POSTCARD: Gudas checks in from Toronto

Hey Panthers fans,
With eight games left, everybody in the room is ready for this push.
We're all excited about this opportunity ahead of us. I think the group is pretty confident in ourselves with the way we can play and have been pushing since Christmas. We know that the opportunity is there for us to make up the ground that we've lost over these last few games.

We've been a much different team since December. I think we figured out the way we need to be playing to be successful. We're learning the hard way of playing hockey -- playing the right way and playing on the right side of the puck. We're not giving up odd-man opportunities as much.
It's about being in the right spots and the smart spots throughout most of the games. I think it took us a little bit to figure out how we needed to play at the beginning of the season, but we figured it out early enough for us still make this push and try and squeeze into the playoffs.
I think one of the main reasons we're in the wild-card race right now has been Gustav Forsling. It's very fun to have him on the team performing like this, seeing him doing well. Having been here for every season he's been here, it's been really fun for me to see him develop this much.
His progression is a good sign for us as a group. He's evolving into a great defensemen. He's up there in the rush. He's got a great stick. His feet are unbelievable. I don't think anybody's beaten him wide this year. It's been fun to watch. He's one of the cornerstones of our whole defense.

His toughness is also underrated. He's one of the warriors on our team. He blocks a lot of big shots. He's on the first PK. He's usually on the left side where the shooters are, so he blocks a lot from right there. He's not afraid to take a hit, to make a play. He does all the right things.
Everybody is looking at one game at a time. We want to make the right step the next game. It's very precious, the time that we have. Everything matters right now. Everyone is very focused in the room. This is our last long road trip of the season. This is where we need to make our stand.
Going into tough buildings on the road, it's always hard to play. But we're confident that if we play like we did for the most of the second part of the season, we can play with anybody and we can make the game tilt in our favor. We can shut down anybody and we can score some goals.
We have great chemistry as a group, so we enjoy these road trips. We hang out together all of the time. Guys have the same interest, so we've got lots of big groups. We do stuff together every day. There's close friendships throughout the lineup, so it's a fun group to be a part of.
But as a group, our only focus is on tomorrow and getting off to a good start against Toronto.
See you back in South Florida,
Radko Gudas
\As told to FloridaPanthers.com's Jameson Olive*