadelphia	58	32	17	9	73	193	171	17-8-3	15-9-6	6-4-0	Won 1
5	Montreal	61	32	22	7	71	187	184	19-6-4	13-16-3	3-6-1	Won 2
6	NY Rangers	61	31	23	7	69	151	170	18-9-4	13-14-3	2-5-3	Lost 2
7	Florida	60	30	22	8	68	167	165	17-8-5	13-14-3	6-4-0	Lost 1
8	Buffalo	61	31	24	6	68	181	171	17-12-2	14-12-4	5-4-1	Lost 1
9	Carolina	62	31	26	5	67	164	180	16-13-1	15-13-4	6-4-0	Lost 1
10	Pittsburgh	61	29	26	6	64	185	191	16-12-2	13-14-4	5-4-1	Lost 1
11	Toronto	60	22	26	12	56	180	219	10-11-8	12-15-4	3-3-4	Won 1
12	Ottawa	59	23	27	9	55	148	170	13-10-5	10-17-4	6-2-2	Won 1
13	Tampa Bay	61	20	29	12	52	155	196	11-12-8	9-17-4	3-5-2	Lost 1
14	Atlanta	61	22	33	6	50	180	214	10-17-2	12-16-4	5-4-1	Won 1
15	NY Islanders	59	18	35	6	42	144	198	12-13-4	6-22-2	3-6-1	Won 1
Western
Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	Last 10	Streak
1	San Jose	58	41	8	9	91	200	140	26-2-3	15-6-6	5-1-4	Won 4
2	Detroit	60	39	13	8	86	228	177	22-4-3	17-9-5	7-2-1	Lost 1
3	Calgary	60	36	18	6	78	191	174	21-7-4	15-11-2	6-2-2	Won 3
4	Chicago	59	34	17	8	76	197	148	15-5-5	19-12-3	6-4-0	Lost 2
5	Vancouver	60	30	22	8	68	181	173	14-11-4	16-11-4	8-2-0	Lost 1
6	Columbus	61	30	25	6	66	166	173	19-10-2	11-15-4	6-3-1	Lost 2
7	Minnesota	59	30	24	5	65	152	137	18-11-5	12-13-0	5-3-2	Lost 1
8	Dallas	59	29	23	7	65	174	180	17-9-4	12-14-3	5-5-0	Lost 2
9	Edmonton	60	30	25	5	65	170	185	14-11-4	16-14-1	5-3-2	Won 1
10	Anaheim	62	30	27	5	65	176	179	15-13-3	15-14-2	5-5-0	Won 2
11	Nashville	61	29	28	4	62	147	171	17-11-2	12-17-2	5-4-1	Won 2
12	Los Angeles	59	26	24	9	61	157	171	13-13-8	13-11-1	5-3-2	Won 1
13	St. Louis	60	26	26	8	60	167	179	16-11-5	10-15-3	5-2-3	Won 1
14	Phoenix	61	27	29	5	59	157	186	17-12-2	10-17-3	3-7-0	Lost 1
15	Colorado	61	28	32	1	57	168	190	17-14-0	11-18-1	4-6-0	Lost 2

Comments

[jh]

tsn.ca standings translate better on site GR. Great update, thx so much from us diehards.

BTW 30th anniversary of Potvins vicious hit on Niilson tommorow, look for lotsa creative chants on our color man.