Roblogg’s Panthers Portal

First off: I don’t mean to insult Disney or their first rate entertainment business by comparing them to possibly the worst run sports franchise in North America; the Florida Panthers.

But, quite frankly, it’s hard not to make the link—if only on a tongue-in-cheek derisive level.

Whilst there might be a couple of other strong contenders for the dubious honor of being the worst sports franchise in North America, hidden among the other continental underachievers in pro sports, there really is no competition within the National Hockey League itself.

Ten years without a playoff in South Florida is twice as much as the also long-suffering Toronto Maple Leaf fans have had to wait. Not even perennial deadweights such as NY Islanders or Atlanta Thrashers come close to being as dreadful as our beloved Cats.

Thus, it is no wonder that a certain popular rodent comes to mind when trying to find words for how poor and dysfunctional this “Mickey Mouse organization” of a hockey franchise really is.

Putting the team logo in the urinals for everyone to take a piss on was the low point for sure. But the theatrics of showering the home sides’ players with confetti, as if they had just won the Stanley Cup, after in fact just having lost the final game of the season—to cross-state rivals Tampa Bay Lightning no less—really isn’t that far behind in sheer and utter lack of class and respect toward the players and fans alike.

Sometimes one wonders why one even bothers at all?

Why do Panthers fans still come out regularly to watch the increasingly sorry spectacle that is Panthers hockey?

I honestly don’t know anymore. All I can come up with is that just as when you are in love you can’t quite explain why either and no matter how hard things get—you still can’t stop caring about the one you adore. And to keep on cheering for the Florida Panthers sure does take a lot of love; because the rewards simply are nonexistent otherwise.

Ending the season with the league’s third worst record is, or at least shouldn’t be, a surprise to anyone. Except, apparently, the CEO (Michael Yormark), General Manager (Randy Sexton), and Head Coach (Peter DeBoer), who all prior to the season commenced sounded very optimistic about our chances of being a “competitive team” in the NHL.

One can only hope this was simply more hogwash of the empty brand of PR talk that the Panthers fans have had to get used to over the years, and that they really didn’t believe that drivel themselves. If they really did, that should—in itself—be a valid ground for them being axed from their respective positions.

To quote the big headed queen of Alice in Wonderland: “Off with their heads!”

And the really sad thing is, instead of realizing the mess the club was in, prior to the commencement of the season, and thus blooding the clubs burgeoning youth movement in the big league—like the Islanders and Avalanche have done with some measure of success—the organization instead went with the strategy of signing a few low-end veteran free agents to cheap one-year deals.

This wasn’t a complete waste of space, however, as these players fetched a couple of second round picks at the trade deadline.

A complete waste of space on the roster though was the team’s entire third and fourth lines. Players like Rostislav Olesz, Gregory Campbell, Kamil Kreps, Nick Tarnasky and Radek Dvorak were utterly unable to either check the top lines of opposing teams or generate any consistent secondary scoring for the Panthers.

Subsequently their combined role on the team was reduced to blocking shots of opponents that gleefully took the opportunity to park their bus in the Panthers’ zone meanwhile. Their only other usefulness was to give the top two lines, eh, who am I kidding—the top line, some time to rest between extended shifts.

What is mind-boggling here is that neither the General Manager (Sexton), nor Head Coach (DeBoer), did anything to try and jumpstart these under-performing and well paid players.

No one was held accountable and made a healthy scratch for a period of time. No one was traded. And only poor Ville Koistinen (defenseman playing out of position as a forward) was waived and sent down to the minors.

All the while these so called character guy’s of the Cats were eating up valuable icetime that could—and should—have been given to some up and coming young talents instead.

These promising rookies, stuck for the most part in Rochester of the AHL, could have been cultured and formed from the know-how of playing a year at the NHL level. This experience probably would have speeded up their learning curve drastically as well.

At the end of the day these young players would almost certainly have found it hard to do any worse than the current load of dead weights and freeloaders that embarrassingly whimpered out with the season and finished third from the bottom of the standings.

