"If moral victories were awarded the Panthers would be 2-0. But they're not and the Panthers are off to their first 0-2 start since the 2007-08 season after losing 2-1 Monday to the star-studded Vancouver Canucks behind two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Roberto Luongo. Luongo, 31, who led Canada to a gold medal in the Winter Olympics last Februray, seems to get up for his former team (2000-01 to 2005-06) as he outdueled Panthers counterpart Tomas Vokoun to improve to 4-0-1 against Florida after stopping 41 shots. Vokoun, 34, no slouch himself who led the Czech Republic to a World Championships in Germany last summer, made several spectacular saves, but gave up two rebound goals by Daniel Sedin, the latter the game-winner with 5:08 left in the third. Sedin scored 29 goals last season. "We strung together six real good periods, creating chances. This is a real trap game with them waiting fresh and us playing in back-to-back situations,'' Panthers coach Pete DeBoer said. "We competed for 60 minutes. We could easliy be sitting here 2-0 right now. I know that doesn't make anyone feel any better, but that's the truth of it.'' A night after dominating the lowly Edmonton Oilers in every category except the scoreboard, the Panthers came up against an angry bunch of Canucks, coming off a season-opening 2-1 shootout loss amidst a raucous 40th anniversary pregame ceremony. They came out throwing crunching checks and outthit the Panthers 23-11. While the Panthers ended up with a 42-35 shot advantage, including 19-12 in a desperate third period, the defense-minded Canucks blocked an astounding 25 shots." http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...anthers-canucks-1012-20101012,0,5557749.story
