Panthers gain road win in Atlanta; playoffs will wait for another year

I loved every moment of following the Panthers this past season, it was a remarkable one. Even though we came up short, it was great to see the ever increasing amount of fans at a game, the increasing amount of attention the team got, and another excellent run for the playoffs this season. With one game left, againts the Capitals, we are 40-31-10, and excellent record that not many people predicted. Its hard knowing the season is over, but as Whale4ever says, theres brighter things to come.

Can’t wait to see what the cats do in the off-season, and can’t wait to next years playoff push.
Highlights of the season:
-Ballard fighting Crosby after a huge hit on Malkin
-Craig Anderson improving before our eyes
-An excellent Janurary with only 2 regulation loses (and 3 OT loses)
-Coach Peter DeBoer
-Michael Frolik and David Booth emerging into top goal scorers

Overall excellent season from the lovable Panthers!!!

I hate to be such a debbie downer, but I can’t help but feel this season was a disappointment. Being as high as 5th just around a month ago, to go through the March slump and come up short… it hurts. Yes, Florida probably exceeded expectations. But once February came around and Florida knew what it had… expectations changed. Now J-Bo is gone (probably) for nothing. In reference to chris’s comment, Anderson is either getting a huge raise, resulting in a majority of the salary in 2 goaltenders, or he’s gone. which JM probably knew, hence drafting Markstrom last year. Frolik and Booth were nice surprises… but we have zero 30+ goal guys, and only 3, 20+. Horton and Weiss look like they’ll be solid 2nd liners, but no more. There isn’t one guy on this team that looks like a top line, NHL scorer. They aren’t rookies anymore. It should (hopefully) be an interesting offseason.

I’ll get my season review up sometime this weekend on Cat Scratch for those interested. For now… it’s a beer soaked depression. Gonna be hard to watch the playoffs this year. No horse in the race for 8 straight. At least years past, we’ve known where we stood before March. This year just hurts that much more.

Its only the beginning of great things W4E…We’ve got a great thing going and our Panther community ROCKS. If nothing else, it should be an interesting off-season.

i don’t normally do this although i frequent the litter box almost twice a day, especially since March began with the Panthers sitting in 5th place. I have to say that over the past few years i have been deeply saddened by what’s happened to my favorite team. Nothing is quite as exciting as the game we love so dearly, but the Panthers seemed to pplay the opposite. Finaly this year the game was fun again and we were chasing every puck and playing the agressive upbeat style that makes us love the game so much. So, although we came up short (and man will it really stink if we miss the spot by one point—damn shootout!), its been an excellent time and a ride that finally won me back over. this blog has helped me follow the team more in depth than i ever could have and i thank all of you for that…
now, go get us a scorer that knows what it takes to win down the stretch with all that money JBo is getting paid. the defense is fine, and if we can give vokoun more than 2 goals a game i think we’re a team to be reckoned with. hmm…someone like gaborik?

thanks w4e for all the info and great work….i will definitely be checking back again and again all the way until the puck drops in october on the season that will finally have us playing hockey again in May!

Thought I’d join the wake here. First, whale, you’re doing a great job here. Some say George Richard’s Panthers blog is the best on the net. Well, two things. First, he gets paid to cover the team and second, it isn’t . This is the best. Thank you for your work and thank you for giving this fan a place to post every now and then, now that the Panthers “official” board has become a teen-filled snipe fest.

To the team. Sorry. You guys blew it. And in doing so, you disappointed some of the few remaining people here that really believed this was the year from the get-go. There was too much of this season that you looked like a playoff team. Not a serious, deep-into-the-playoffs team, but enough to get in and get your feet wet. The wins when leading after two periods stat couldn’t have been a fluke and yet, down the stretch, it seemed that it was.

Sigh. I have to admit I lost faith after the Atlanta game last week. Until then, I thought there was still enough time to turn it around and squeak in. However, after that loss, the handwriting was clearly on the wall. I won’t say there weren’t a number of great moments this season. There were. Pounding Montreal was the high point of my Panther fan life. There were plenty of comebacks and dramatic wins to keep me happy, but we were supposed to be playing a seven game series this year, damn it. In fact, I made an impassioned speech twice for Panthers In-Game. The first was for the Cowbell Club spot at the start of the year. The second was for the renewal spot. Both times I said that all most of us wanted were TWO home playoff games. That was it. Just two. Throw us a fucking bone, will ya? Well, I guess we’ll have to wait another year.

And what would absolutely kill me is to end up in a three way tie for seventh and still be out of the playoffs. And, that is, of course totally feasible. The Rangers play the Flyers, who are trying for home ice advantage and Montreal plays Pittsburgh who is hoping for the same thing. 93 points for us. Seventh place (albeit tied). And teeing it up on April 14. Unbelieveable. I can see why there are so many doubters out there.

Anyway, thank you again, Whale. I’ll be checking in all summer.

And what would absolutely kill me is to end up in a three way tie for seventh and still be out of the playoffs.

Was discussing the very same scenario with CLG last night. Oh, the horror!

It’s been a singular pleasure, DR, all year!

This has been a blast from the start, and the individual contributions from everyone, from myself, to DpD, and all that have signed on and simply lurked, have made The Box a true community of like-minded fans. Which, of course, was the idea from the beginning.

Going to be a fascinating summer, and we’ll all have plenty of reasons to rant with anger and shout with joy from this here soapbox.

Thanks, guys and gals…only gonna get better!