So, yet again, the story at the end of the day is that the fans are left scratching their collective heads at confounding and confusing—if not downright shoddy and cheap—promotional, managerial, and coaching decisions.

And what could possibly be worse than to cheer for a perennial loser?

Well, believe it or not, but it just got worse for many Panthers fans.

In recent years we have been able to draw some sadistic solace from the fact that there actually was a worse run organization—just across state—in form of the shambolic Bolts.

Sadly for us that is no longer the case. After all, it’s sad to be alone—whilst all the merrier of course for the people on the West Coast of Florida.

Tampa Bay has had the good fortune of getting a real businessman at the helm of the franchise in Jeff Vinik. He knew, probably with a quick glance, that the organization—in order to be successful—needed to be torn down and rebuilt from its shaky foundations and up.

Thus, the Head Coach and General Manager were fired the day after the conclusion of their season. He will now appoint a new CEO who’ll appoint his preferred General Manager; who in turn will appoint a new Head Coach.

Meanwhile, the new majority owners of the Florida Panthers, Stu Siegel and Cliff Viner, are literally paralyzed and have done nothing of importance to change the losing culture at the club so far. Rather, they seem to be sitting back and are currently “digesting the season”.

If anything, their damning letter about the players’ performance prior to the transfer deadline only helped to heap more misery on the club and create an atmosphere where the players no longer seemed to play for the pride of the jersey that they wore.

While probably well-intentioned, attempting to be open and honest with the fanbase, the move was at best naïve and counterproductive.

Hence, we now find ourselves in the sickening position of being the laughing stock of the entire NHL—for the ninth consecutive season—and the only remaining Mickey Mouse organization, not only of the state, but of the entire National Hockey League.

Until a string of hapless owners face up to this situation; get their combined thumbs out of their respective rear ends, and get to work on reshaping this franchise from the foundations and up—just like Tampa Bay is currently doing—there is no light at the end of this Florida tunnel of hockey gloom.

What is truly amazing, and often overlooked in this whole muddled situation, is that the franchise actually has a very loyal following of fans. Not even storied franchises like Pittsburgh, Edmonton, Washington, or Chicago, when they were respectively lodged bottom of the league year in and year out—had the attendance figures that the Florida Panthers can boast.

And maybe that is at the heart of the problem.

As long as fans keep going through the turnstiles and as long as concerts and other events bring home plenty of dough for this crummy organization, they lack the incentives that above mentioned franchises had—to get their act together and start putting out a decent product on the ice for the fans to watch and be proud to call their own.

Right now, you could appoint Goofy as combined CEO, GM, and Head Coach, and he’d probably do a better job than the current incumbents.

Unfortunately, this all seems to suggest that before this franchise is ever likely to get better; it’s first going to get a whole lot worse.

The Los Angeles Kings made a rare stop in South Florida and handed the Panthers an equally rare shootout loss Monday evening, defeating the Cats 4-3 in the end.

However, this is not what created most of the buzz in Panthers-land on this particular night.

The murmur in Sunrise was more surrounding the reshuffling of the Florida ownership than the game against the Kings.

Stu Siegel and Cliff Viner will now replace Alan Cohen in the Chairman’s seat.

Cohen will remain as a minority owner in the franchise, but the reins have now been firmly handed over to the Cliff & Stu combo instead.

Alan Cohen took over ownership in the summer of 2000, and remarkably, the club never made the playoffs even once during his nine year tenure.

Hence, many Panthers fans have equated Cohen as some sort of evil spirit—only able to make one poor decision after another.

People close to Cohen say that he deeply cares about the franchise, to the contrary of what most fans would make you believe. But either way, his record does speak for itself: It’s been a prolonged nightmare in South Floridian hockey since the day he took over.

It is likely that fans will rejoice in Cohen’s withdrawal from the hockey scene—and hope that Stu Siegel and Cliff Viner will do a better job with this franchise.

