Searching for Answers in the ATL ... Thursday: Florida Panthers @ Atlanta Thrashers

ATLANTA -- Greetings from the Peachtree City, or whatever the heck Atlanta is called. It's a glorious day here, the sun shining, just a hint of a breeze.

Went out for a nice walk, although I doubt I put a dent in the BBQ that Steve X. and myself threw down for lunch. On the bright side, I probably won't eat dinner.

Well, that's probably not true either.

This could and very well just may be the final road game of the 2008-09 season for your Florida Panthers. The team took today off and will return to the ice Thursday morning at Philips Arena just blocks from the team hotel, the world's biggest aquarium and the World of Snapple.

-- Spoke with coach Pete DeBoer today and he continues to contend that if the Panthers win their final two games, they'll be a participant in Lord Stanley's postseason.

"I feel the same as I did last night,'' DeBo said. ''

If we win lthe last two, we'll get in. I don't know how. I don't know who is going to lose.''

DeBo said he doesn't know who is going to play in net tomorrow night, and I asked if him debating this at this time of year means he's not real high on Tomas Vokoun. He said don't read too much into it.

"It's not about individual play,'' he said. ''I've said this for weeks; It's about getting wins. We have to be better than the guy at the other end at all positions. I'm not saying I will or won't go with him. I just want to think about it for 24 hours. It's just like D pairings, line combos.''

On last night's game:

"That was a high power team with a lot at stake. We went in there and executed our gameplan to perfection. Smothered them for long period of time, created some chances. Did a lot of things right. Ninty-eight out of 100 game like that, you get rewarded with points. We didn't. I'm not going to make wholesale changes.''

-- DeBo also said the Kamil Kreps should be OK for tomorrow as long as his flu bug was of the 24 hour variety. Says Kreps got through yesterday's morning skate, but got worse as the day went on and that's why he couldn't go.

-- Uh oh, there's some competition in the Florida Panthers online webophere (is that a word? I don't think so, but I like it.) One Michael Yormark now has his own blog on the Panthers website, giving a little insight into the business doings of the hockey team down at One Panther Parkway.

Now, I don't expect him to reciprocate and link to this side of the web for various -- and obvious -- reasons, but I invite you to head down to Sunrise via the internet and see what Mr. Yormark has to say. Enjoy.

-- Tuesday's Games (and how they affected the Panthers): Well, the Rangers took care of the Canadiens and that may turn out to be good for the Panthers. Actually, who knows. The Panthers losing in Philadelphia kind of messed everything up for them, although there is a chance. Florida just needs to win out and Montreal can't get another point and the Rangers can only get one.

-- Wednesday's Games (and who the Panthers would be rooting for if they weren't playing Frisbee at Olympic Park)

Sabres @ Maple Leafs: Panthers don't need any more complications. Buffalo losing would be one less thing to worry about. If they're worried about Buffalo at all.

-- The Standings (presented by Fat Matt's BBQ in Atlanta and courtesy of TSN.ca)

Eastern
Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	Last 10	Streak
1	y-Boston	79	51	18	10	112	262	184	28-6-6	23-12-4	7-2-1	Lost 1
2	y-Washington	80	49	23	8	106	264	236	29-9-3	20-14-5	6-2-2	Won 2
3	x-New Jersey	80	49	27	4	102	238	205	27-12-1	22-15-3	3-6-1	Lost 1
4	x-Philadelphia	79	43	25	11	97	257	230	24-12-4	19-13-7	6-3-1	Won 1
5	x-Carolina	80	45	28	7	97	236	218	26-13-1	19-15-6	9-0-1	Won 9
6	x-Pittsburgh	80	43	28	9	95	255	237	24-13-3	19-15-6	7-2-1	Won 1
7	Montreal	80	41	29	10	92	244	239	24-9-7	17-20-3	5-4-1	Lost 2
8	NY Rangers	80	41	30	9	91	204	214	25-11-4	16-19-5	5-4-1	Won 1
9	Florida	80	39	30	11	89	224	225	21-12-7	18-18-4	5-4-1	Lost 1
10	Buffalo	79	38	32	9	85	236	231	22-15-3	16-17-6	4-5-1	Lost 2
11	Ottawa	80	36	34	10	82	213	229	22-12-6	14-22-4	6-4-0	Won 3
12	Toronto	80	33	34	13	79	244	288	15-15-9	18-19-4	5-5-0	Won 1
13	Atlanta	80	34	40	6	74	249	275	17-20-2	17-20-4	5-5-0	Lost 2
14	Tampa Bay	80	24	38	18	66	206	269	12-17-11	12-21-7	1-6-3	Lost 7
15	NY Islanders	79	26	44	9	61	196	264	17-16-6	9-28-3	3-6-1	Lost 1
Western
Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	Last 10	Streak
1	y-San Jose	80	53	16	11	117	253	196	32-4-4	21-12-7	7-2-1	Won 2
2	y-Detroit	79	51	19	9	111	290	233	27-8-4	24-11-5	6-4-0	Won 2
3	x-Calgary	80	45	29	6	96	249	242	26-10-4	19-19-2	4-6-0	Lost 1
4	x-Chicago	79	44	24	11	99	254	210	23-9-7	21-15-4	7-2-1	Won 4
5	x-Vancouver	80	43	27	10	96	244	220	23-12-5	20-15-5	5-4-1	Won 1
6	Columbus	79	40	29	10	90	218	218	25-12-3	15-17-7	4-2-4	Lost 2
7	Anaheim	80	41	33	6	88	237	230	19-18-3	22-15-3	8-2-0	Lost 1
8	St. Louis	80	39	31	10	88	229	232	22-13-5	17-18-5	7-2-1	Won 1
9	Nashville	80	39	33	8	86	205	222	24-13-4	15-20-4	4-3-3	Lost 1
10	Minnesota	80	38	33	9	85	205	193	22-11-7	16-22-2	5-4-1	Won 1
11	Edmonton	80	37	34	9	83	228	243	17-17-6	20-17-3	3-7-0	Lost 1
12	Dallas	80	35	35	10	80	224	251	20-16-5	15-19-5	2-6-2	Lost 1
13	Los Angeles	80	33	36	11	77	203	230	17-15-8	16-21-3	3-6-1	Won 1
14	Phoenix	80	34	39	7	75	199	247	22-15-3	12-24-4	5-4-1	Lost 2
15	Colorado	79	32	44	3	67	197	252	18-20-0	14-24-3	1-7-2	Lost 1