As Luongo sits injured, Reimer has picked up game
In back-to-back games this week, Florida Panthers goaltender James Reimer finally resembled the goalie the franchise thought it signed last summer to a five-year contract.
In an overtime win over Detroit on Monday, Reimer stopped 34 of 35 shots. In an overtime loss to Chicago on Tuesday, he stopped 25 of 28. The uptick was a far cry from his opening two months, when he carried a .888 save percentage into the current five-game road trip.
With Roberto Luongo out an extended period of time (lower-body injury), Reimer will carry Florida’s playoff hopes.
“He realizes that we have no other option,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said on a teleconference Wednesday. “It’s Louie and him. Obviously, [Harri] Sateri is a quality goaltender, but he doesn’t have a lot of experience. [Reimer] knows he needs to be good and step it up, and help this team get where we need to be. He’s certainly done that in the last couple games.”
Boughner reiterated that Luongo’s absence would be long-term, but didn’t put a number on the weeks he’d miss.
“With goalies, especially lower-body injuries, we want to make sure that we’re giving him all the time in the world to make sure he comes back as confident and 100 percent,” Boughner said. “We don’t want to bring him back at 85, 90 percent. We got to make sure he’s ready.”
This spell is Reimer’s second this season as Florida’s No. 1 goalie. In October, Luongo hurt his right hand when Pittsburgh’s Conor Sheary pinned it against the goalpost. Luongo missed two weeks and six games. The Panthers went 2-3-1 as Reimer posted a .894 save percentage.
Florida picked up veteran goalie Antti Niemi to back up Reimer in late October, then waived him Nov. 13 after he played two games. But the team hasn’t made a move since Luongo’s injury Dec. 4. Sateri has never played an NHL game.
Boughner said General Manager Dale Tallon has been browsing the goalie trade market.
“I know Dale and his team of guys have been talking and getting feelers out and things like that,” Boughner said. “It’s more for us about having depth at that position and it’s not easy. No one’s giving those kind of guys away for free. It’s something that’s got to come together. It’s got to be perfect timing for both parties.”
Malgin update
Boughner said Denis Malgin was day-to-day with an upper-body injury and could return tonight. The 5-foot-9 Malgin left Tuesday’s game in Chicago just 4:16 into the first period after being hit by 6-4 defenseman Connor Murphy.
Boughner said he did not think the hit — nor the one the Panthers’ Connor Brickley put on the Blackhawks’ Jan Rutta — was dirty.
“I watched that over and over, that one [on Malgin],” Boughner said. “It didn’t look dirty to me. Obviously, a bigger guy hitting a smaller guy and that’s where his head lines up. Even the Brickley hit, I looked at that one. I know their guy left the game, but he came across ice, shoulder to shoulder.
“It’s tough to be able to deliver a hit and also make sure that you’re not getting any part of the head when you’re going in shoulder first. I think the obvious ones, [the league is] doing a good job calling. I think both those are probably good non-calls.”
Vrbata scratched
As Evgenii Dadonov made his return to the lineup quicker than expected from a shoulder injury, veteran Radim Vrbata was a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
Vrbata, 36, has scored in just one of his 25 games this season.