There is a good base for hockey here, as the heyday of 90’s clearly showed, but the many years of mediocrity have in many instances turned fans against their own team and management in particular. Or, they’ve simply deserted the cause due to severe disillusionment.

It will thus be no easy task for Cliff & Stu to change the tarnished image of the Florida Panthers around.

However, if the Cats need a role model, they need look no further than to Chicago and the Blackhawks.

The Hawks went through a similar barren spell of mismanagement and poor results, but thanks to new leadership, new ideas and a successful rebuilding through the draft in particular; Chicago once again have a team to be proud of.

And as a direct consequence, Chicago fans have returned to the arena.

The Florida Panthers need to follow that same path.

Obviously the Blackhawks are an original six club and the support for the sport of hockey in the Windy City has deep roots.

Florida clearly does not have any such roots, and so the challenge here is even greater as the club needs to actively try and convert people to the sport of hockey. And they need to do it in a jam-packet sports market; with all major sports well represented.

There is a razor sharp competition for the South Floridians’ sport-dollars; so it’ll be no easy task!

Nonetheless, it’s not impossible either.

All it takes is some success. Easier said than done perhaps, but with such fierce competition—success is what is required to flourish in this market.

America loves a winner. That is a fact. Just look at Pittsburgh, Washington and Chicago, for clear-cut examples of how success can revitalize a hockey market.

But on the other token—America deplores a loser.

It might not always be said aloud, but secretly many will feel revulsion toward the apparent weakness of a losing side. For too long now the Florida Panthers have been found on this side of the all-important divide.

So, in order for Cliff & Stu to change the direction of this franchise—from the long slippery downhill slope that it’s currently perched upon—sporting success will be the priority.

To create a winning team and a winning mentality throughout the organization is the key to gaining success—and this will be the challenge for Cliff & Stu to try and provide.

Fortunately they seem to not only have their hearts in the right place, being hockey fans themselves and local businessmen at that, but they also seem aware of both the potential and pitfalls within the franchise—which need to be addressed.

In an open letter to Panthers fans, Cliff & Stu present themselves and their leadership style in the following words:

“As local owners who live and work in the South Florida area, we are committed to developing a winning culture within this organization, something we haven’t had over the past few years. In addition, we will bring a stronger measure of accountability and accessibility to this franchise immediately”.

They go on to take a letter from head coach Peter DeBoer book upon the importance of accountability as well:

“We believe in letting people do their jobs – from the general manager and the head coach down to the players themselves. By the same token, if the right decisions are not being made and we are not achieving our goals as a franchise, then it will be our job to hold people accountable for their actions”.

That will be welcome words for Panthers fans. But, at this stage, words won’t suffice; we want results!

The goal of the club going forward was outlined in the following way:

“Our goal is to build a hockey team that can sustain its success year in and year out, by building through the draft and minor leagues, and by making the right decisions in trades and free agency”.

We hope that will be the case.

But it’s not through a lack of trying that this approach has so far failed in South Florida—it’s a lack of understanding of the game. Consequently one bad decision after another has been made throughout the years.

I know for a fact that many Panthers fans are worried about the influence of President and COO Michael Yormark in particular. And I say “worried” with ample sense of understatement.

To the best of my knowledge Yormark is an accomplished businessman that does well in the commerce part of operations. That is not the worry. It is rather that his influence weighs too heavily when it comes to hockey operations as well.

There is a great danger in having businessmen think they can run a sports team despite their lack of understanding in the finer details of the sport itself. Hopefully Cliff & Stu will let GM Randy Sexton and head coach Peter DeBoer run this part of the organization without too much tampering or superfluous restrictions from above.

The owners should set the framework and take overall responsibility for the franchise; instill a winning mentality throughout the organization, keep people accountable, but yet also let those employed get on with what they know best.

It sounds from the open letter that Cliff & Stu understand their role going into this challenge. However, the real challenge—will not only be to live by those words—but also to sculpture action out of those words.

For now the words bring hope, but at the end of the day, it is results that the new owners will be judged upon.

