Tuesday Caterwaul - Panthers Open Forum

I was lucky to be able to attend the game last night last minute…

Some Hockey Thoughts

Vokoun is awesome. He didn’t face a ton of difficult shots, but the guy is totally money. He made one unbelievable save on a 2-1 (can’t remember if it was the first or 3rd) that was sweet. I can’t understand how any Panther fan could hate this guy, he was solid.

The Panthers play the most boring brand of hockey outside of NJ. I don’t know if it’s a PD version of the trap, but it’s definitely not exciting. Course, you don’t get style points in the NHL, only 2 for the W, so that’s all that matters.

This team is definitely not flashy, but lots of lunch bucket guys. For my money, I’d love to see a guy with more sizzle (although Ilya was semi-invisible last night), but I see that a guy like that probably wouldn’t fit the system being played.

Some non-hockey thoughts

Very small crowd last night- maybe 10,000? That’s kind of sad. I can’t believe there were a fair number of guys trying to scalp tickets to the game. Really? I didn’t know you could make money scalping tickets to an half full arena. The crowd however, was very pro-Panther and quite fun. The BAC has done a great job of creating a fun atmosphere.

This has probably been joked about before, but in the men’s room, there are stickers in the urinals advertising a urologist with the Panther’s logo on them. So effectively thousands of fans are getting to “pee” on the Panther’s logo? It would be much more refreshing if the stickers had Gary Bettman’s picture on them.

The ice dancers really should have to know how to skate and wear skates for their intermission performance.

Say what you will about Horton and Weiss, but if you can get Campbell running on all cylinders this club can turn some heads. He’s chippy, energetic, and can put the puck in the net.

Panthers season tickets are easily the WORST value in pro sports. Uppers have no intrinsic value when you can sit lower bowl for $15. Why you would spend money on season tickets when those same tickets can’t fetch even half value on the open market is beyond me.

It’s time for a FanPost on this, I think, so hopefully, if I get a chance, I’ll try to contribute.

Regarding last night’s game, both teams were guilty of simply awful hockey. True, the Panthers don’t really light it up, but with the lack of scoring depth, can you blame them? The truth is that until they build a winner, Monday (or any weeknight for that matter) night games against equally anonymous opponents will draw poorly.

threating with move to Atlanta makes wonder to ones on ice production… :)

I wish I lived in Yormack’s alternate reality where the Panthers were a perennial playoff franchise and made, if not won, the cup once in the last 10 years.

In our reality I’ve been a season ticket holder since Year 2 – the current “True Blue” campaign is worthless. I would get a half season of tickets for my 13 game package price, which its difficult enough for me to use 8-10 games since I live about 180 miles away. I’d, and most fan, would prefer they get realistic with the ticket prices and give us the substantial discount they offer everyone else during the course of the season.

This is likely my last year of being a season ticket holder, I’ll just buy games, at a substantial discount, that I need here and there instead of making the big investment season tickets require.

From where I originally came from (Chicago), it was playoffs every year! Many seasons it was deep into the playoffs, conference finals, but nonetheless, always in the hunt.
The year before I moved here there was a run for the Stanley Cup, only to have Pittsburgh sweep us. I was a season ticket holder for 11 years. Full package and rarely missed a game, and went to all playoff games.

When I moved here in ‘93 I realized that things wouldn’t be as automatic as I was used to, since this was an expansion team. I hoped that someday patience would be rewarded. I’ve had season tickets since ‘98, and can’t express enough my disappointment of not having the Panthers in a playoff game for almost ten years.

As I mentioned in a previous reply a few days ago, I don’t care about any special deals or upgrades or freebies. I would like for once to have a competitive team on the ice that everyone is proud of.

For those of you that have never experienced playoff atmposphere, all I can say is that there is nothing like it. And when you win a few games it just gets better and better.

We’re a long way from that. I’d like to hope that this year it works out, but I feel that out slow start and our mediocre record will hurt our chances. That being said, it’s too early to talk about renewal packages. It’s only January!

… Yormark’s picture on those urinal cakes. Hell, it would double beer sales. ;-)