A Minor Move and Release of Season Schedule
The Florida Panthers today announced the signing of another depth centerman. 27-year old Jamie Johnson was signed to a one year deal. He comes previously from a stint in Finland with TPS Turku of the Finnish Elite League. Last year he played 42 games for the team and notched up 8 goals and 20 assists. Prior to his Finnish adventure, Jamie played in the AHL with the Albany River Rats, pacing the team with 59 points in 79 games played.
While this is a move to provide depth at center, it is likely that the 27-year old will see action in Rochester rather than in Sunrise. Sounds like a solid move for the AHL affiliate, but Panthers fans were not waiting for this piece of news. Rather, the news everyone wants to know/dreads to hear, is if the club have been successful in luring veteran winger Alex Tanguay to South Florida or not.
Meanwhile, the 2009/10 NHL schedule has been released. As was known for a while the first two games will be played in Helsinki, Finland, against the Chicago Blackhawks on October 2-3. The regular season then begins on October the 9th with a visit to Southeastern Division rivals Carolina in Raleigh. The following night the Cats will entertain the New Jersey Devils at the Bank Atlantic Center; which should be an interesting game!
The season will be concluded on April the 9th with Tampa Bay Lightning coming for a visit. That is, unless the Panthers manage to brake both the odds and habit – by qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Florida fans will be able to get a look at more teams from the Western Conference this year, seeing as they will now play each team in the league at least once. Colorado and Nashville will be the "select" two teams that the Cats will both meet twice from the west.
“This year’s schedule sets up fairly well for our team,” Panthers Assistant General Manager Randy Sexton said when commenting upon the news. “After returning from Europe, we have the opportunity to get some rest as we play just four games over a 16-day period in October. Additionally, we play five of our final eight games at the BankAtlantic Center, which could prove to be crucial in terms of playoff positioning,” Sexton also said.
However, playing teams in the playoff race at home during that last stretch may not be too much of an advantage. After all, the Panthers had a similar schedule this previous season and still managed to fumble and stumble over the finishing line – beaten barely by the woeful Habs.
For upbeat comments from Michael Yormak and a pitch of what the Panthers are offering pricewise, visit the Panthers official website, here you can also find the complete schedule.
I don’t like the international games in any sport. Why should a team’s loyal fans lose a game or too. I’ll really be pissed if the games aren’t on television.
One ESPN hockey ‘expert’ picked Florida 12th out of 15 in the East. I think its more likely to be 9 or 10. ESPN’s experts rarely give a good nod to Florida even when things are going well. Last year when Florida was playing mediocre and Tampa terribly early in the season, Burnside gave a higher grade to the Lightning. Go figure.
Why is Florida playing Nashville home and home for the second year in a row? With 15 western conference teams and every team having 3 home and homes every season with the other conference, Florida and Nashville shouldn’t do home and homre more than once every five years?
I’m not sure what is meant by those two teams being our “select” teams to play an extra game against and how that selection indeed is made. I can only guess that playing the Panthers and the Preds is seen as equally bad and that neither couldn’t find too many other teams interested in a re-match. There is also a possible geographical explanation I suppose as well as the Vokoun tie. But, the choice as Colorado as the other team to meet twice, actually makes less sense to me.