Panthers buried under mountain of decisions
by Donny Rivette on Feb 7, 2010 10:27 AM EST
18 comments
In five games since January 29th, the Cats have compiled a 1-4 record, scoring six goals while falling to two divisional rivals and two Western Conference foes. The lone victory came against a down-and-out Islanders club displaying little interest in the contest. In that span 13 goals have been allowed (credit Tomas Vokoun for keeping it that tight).
Here's the deeper ugliness: Those five games saw Florida take 135 shots while allowing 172, a difference of -37, or 7.4 per game.
Special teams? The Panthers were awarded 23 power plays, scoring on two. The penalty kill was even worse, allowing 5 goals on 17 chances. Not so "special".
Florida is now in the 12th spot in the East, having gone 4-5-1 over the last ten. Still good for two points out of eigth, but consider Atlanta has equaled that record, Tampa Bay is 7-2-1 and Carolina - left for dead several weeks ago - is 7-3-0; a mere 8 points back of the Cats.
Other than a few headline-grabbing snippets referring to free-agency curing what ails them and management (likely truthfully) claiming rip-off deals at every turn, very little has come out of the glass tower on Panther Parkway.
At least GM Randy Sexton admitted to the possibility of his club being a "seller" at the deadline. So he's got that.
The overriding question for Florida is thus: How much of the proverbial future can be allowably mortgaged by making a deal to improve the foundation of the organization?
Undeniably, rival GMs can take one peek at the Cats' record and smell blood, immediately going for the throat with low-ball counter offers including names such as Weiss, Booth, Horton, and Kulikov. Then it falls to the Matthias, Repik, and Markstrom group - with very little in between.
Hard to fathom an attractive offer coming forth for Steven Reinprecht or Scott Clemmensen (who?) which would immediately improve the team.
And what of the coaching staff? Pistol Pete DeBoer has shown some fire of late - at least in post-game pressers - but when will it translate to some semblence of success on the ice?
Who's tuned out whom? At this stage it's Can the Coach or rebuild the roster into a group which will respond to DeBoer's vaunted "systems".
Tough to believe adding one impact player will change the fortunes for this bunch.
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Cogliano and Grebeshkov for Weiss.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
The vaunted system. Ha!
The Jr. Canadian Hockey system at its best. Not good enough for the NHL! The competition has figured it out already. Fire Hulton now!!
changes are needed
Firing DeBoer may not be the answer as it let’s these grunts off the hook. I will admit that I question a lot of his moves and his allocation of ice time with certain players leaves me scratching my head. There’s also some times when he looks overmatched. Having two really good assistants can solve that.
The problem is and I have repeadtedly said this here and throughout my blog, this is not a playoff team. Weiss is injured again. Another minor nagging injury that he is continually dealing with. He is NOT a #1 center. He also has a NTC clause! Why him?
Another stupid mistake by JM.
As for mortgaging the future, well we have some really bad contracts and we’ve been waiting too long for most of these players to amount to anything.
Other than Booth and Kulikov everyone is moveable. Even Vokoun who has played his heart out this season. He deserves a better fate and right now is our best bargaining chip.
Sexton has done a lousy job with the roster and JM left us in worse shape than everyone imagined.
by The Rat Trick on Feb 7, 2010 12:13 PM EST via mobile reply actions
A FACT
The Cats need that 1 big offensive STAR…….Every playoff bound team has and always have had at least 1 big star……since the exit of Pavel…we have not! In the Marqee it always that “Star offensive player followed by the name of the team” WE are the ONLY team that has featured THEIR GOALIE aka LUONGO and VOCOUN" No STAR with a regular hockey sick. We also don’t have a Tough Guy “hyeavyweight” that can actually skate well enough to set up plays and maybe score a goal occasionally…..Until we address these 2 issues…..The Cats will be recognized around the league for What They Really Are………..A Weak OFFENSIVE TEAM THAT CAN BE PUSHED AROUND!
The problem with the “fire everybody, trade everybody” menatality is that we have to get someone to replace them. What coach out there (better than what we have) is a) available b) willing to come to an organization that has no direction from ownership and no leadership on the roster? Sure, I’d love to get Scotty Bowman out of an office and behind our bench. Doesn’t quite work like that.
Same goes for the players. I’d love to trade Kreps and Cambell for a couple of 50 goal scorers. It’s just not gonna happen because no one wants to trade for our 4th liners with 2nd line contracts. Free agency? Same question. What top tier player is going to come to Sunrise, FL? We have to build with what we have, and when 2\3 of our top line is injured at the same time, it’s hard to do. We haven’t had the top line we were expecting to have together since October. And considering we’ve had at least 1, if not more callups from Rochester in basically every game, its incredible we’re still in the race.
I’m very very hesitantly waiting to see what happens between now and March 3rd. I wish I could just start focusing on upcoming spring training (my Mariners are gonna be lethal!) but I can’t. We’re 2 points out, hopefully Weiss and Horton will be back post-break and we’ll see where we are…
Ready... Fire!
Either fire DeBoer and his staff, or Sexton. Hell, just fire everyone. I’m sick of them already.
Expendable Players: Everyone but Vokoun, Kulikov, Repik, Matthias, Frolik and Booth
Expendable players with any value: Horton, Dvorak, Stillman, Olesz, Ballard, Moore, Allen
Expendable players with rental value: Leopold, Seidenberg
Expendable players with zero value: Kreps, Campbell, Mccabe, Tarnasky, Oreskovich, Clemmensen
Honestly I think Sexton has lots to work with… if he wants to sell. As for bettering the team I dont see how he can do it with our cap space, if Sexton has to get rid of anyone it should Mccabe and/or Ballard, both make waaaaay too much and are both terrible players.
Ballard has heart and guts
If every other player had what Ballard has….We wouldn’t have this forum.
I agree, Ballard is one of the hardest workers on the team, but he has 10 giveaways a game, he often abandons his coverage assignment, he always tries to gain the offensive zone by himself and loses the puck, he’s terrible 1 on 1 and he offers almost no offense but he does try really hard.
he’s overpaid for what we are getting. this is now making the Olli trade look even worse.
by The Rat Trick on Feb 7, 2010 3:02 PM EST up reply actions
Boynton
The Olli trade looked good when Ballard/ Boynton were looking Good. That whole deal with Boynton is another story……Who do you blame for that mess? Was that mis management again or Boyntons doing?
I would have to say mismanagement. Boynton is a passionate player, and DeBoer just lost his cool with him, although Boynton was prretty upset, he was one of the only Panthers who played with enough grit and sandpaper to stick up for his teammates regardless of who he was up against.
My main issue however is we traded away a perrenial 30 -35 goal scorer (forget about his performance since) for two defencemen, and did nothing to replace those goals.
In all honesty, Jacques Martin should never have been allowed to become GM of this team!
by The Rat Trick on Feb 7, 2010 4:47 PM EST up reply actions
I agree
Maybe that’s why it’s only defensemen that are scoring goals.
Maybe Pete should reclassify all of his forwards as D-men.
by Donny Rivette on Feb 7, 2010 5:10 PM EST up reply actions
great idea Donny
Make ALL Panthers Defensemen……No one can stop us now!
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