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You can’t stop Jason Garrison from dropping blue line bombs

Florida Panthers v Ottawa Senators

OTTAWA, CANADA - OCTOBER 27: Jason Garrison #52 of the Florida Panthers fires a slapshot from the top of the circle to score a goal against the Ottawa Senators during a game at Scotiabank Place on October 27, 2011 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Phillip MacCallum/Getty Images)

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If you were to ask who the blue liner was this season with the most goals and the most terrifying shot to handle from the blue line you might hear names like Sheldon Souray or Sami Salo. Those are good guesses, but they’re not right. Welcome Jason Garrison to the party of guys with big shots putting fear into goalies.

Garrison is the Panthers defenseman who took the defenseman goal scoring lead last night with his seventh goal of the year in a 6-0 rout of Dallas. Seeing Garrison and Souray in the same game meant that both Kari Lehtonen and Scott Clemmensen had to be on their toes, but it would be Lehtonen seeing the full fury of Garrison’s work.

Garrison is evoking thoughts of big boomers of days gone by like Al Iafrate or Al MacInnis, but unlike Iafrate and more like MacInnis, when Garrison’s shot finds the mark he’s finding the back of the net.

Out of nowhere, Garrison has become one of Florida’s best defensemen and seeing him team up with Brian Campbell on the point on power plays is helping the Panthers become a lethal unit on the man advantage. Three of Garrison’s seven goals are on the power play after all.

Craziest stat of them all for Garrison? His seven goals this year equal the number of goals he’s had in his career before this season. If you’re going to break out, you might as well go big and the same could be said of the long dormant Panthers.