By Alan Tays

With the season not quite two months old, Ruslan Salei already is within four points of his career high of 19 set last season in Anaheim. His three goals are just two shy of his career high of five, set in 1997-98 and matched in 1999-00.

Those near-milestone numbers don't please the 32-year-old defenseman from Belarus too much.

"It's not what I want the focus being," Salei said Saturday. "I want to focus on the game we play, and we haven't been winning any games. That's the bottom line. I don't think my personal stats can be doing any good for a team that's still losing the game. It doesn't give me much excitement when we lose the game."

Salei has scored a point in nine of his past 11 games. With three goals and 12 assists for 15 points, he is the Panthers' highest-scoring defenseman.

"Rusty has good vision," said coach Jacques Martin, who has used Salei on the power play. Martin cited Salei's assist on Gary Roberts' second goal Friday night against Ottawa. Salei shot wide of the net and Roberts deflected the shot into the goal.

"I see that as a smart play from the defenseman," Martin said, noting that Salei recognized that he wasn't likely to score on a straight-on shot from the point. "A lot of times it's shooting for a tip-in or shooting to get a rebound. He's been good in that department."

"He's a real competitor," Roberts said. "Not playing against him much the last two years because of him being in Anaheim, you haven't had the opportunity to appreciate how good he is. He's a real solid player for us, a hard-nosed guy who takes the body every chance he can get."

Although Roberts appreciates a defenseman contributing to the offense, he thinks the forwards can do more to help out the blueliners.

"We haven't played as forwards good enough in front of our defense to make them even better, and that's what us forwards need to do," Roberts said. "We need to be a little better support for our D and in return that'll make the job a little easier for them getting us the puck."

Salei thinks the Panthers need to concentrate on improvement in three areas.

"We're doing some things better, some things not so much better," he said, "and we have to focus on those. I think we give up too many goals and I think we give up too many odd-man rushes and we turn the puck over too much. I think that's the area we should be working on."