Roblogg’s Panthers Portal

The Florida Panthers have been known to start seasons slowly and then come strong toward the end—just to fall wide of the postseason mark.

It appears as if this season has all those characteristics as well.

Whether or not the Cats can reignite their season and make a credible playoff push remains to be seen, but, the beginning is thus far following familiar patterns.

“Let’s cut off the first 15 games and start fresh and make sure over the next five weeks we’re all better,” Florida’s head coach Peter DeBoer said yesterday.

He went on to state that: “The good news is we have a lot more to offer, both individually and as a group. I think you’re going to see that. There’s a lot of hockey left to be played.”

Coach ‘Pete’ DeBoer is understandably trying to exude confidence and optimism, as a leader must do in front of his troops, but one does wonder what he must be feeling within after having begun this season 5-9-1.

Prior to the commencement of the campaign, Pete offered his hopes for the season, and considering what he said then and how wide of the mark the team is of that assessment, one must assume that on the inside his sanguinity must have taken a bruise:

“This year I feel much more comfortable and I think the players feel much more comfortable in how we want to play and the systems we want to play, and I think it’s showing on the ice. Hopefully, that will lead to a better start."

Things didn’t quite work out that way, did they Pete?

Currently sitting 13th in the Eastern Conference with 11 points, trailing the Boston Bruins—currently in eight spot—by 7 points, Florida and its fans can’t be too hopeful of a spectacular turnaround of fortunes.

As it happens the Cats will square off against the ‘B’s tonight in Boston and therefore have a good chance of cutting that deficit down to 5 points.

Unfortunately the Panthers will travel to meet a team that is finally overcoming a difficult hump themselves. Ravaged by injuries, and having traded goal poacher Phil Kessel to Toronto, the Bruins have looked a shadow of their former self in the early goings.

However, in the last two games the Bostonians have claimed two notable scalps in Buffalo and Pittsburgh—to restore confidence in the locker-room.

The Bruins will be up for tonight’s game and, with their strong defensive corps; it’s hard to see the challenged Florida offense getting any goals on the solid Tim Thomas between the pipes.

It is tough to talk about a must win game so early in the season, but with the poor start by the Cats it will be difficult to imagine them losing this game and still being able to realistically compete for that eighth spot, come spring.

So whilst not a must-win-game; this still qualifies as a very important contest for the Panthers. It’s one they’d be loathed to lose.

It is not easy to put a positive spin to the efforts by the Cats so far this season.

In 15 games played, of which one third were won, they still only really impressed in two of those games; against St. Louis and Carolina (game two).

Both those teams were going through worse problems at the time of play than the Panthers were, so it’s hard to draw too much optimism from these two performances alone.

Overall speaking, the effort has not been consistently good enough from the Floridians in the opening 15 games. I doubt anyone could make a sound argument to claim that the club does not deserve to be where they currently reside in the standings.

Thirteenth place in the East seems like a fair reflection of the performances of the Florida Panthers after 15 games played.

The Cats have had problems with the organization of its new-look defense; allowing too many opposing players a clear path toward the crease, as well as giving up too many shots on goal.

The offense was also lacking in the early stages with any kind of chemistry hard to come by. This together with an inefficient power-play has paved the way for the early struggles.

Admittedly things have gotten a bit better of late.

With the exception of the previous game against the Capitals, the defense has become more solid and the reshuffling of the offense has paid some dividends. No. 1 goaltender Tomas Vokoun is also starting to look increasingly unyielding in goal.

Whether or not this will be enough to turn the season around however, is questionable.

The Florida Panthers official website has put a positive spin on the situation, preferring to focus on the congested schedule ahead as a means of the team to “find their rhythm”.

With 24 games in 42 days to look forward to, or dread—depending on your outlook, it is understandable that the club as a whole must try and stay positive in order to try and recover lost ground. And it is possible…

However, like many fans I’m not overly optimistic. And I fear the worst rather than indulge in false hope.

I suppose it’s basically a kind of self-defense mechanism we fans shield ourselves with; hoping that every defeat won’t sting as much as they tend to do for the believer.

Of course, it usually doesn’t help much…

A defeat is a defeat—whether expected or not—it still guts you to the bone.

And considering this, it really is a miracle that the Florida Panthers still have any fans at all: What resiliency!

Just goes to show that even years of failure will not, and does not, deter the true sports fan.

And one thing I’ve learned in South Florida is that, despite what most people up north may think, there is a base for hockey here.

Despite the continued struggles and failures of the franchise on the ice (longest playoff drought in the league, since the year 2000), people still turn up in the thousands to cheer on the team, extend friendly hockey advice (shot the puck, you m**on!), and revel in the rare and shrinking successes—that we enjoy in midst of the many defeats.

