The floor is open, kids; anything and everything regarding the Florida Panthers is fair game. I imagine we’ll get back to holding daily Caterwauls as the season gets a little closer. A few potential topics for discussion…
- Rookie Camp opens to the public at Saveology IcePlex (IncredibleIce) at 9 am Sunday. An autograph session will follow the first practice.
- Single-game tickets are now on sale. Get in line now since “Blue Out Ford Fridays with Power 96 After-Parties and Postgame Concerts” – whatever all that means – look to be interesting. Is a game included as well?
- Recent Panthers first-round pick Quinton Howden is juiced but realistic for his first big-league camp.
- Speaking of camp: thanks to numerous incentives, “there’s no excuse, South Florida, for not catching Panthers fever this year. As (GM Dale) Tallon will tell you, the Chicago Blackhawks were once a hopelessly pathetic franchise too. Now they’ve got 18,000 (mostly) fair-weather fans flocking to a single practice.” (Broward New Times)
- Longtime farmhand David Brine moves on to San Antonio (AHL); it’ll be odd not seeing him in some capacity around Coral Springs this weekend.
- Similarly, defenseman Luke Beaverson moves on to the ECHL. Blame it on the Reign.
- Former Cat Dennis Seidenberg on new Bruins teammate Nathan Horton: “Florida can definitely get old when you’re there for seven years and you want to be playing in a hockey city.” Solid logic; everyone knows Sunrise is a Retail City.
- More Horton banter and a poll asking what can be expected out of him this year at Stanley Cup of Chowder. Enjoy.
- Our buddy Keith at Let’s Go Amerks! is changing up the format a bit for the coming season.
- The good folks at CycWords – covering new Panthers’ ECHL affiliate Cincinnati Cyclones – are gearing up for the new year no less than the rest of us.
- Prez/COO Michael Yormark checks in with his blog, which reads suspiciously like a sponsorship roster. Also, anyone else notice the Yormark bio is routinely far beefier than his submissions?
- Raw Charge looks at the Southeast Division.
- Montreal Gazette: Blackhawks “aren’t sold on (former Panther Jeff) Taffe by a long-shot”, regardless of his current one-way deal.
- Hawks’ president John McDonough’s reasoning on firing Dale Tallon: “As an organization we needed to calm down a little bit…” Yep, no other politics involved with that decision.
- Remember forward Rob Globke? Neither do we, but evidently he’s now a Devil. No, not the Newark variety.
- We don’t make a habit of shilling products here, but I’d be performing a grave disservice by not mentioning DobberHockey’s 2010-11 Fantasy Guide. It’s simply a phenomenal hockey resource, whether you play the online fantasy stuff or not.
- An example of what you will not find in the DobberHockey Guide: “It will be a miracle if Florida make the playoffs with this roster, and it will be a miracle if you succeed in your fantasy hockey pool with a bunch of Panthers on your roster.” Insightful stuff. (The Province)
- Happy Birthday to Florida prospects Scott Timmins and Benjamin Gallacher (both on Saturday).
- Finally, Matt from View From My Seats was kind enough to ask for opinions by a few of us Southeast dwellers in a division-themed blogger roundtable.
Hope to see y’all Sunday morning.