Remember the year 2000? How different things were at that year of optimism as we turned the corner to a new millennium. Seems like a different world now doesn’t it?

The spring of that year we experienced the ILOVEYOU computer virus – spreading like an online wildfire, Al Gore won the Democrats primary, whilst Vladimir Putin emerged as Russia’s new leader. Pope John Paul II was still alive, the twin towers were equally standing tall in New York, and, most unlikely of all; the Florida Panthers made the Stanley Cup playoffs…

Those were different times. Today’s viruses don’t claim to love, the Pope has gone to meet his maker, Al Gore didn’t become President despite winning the election, the twin towers have fallen and terrorism has struck fear in to the hearts and minds of those that previously couldn’t point out Afghanistan on a map.

And well, some things don’t change I guess – Vladimir Putin is still all-powerful in the Kremlin, there is a heavenly anointed Pope in Rome – and crucially – the Florida Panthers still haven’t won a post season contest since 1997 (when the Cats won one of five games versus the NY Rangers).

Some habits are apparently hard to break. This was clearly demonstrated at the run-in of last season’s mad rush for a playoff berth. The Panthers entered this 2008/09 playoff race in a great position; was the hottest team in the NHL at the beginning of 2009, and then, just after the trade deadline – the wheels fell off and the Cats looked increasingly tame as the competition grew fiercer at the back end of March. In the end Florida came close, with the same amount of points as Montreal in eighth spot (beaten by the Habs on head-to-head record), but could still not break the post-season hoodoo.

Since that spring of 2000, which seems more distant than a mere eight years ago, the Florida Panthers have struggled. Looking at the following trend of the Cats in the Southeastern Division, often seen as the weakest division in the league, doesn’t exactly fill fans with much hope of ever experiencing their share of NHL success; 3rd, 4th, 4th, 4th, 4th, 4th, 3rd and 3rd.

Mediocrities abound and false hope trickling down from a seeming desperate management team has turned many fans away in disgust. And yes, there was once a hockey fanbase here in South Florida, as hard as that might be to imagine these days. But a plentiful harvest of continued failure throughout the years is hard to tolerate in any sports market; not least in one where hockey culture does not exactly thrive naturally. It needs careful attention and a constant sense of excitement to flourish in these unfruitful swamplands. And while it did receive this in its budding years of the mid 90’s; it has since been left out to dry.

No surprise then that the nascent fanbase has shrunk and success seems ever illusive for those that persist despite. It is a dark picture indeed when you look at it. Yet, you wouldn’t know it when reading the latest “State of the Team” interview with President and COO Michael Yormark. On the Florida Panthers official website he goes on to assure fans that:

“At the end of the day, when you look at our team and where we are as a franchise, I think we finally have our act together. I think we have a product on the ice our fans are going to be excited about. […] We need to live up to expectations, and I think we will”.

To the unacquainted ear this may sound like a refreshingly candid sense of optimism, and it may very well be, but to the hardened Panthers fans it sounds like yet more empty assurances that don’t look any closer to being realized than they were eight years ago. Some would even go as far as calling it a slap in the face: “How naïve do you think we are?”

And yet, there is hope. “Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working” as a quote by an unknown author goes – and perseverance is a trait that can be cultivated. And in the talented head coach Peter DeBoer, we have the right man for that job and with his rookie season under the belt he should be in a better position to take us one step further.

The GM position has also been filled with Randy Sexton – bringing some much needed stability to the club – and there are promising youngsters, good new signings and a core of hardened veterans on the roster. Especially new faces such as defensemen Jordan Leopold and Dennis Seidenberg can help bring some stability in the back end.

This whilst a couple of centermen in Steven Reinprecht and Dominic Moore should free up Nathan Horton to return to his preferred right wing position. But there is at the same time a lack of top-notch talent on the top lines and Jay Bouwmeester’s absence will be keenly felt – despite good overall squad depth.