I have not experienced what the hardcore South Floridian fan has been through. But, in my mere few years of following the Cats, I do have a growing appreciation for those fans that have been here from day one and experienced so many letdowns.

You guys and gals clearly deserve better a better dish than what you’ve been served.

Nonetheless, the taste of success will be all the sweeter when it finally comes our way, because we have been through the many failures along the way.

Admittedly not much comfort right now. Nonetheless, I suppose the lesson is to trooper on and hope for the best. And sooner or later, good things will happen, surely…

And if controversial philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was right when he coined the expression “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” then the Panthers’ fans are indeed a hardened breed in deserve of some rightful respect from its fellow hockey brethren.

Win or lose in Boston, I hope to share some more hockey moments with ya’ll in the B.A.C. on Saturday when the resurgent NY Islanders come to town. It should be interesting to see John Tavares and the young Islanders in action.

I hope the players start playing better—at least start playing to the best of their ability. Maybe they simply aren’t good enough to make the playoffs this year, but, they should certainly be playing better than they currently are anyway.

This may not be a hockey market on par with the Canadian ones, or say Philadelphia—just to name one, but it is still a vibrant place of vivacious hockey fans that don’t merit scorn from anyone.

What we’ve been through here, no other set of National Hockey League fans have had to prevail through.

And indeed, we’ve been through that proverbial trial by fire—and we’re still here. Another season of failure probably won’t change any of that, although, I hope we don’t need to find out.

The Panthers came in to the home-and-home header versus Southeastern rivals Washington, high on confidence, but left with team morale in tatters.

Having won three straight games and played the best hockey so far of the season, fans and players alike felt that the Caps looked ripe for the picking.

The Capitals were without inspirational sniper Alex Ovechkin and had, up to that point, not done very well without him.

Early in the first game of the back-to-back series, Washington also lost their goal scoring defenseman Mike Greene and all signs of victory seemed to point firmly in Florida’s direction.

However, it was not to be.

The Caps cruised to a 4-1 victory in Sunrise and then came from behind to punish the Cats in a third period licking in Washington.

The Capitals emerged from 3-2 down and turned proceedings on its head by scoring five goals in that third period. The Panthers only managed one and consequently lost the game 4-7.

The second period had looked promising for the Cats as the call-ups from Rochester, of the AHL, gave the Floridians a chance to win with their all-heart performances. Kenndal McArdle, Michal Repik, Victor Oreshkovic, and Jeff Taffe, not only filled the numbers—but also visibly led the Panthers when going forward.

If only more of the regular players and veterans of the Florida roster had decided to show up for this game as well…

Especially the defense and goaltending was dreadful to behold. Unless of course, you were one of the many waving fans in red that urged their team to triumph in that decisive period.

I’m sure they cheerfully acknowledged the Panthers’ inability to keep the Caps at bay in front of the crease, or at the far post, and the subsequently appalling goaltending provided by Scott Clemmensen—when pucks came bouncing his way.

Clemmensen is having a torrid start to his Florida career; posting a hideous 5.13 GAA in his four starts of the season. Not that it’s all Scott’s fault though…

"It was like Murphy’s Law. Anything that could go wrong, went wrong," Clemmensen told the Associated Press after the game. "We weren’t very good down low; there were a lot of open guys around the net. It looked like a fire drill down there. It was total chaos from my perspective."

From my own perspective, in front of the TV (admittedly not the best viewpoint), it looked like the Caps knew very well how to crack Clemmensen wide open.

Yes, the defense did a poor job in helping him out, but a high-quality goaltender should have been able to stop a few of those pucks that went past Scott on this particular night—and the one in Dallas last week when he let five slide by.

Scott continues to look wide open along the ice and down by his legs; the Caps have obviously noted this and scored almost all their goals down low, rather than trying to go top shelf on such a tall frame.

Moreover, his reaction time was sluggish, bordering leisurely, and overall this was just a terrible performance from a goalie standpoint; backup or not.

It is understandable that Clemmensen will be rusty after having been sidelined with the NJ Devils for such a long time—prior to this season. After having stepped in for the injured Brodeur admirably last campaign, he was then demoted and did not feature in any more games.

But, he now needs to get his game on track promptly—if he wants to earn the confidence of his Coach and new fans in Florida.

Moaning about the defense and finding excuses won’t win anyone over here. Only good performances on the ice will do that.

In fact, that doesn’t just go for Clemmensen—that applies to the entire team.

This is a team game, and just as a team wins as a team—they should lose as one as well: No blaming other teammates or pointing fingers. ‘United we stand, united we fall’.

Comments like these, uttered after the game by Clemmensen, do not fall into the above category: "(What) we need to do is work on our coverage down low and behind the net."

