Time to Call Rochester

The Florida Panthers need to make a goaltending change. Although Tomas Vokoun started the season out very well, including back to back shutouts, he has been leaving much to be desired as of late. 

True, you can't blame it all on him, the defense has been lackluster and the offense hasn't been filling the net as much as they would like either but when looking at the Panthers, the core players are all still pretty young and it would be more beneficial to have a goalie behind them that can learn this year and grow with the team.

The Cats are currently sitting in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, tied with Toronto with 20 points and only 2 points ahead of the 14th place Devils. They are 3-7-0 in their last ten games and have had a few games where they have had the lead going into the third only to lose the game in regulation instead of taking it to overtime to at least get one point out of it. Although you could probably put the brunt of the blame on the team in front of him, or even on the coach for running a lousy system, the fact of the matter is that Vokoun has been letting up some weak goals as well and that is one of the most demoralizing things to see as a player. I think it's about time Dale Tallon brought up young goalie Jacob Markstrom to get him some NHL game time this season. At least if he makes mistakes they can be forgiven.

I'm not saying they should throw the towel in on this season, but it doesn't look like they're going to make the playoffs (pretty sad to be able to say that just 24 games in, but hey, what can you do) and I would rather this team get comfortable in front of Markstrom as soon as possible, after all Vokoun is going to be gone after next year (if not sooner) for sure. I'm not saying throw Markstrom the starting job, but insert him into the lineup every now and then to get him comfortable in the NHL game as soon as possible. After all, they would still need to move either Vokoun or Clemmensen (I would rather it be Vokoun) before Jacob can claim the crease, but that should be done sooner rather than later. Much like the Flyers, Sabres, Blackhawks, etc... the Panthers should be getting their goalie of the future some starts this year, and I would like to see it happen very soon.