I think Panthers fans are today more cautious than most in their assessment of the team’s chances of playing in upcoming post-season contests. A sense of wait and see seems to be prevailing and perhaps that is what Yormark should exude as well; seeing as the last thing we need is yet more false hope and crushing realities.

This time we want to stay as grounded as possible and instead let the players induce us into cautious optimism through their performances on the ice; not through tuxedo pledges from the management.

If history has taught us Panthers fans anything, it is not listen to those wide assertions of sanguinity that the organization vainly hopes will disguise our present situation – and the long way this club still has to climb in its uphill clamber for that elusive success.

It is time for the ever ‘promising’ players to come of age, the individuals to play like a coherent collective and to finally deliver that which has been so frequently talked about since that year of 2000, yet never been realized: To re-awaken South Florida’s desire (which they didn’t even know they had) to watch toothless Canadians fight in a gladiatorial combat upon an artificial pond of ice – that is no mean feat – yet, it can be done!

Stanley C Panther knows how to get the crowd going!

So, I here bypass management promises and call out directly to the team that is the Florida Panthers; it’s players, backroom staff and coaches, this is a call to arms:

Panthers – make a stand! – and in the process make us understand why we fans hopelessly keep believing in that which seems out of our grasp. Remind us why we keep driving out to the swamps to watch grown men with sticks and skates on ice. Go on – make us reminisce about the ‘Year of the Rat’ and in the same time rattle some conservative hockey fans’ square northern cages, and most of all, make us hope once again – despite having hoped in vain so many times before – and let us be exalted in to the realms of hockey elation.

Let’s not just talk about making the post-season; let’s do it!

It was announced yesterday in the Panthers official website that the Broadcasting teams for the Panthers’ ‘FOX Sports Florida’ and ‘Sports Talk 790 the Ticket’ for the 2009-10 NHL season has been restructured.

Billy Lindsay, previously the radio analyst, has been moved to the TV broadcasting seat – to take the position previously held by Hall of Famer Denis Potvin. Denis had been with the franchise since its inaugural season and will be sorely missed by TV viewers in general and Panthers fans in particular. Randy Moller will deal with the Radio broadcasts on his own, while Steve Goldstein will continue as TV play-by-play announcer.

The decision to let Potvin go is claimed to be a financial decision and not a reflection on his work as TV analyst. Which, from a fans point of view, and regular viewer, I would personally deem as; insightful, colorful and richly understanding of the NHL hockey historical heritage and current state of affairs.

Denis will be missed by me and many more that has grown accustomed to his quirky comments and astute perception of the game unfolding before our eyes. His honesty will most likely also be missing in future broadcasts… Billy Lindsay is a competent analyst, but has some big skates to fill.

On the Sun Sentinel website Potvin said about the decision: "It’s tough. It’s very tough," adding that he’ll be trying to look forward instead of looking back. "You come to a point where you figure you’re a lifer with a company or a group. That’s not the case anymore. I was surprised. I was not expecting it."

Neither was anyone else outside of the Sunrise Sports & Entertainment group it would seem. And looking at the comments from fans after the announcement it seems clear that, as far as the fans are concerned, they feel it was a classless/gutless decision by the organization and they are far from happy with it. Many see it as a sign of the ownerships inability to run this franchise in a respectable and successful direction. Personally; I agree.

This is very sad news for the franchise, its credibility and all the fans, who like me, have enjoyed the rich smorgasbord that Denis Potvin have been able to present to all of us at our dining room tables; as we camp out in front of the TV to see how our beloved Panthers will fare on the night.

My gut feeling is that SSE president & chief operating officer Michael Yormark and his fellow cronies have made a big mistake in letting Denis go. However, whatever the real reasons may be (was he too honest about the Panthers’ shortcomings?) I, and most fans with me, wish Potvin the best of luck in his future endeavors and hope he’ll find another franchise that is better deserving and more grateful for his vast hockey wisdom.

Just a postnote to say that Michael Yormark has met the criticism labelled here and elsewhere in the Panthers community in his blog on the Panthers official website.