OK, fair enough, that’s what the defense needs to do. I’m sure they’re quite aware of that too. But, dear Clemmensen, look at what you individually could have done better and what you could have done to help the overall team effort—instead of focusing on everyone else.

This is the Florida Panthers, not the New Jersey Devils, you will face many more shots and be challenged further around the crease, than what would have ever been the case in Newark.

You need to understand that, accept that you ultimately only have control over yourself and your own actions on the ice, and start focusing on how to adapt and improve your game to meet the particular needs of the Florida Panthers.

Get that, Scott?

No one was going to break the stalemate. It was obvious. These opposing forces were never going to find a way to smash the deadlock that had descended upon Sunrise.

The Hurricanes of Carolina huffed and puffed, but could not blow down the Floridian fortification amid the swamps. No less than 21 shots were hurled at the fort and it seemed that the gates would crash any minute under the sheer brute force of this Carolinian aggressor.

But it was not to be.

Nothing could or would rattle the impenetrable Floridian gateminder—who’d exuded poise and perfect composure to refute any and every ravenous shot aimed his at his direction.

Shepherded by this growling Czech, Tomas Vokoun is his name, Florida’s elite force of ‘Panthers’ looked defensively fierce—but lost and bewildered when leaving that comfort zone of the fort behind.

When finally finding their way past a perilous and mined no-man’s-land, the Panthers’ forward scouts also learned that Carolina’s wagon train was held with gritty determination.

Further advances in this area were easily Ward-ed off and futile it seemed.

Field Marshal Cam Ward and his force of punishing blue-line mercenaries, the celebrated ‘Canes’ or ‘Hurricanes’ as they’re known—held these forward arrays at a safe distance and forced the Panthers to shoot from the perimeters.

Some Cats however snuck through and tested the defensive line via flank attacks and circling maneuvers in front of the defensive crease. These assaults increased in the third stage of this Southeastern clash, yet no breakthrough looked imminent.

This conflict more and more started to resemble the slogging trench warfare of World War I; with constant mass frontal attacks and subsequent counter attacks, but it was to no apparent avail and at the end of the day—no ground had been either won or lost.

Abhorrent crimes of slashing and roughing started to accumulate and the penalty boxes soon filled up with criminals of war. Carolina tasted the letter of the law of this punishing institution on eight occasions—whilst Florida felt the belt seven times.

The numerical advantages rollicked back and forth and still neither side was able to make a decisive breakthrough of what was rapidly becoming a looming stalemate.

It was clear that this war of attrition was not going to be broken any time soon…

And yet, when frustration was reaching its zenith, the Panthers found the soft underside of the belly of this invading beast. A Carolinian defector, Cory Stillman, kept jabbing away and finally found that opening he must have known was there all along.

His shot ricochet off the protective shin pads of forward predator Steven Reinprecht and the bullet wriggled through Carolina’s Field Marshal, Cam Ward, to effectively puncture the deadlock and deflate the storm.

Once a hole had penetrated the visitor’s defense, the Cats could careen forward at will and drive the invaders firmly away from the Stateline of Florida.

The Hurricanes had run out of vapor and forward raids by the Panthers firmly scattered the Canes’ hopes of recovering steam. Cory Stillman and Bryan Allen both hit home and firmly settled the score in Florida’s favor.

It was a victory, which together with previously successful incursions into Dallas and St. Louis, gained the Florida Panthers some much needed plunder to add to an otherwise bare war chest.

Word is that the Panthers now have their eyes set on an ambitious foray upon the Capital of Washington…

As preposterous as this may sound, the Floridians may have reason for optimism.

Washington’s charismatic leader, the fiery Russian Alex Ovechkin, is apparently not fit for fight—and unless he makes an astonishing comeback—the Cats may be able to prowl the streets of the Capital in his absence and fetch more loot for the cause.

The Panthers have been unable to graze those alluring fields of green that blossom in northern springtime’s—for many years now.

It is starting to become an obsession to finally break out of the Southeast and reap the bountiful rewards of spring. The felines have been kept quietly at bay in the Floridian swamp lands, but now, they have found that missing bite and look poised to try and fight their way north again.

Follow that compass Cats—and we can defy those very laws of nature that have bound us to the delicate chains of extinction.

There is life in these felines yet and they are now trying to claw their way back.

To continue this streak of triumphs, the Panthers need to continue to soldier on through inescapable setbacks and injuries that beset all warring camps.

The defense must remain secure and help Vokoun herd the attacks to the flanks and not let any stray shooter find gaps to explore down the gateway. And then, if an opportunity arises, these reserves must be flung into forward action to try and tip the balance of the fight to Florida’s advantage.

