After the Canadiens play on Long Island tonight, they fly home to face Chris Higgins and the Florida Panthers in what hockey types like to call an “ambush game.” The Panthers played last night in Ottawa, losing 5-3 (a game in which they trailed 5-1 early in the third), and will be waiting in Montreal for the home team.
Things haven’t been peachy for the Panthers this season. Off the ice, some of their local fans who subscribe to the DISH Network satellite service can’t see their games on TV because of a dispute between DISH and the Fox Regional Sports Networks (“Just gives everyone yet another excuse to watch
the Heat, eh?” wrote George Richards, ruefully blogging for the Miami Herald).
Yes, they must share their market with the NBA Heat, the most hype-driven sports franchise in the known universe.
Their home attendance is still among the lowest in the league, the
product of last making the playoffs when Bill Clinton was president.
Even their AHL affilate Rochester is unhappy. They recently informed the Panthers they would not be renewing their working agreement.
On the ice, they got hosed by the refs in Toronto on Tuesday and, as coach Pete DeBoer told Richards, they didn’t show up ready to play last night in Ottawa until the third period. That’s not a the way they started the season, but since the first four games or so, they’ve been less consistent in the effort department.
Higgins did get his first goal of the year in their too-little-too-late comeback attempt, but Florida has now lost three of four, and is only avoiding the Eastern Conference basement because the Devils are playing even worse.
The good news is this team, in the early stages of a rebuild, starts with a direction — something it lacked in the last few years — in the person of Dale Tallon, who was hired as general manager last spring.
Tallon knows how to cobble together a shattered franchise. He assembled a big chunk of the Blackhawks team that won the Stanley Cup last year, and while he may have had some rough patches when it came to things like salary cap management there, he was wise enough to find good help in Florida when he hired Michael Santos away from Nashville to be his assistant GM.
The bad news is that the Florida fans are weary of rebuilds.
The team that will skate at the Bell Centre on Saturday lacks a proven big finisher. With David Booth out most of the year with post-concussion symptoms and Nathan Horton unhappy, they finished last season with only 208 goals, fewest in the league. With only 21 goals in their eight games, including six in one game against Tampa Bay, they’re not exactly burning up
the scoresheet this season either.
Horton has gone to Boston, Booth — a 30 goal scorer two years ago — is back and contributing, but this is still a team that has yet to display a dynamic offensive side.
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Stu – Kudos to you for having your last two articles focusing on upcoming Hab games. I realize not every article you post can be that way, but the effort certainly is appreciated. I also hope that my pervious comments weren’t taken as a personal offense, it was meant to be more of a discussion item. If so, I certainly apologize.
Steve
Thanks very much, Steve
Nice to read an independent and all encompassing view of the opposition for an upcoming game. Good reporting, great detail and interesting views.
Thanks punkster. Kind of you to say so.
I’m shocked!! The Panthers have local fans???
Yeah, too bad the organization doesn’t make that much money ’cause most of the fans are paying senior prices.
Thanks, Laz. Great old card of Bo. Nice ‘stache, eh?
Great article Stu! I learn something new with every article you write! Keep’em coming!
Fair point, although Rick Dudley’s tenure as GM before them wasn’t great either. And ownership has never been a strong point with that club. And, honestly, with the exception of the first few seasons and their brief resurgence when they had Pavel Bure, they’ve almost never been a playoff team.
Plus, I’ve always wondered how moving out of Miami to Sunrise in ’98 impacted the situation. They moved from the region’s biggest city to the edge of the Everglades (there’s nothing to the west). Had they stayed in Miami or had been able to stay in that city or even relocate to Ft. Lauderdale, they might have gotten a few thousand more fans who now don’t want to drive to nowhere to watch a hockey game.
one thing missing is the fact that jacques martin & mike keenan totally destroyed this team in 3 years.
I thought the Florida Panthers were the reincarnation of the Red Army from the mid 1970s. Wasn’t that what McGuire said one night on TSN during the 2008-09 collapse when Florida hammered the Habs 5-1?
Florida & Toronto have not made The NHL playoffs since the lockout & it looks like the streak will continue on this season……….
WHAT, another Southern U.S. hockey franchise in trouble???? I’m shocked! Move the Panthers to Quebec City so we can see the Habs vs. Nordiques again!!!!! Or move them to Winnipeg!
Not to Winnipeg, thank you very much. We want Atlanta!