The Panthers may have dropped their seventh consecutive game last night, but that's just another day in Sunrise, and we'll guess no one really paid attention anyway: all eyes are on this afternoon's 3 p.m. trade deadline, and all elbows ready for tonight's certain slugfest.
The Panthers meet up a second time with the team that all but derailed their season when Philly captain Mike Richards laid out David Booth in a horrifying, life-threatening, entirely unnecessary shot to the head back on October 24. The hit left the team's returning leading scorer sidelined for a whopping 45 games with ongoing concussion symptoms, something the shallow Cats could ill afford, and left many asking why the NHL bothers to protect players' heads with high-sticking rule if it won't disallow direct contact to the noggin.
(Answers: there are none.)
Head shots may not be illegal -- after all, this is a sport that actually gives an award to players for not dying -- but they are a delicious excuse for revenge. Booth's teammates got their goon on back in December when they next saw Philly and four minutes into the game Richards was on his back on the ice ("That's why Bryan McCabe is our captain," said Pete DeBoer, to our delight).
This time, however, our dinged-up winger himself will be on the ice, and he'll probably have a little something to say to Richards -- at least, we hope so, because that putrid Panthers offense certainly isn't a reason to tune in.
And how much longer will the defense be intact? Trade rumors place Tomas Vokoun possibly up for grabs today as the Panthers retool their roster; one of the best goalies in hockey on a good day, it definitely won't be easy to see him go if indeed the team asks him to waive his no-trade clause. But that's life in the basement, we suppose, so if management decides to hold a fire sale before the playoffs bell tolls, at least we'll see them go down swinging.
Sports
[Update: so far, only Dennis Seidenberg has been traded along with a prospect to the Bruins for two forwards and a draft pick.]
Janie Campbell is a Florida native who believes in the pro-set and ballpark hot dogs. Her work has appeared in irreverent sports sites around the internet.