The attack must be aggressive and constantly keep the opposition on their back feet. Pry for weakness and then crash—full force—upon their outer defensive crease. Attempt circling maneuvers and fight for every inch on the battleground.

The Panthers lack firepower and must thus rely on pack-attacks and overwhelm the opposition with sheer numbers and willpower.

Special Forces must also start finding the right explosive chemistry to help Florida benefit from numerical advantages that might occur.

There is still much to perfect, but the general battle plan remains intact; run, gun, and score victories—big or small—by committee.

A Panther unaided can be singled-out and subjugated by a determined foe, but a pack of ferocious Panthers—crashing camp at the rays of dawn—can strike a sharp blow to any rival challenge.

It was the moment that Florida fans had been waiting for…

From the first minute of the contest, the Panthers’ players stepped out on the ice in St. Louis and looked doggedly determined to win. And they went on to play their hearts out.

Finally! The Cats found their stride and showed some much improved play against the Blues.

Ultimately the Floridian visitors blanked the home side and scored four at the other end to collect another vital two points.

With the help of those two points, and the two gathered in Dallas, the Panthers moved above the Carolina Hurricanes and out of the basement of the Southeastern Division.

As in that game in Dallas, the previous day, it was the second line of Stillman – Reinprecht – Horton; which impressed the most and got important points on the board.

Cory Stillman got his first goal of the season and added an assist; Nathan Horton also added two tremendously taken assists to the equation.

The big story for Florida was however the solid play of the defense. And not just the defenders—the forwards were also all responsible in their zone and backchecked admirably.

Anything that still slipped through was pounced upon by Tomas Vokoun between the pipes.

Tomas has not had the best of starts to the campaign, but then again; he hasn’t been supported adequately by the guys in front of him either in previous matches.

The St. Louis game showed how good Vokoun can be if only given the right kind of support from his defenders. He looked sharp and was rewarded with a fine shutout to seal the game safe from any potential comeback of the Blues.

This was by far the most complete performance of the season from the Cats.

Not only did they play the entire 60 minutes, but everyone also did their jobs flawlessly and helped each other out when necessary.

I’m sure head coach Peter DeBoer will have said “Now that’s the way to play” to his charges after the match. And sure enough; that’s how we were expecting the Panthers to be playing this year—and hopefully this will mean that the players are finally starting to settle into their respective roles.

Florida does not have the most talented roster out there and must thus play as a united collective and outwork their opponents: Just as they did Saturday in St. Louis.

Worth noting is that the Panthers’ last season started equally bad before turning the corner on a western road trip. And the similarities don’t stop there. Like this current campaign the Cats suffered key injuries prior to that trip and were forced to bring players up from the AHL.

Those minor league players brought with them bundles of energy and work ethics that seemed to rub off on the regulars; sparking some much needed grit and resolve to win.

It was the same storyline this time around. And hopefully these resemblances will also mean that the club has now finally come together and found that inner fortitude to succeed as a team.

With a bit of luck the same bitter ending won’t need to be experienced this time around however…

One of the players that stepped up from the AHL to help Florida win in St. Louis was right winger Victor Oreskovich.

Having quit the game back in 2007, he made a comeback this summer and impressed at the Panthers’ preseason camp. He was eventually signed to a contract and then assigned to Rochester in the AHL.

Having played at Dallas the previous day, Florida’s coach DeBoer felt he needed a rested body for the game against the Blues on Saturday and called-up Oreskovich. Victor then proceeded to impress with plentiful of energy and big checks in his NHL debut.

The 23-year old, 6-foot-2, 225 pounder made his impact felt and was rewarded with premium ice-time from his former Junior coach—Peter DeBoer.

Whilst three players were reassigned to Rochester after the St. Louis game; Jeff Taffe, Keaton Ellerby, and Michal Repik, Oreskovich will stay with the Panthers for the time being.

Victor and Kenndal McArdle are the players to remain with the parent team in place of the injured wingers David Booth and Radek Dvorak. And so far both have wooed the coaches and fans with their uncompromising style of play—giving the Cats a much needed shot in the arm with an abundance of energy.

Hopefully the Panthers will now return to South Florida with their confidence restored as we head into a week of Divisional clashes.

First up are the Hurricanes on Wednesday at the Bank Atlantic Center, the Canes have now lost nine straight games, before the Capitals serve up a tough head-to-head confrontation on Friday and Saturday.

If the Cats hope to continue and climb the standings they must win a couple of these fixtures. Obviously this won’t be easy, but when a team is on the roll they can be mighty hard to stop for the opposition.

Hopefully the Panthers can continue to gain further momentum this coming week. The western trip gave us back some hope and confidence—now “all” we need is—consistency!