Panthers Open Season With No Expectations
Seriously, they might be better this year. We mean it this time.
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Like lambs to the slaughter.
Seized with hockey fever in advance of the Florida Panthers' season opener against Chicago tomorrow (it's in Finland, so you can stop thinking about maybe considering going, and then not going, which is what you do, South Florida), we took to the Internet to see what they were saying about our beloved Cats.
The fervor is all ours, according to Yahoo! Sports:
The Panthers hope to begin the season the way they finished last year, when they surged from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to fall just short of the playoffs, missing the postseason by just one point.
Hmmm. Perhaps a more creative approach, like the season preview haikus over at Two Line Pass, will set the bar a little higher.
grown cats though they are,
bereft of both claw and tooth
playful kittens mew
No claw or tooth? Bleak. Blogosphere staple Melt Your Face Off wasn't any more encouraging about our offseason moves:
He was a free agent, at the age of 32, was looking to avoid the KHL and stay in the States...all well and good except for one key fact: I thought Radek Dvorak has been a Florida Panther his entire career.
Then they filled up the rest of their preview with a Banana Man sighting at BankAtlantic from November of '07, which is something people only do with they're filled with apathy about their subject.
We would never.
Just kidding!
The truth is, the Panthers really should improve this season in spite of losing stellar defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and the low expectations of outsiders. Pete DeBoer is heading into his second season as head coach after the team's -- "turnaround" isn't quite the word, but the second half of the '08-'09 season really was better.
“We need to play like we did then in order to make the playoffs,” he said. “The reason for a slow start last season was partly a new coach, me, a new system I was putting in and getting to know the personnel."
Those personnel are largely young, well-drafted, and full of potential, like solid first-round pick Dmitry Kulikov and goal-getting Michael "Baby Jagr" Frolik. They'll be pushing a mix of cagey vets like leading scorer David Booth, who's handy if under the radar; new backup goalie and letter E-hogger Scott Clemmensen, who'll be useful helping Tomas Vokun face more shots than anyone else in the NHL; and steady defensemen Jordan Leopold and Keith Ballard.
And if the season does go better (how could it get worse?), perhaps Stanley C. Panther could stop doing "The Price is Right" and get a respectable gig, like falling from space to rampage Anchorage. Even the UAF Nanook is doing that, and he's a college mascot.
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Posted Thursday, Oct 1, 2009 - 5:36 PM EST
