At the time, I think everyone knew that the Panthers were going to get screwed in another trade. Roberto Luongo and Lukas Krajicek and a 6th round draft pick sent to the Vancouver Canucks for Alex Auld, Todd Bertuzzi, and Bryan Allen. Heads all over the NHL and the rest of the sports world turned. Huh?? Did the Panthers just trade their “franchise goaltender” for a wash up, and unproven backup goalie and an overrated blue liner?

… Yes

But at the start of the next season, I was there in section 401 cheering on the Panthers with my little brother on opening night. We watched Alex Auld, Allen, and Bertuzzi make their debut’s and were stunned by the outcome. An 8-3 Panthers victory. Well now… maybe this won’t be so bad. Seven games into the season and Todd Bertuzzi had 1 goal and 6 assists. Things were looking good……

… And then

Injury. As a fan of any team in any sport, you hate the word. But when Todd Bertuzzi got hurt during the 8th game of 2006-2007 season, the Luongo trade was dubbed the “worst trade” of all-time. Alex Auld began to slip further and further down the depth chart, while the Panthers lost game after game. Bryan Allen did have a good season however, contributing 4 goals and 21 assists for 25 points, his highest point total ever. Ed Belfour did the best he could to hang onto the season, and Craig Anderson made his debut. But… at the end of the season the Panthers were on the outside looking in, a familiar place…

… One day

After the season was over, we traded Bertuzzi to Detroit for Shawn Mattias. A young, up and coming prospect from the Red Wings organization didn’t sound like such a bad thing. However, after what seemed like 70 GM’s and coaches, Shawn Mattias never really got his chance. He scored 2 goals in his first career game against the Caps, but was sent back down to Rochester to “condition”. He began this season in the AHL… again… only this time I think we all knew he would be back up. Looking at the roster on opening night, it didn’t even look good on paper. It was almost like we were built to fail. It took some injuries and some trades, But Mattias finally made it to the “big club” a few weeks ago. He and the other young guys who are having “tryouts” to see who is going to remain on the team after the season, have impressed. Repik, Garrisson, and Mattias all look like promising; but it is Mattias who is standing out the most. He has learned a lot, and is turning into a future NHL main stay. Strong on the puck and smart on the boards, he is just one of the many promising young talents the Panthers’ have waiting in the wings. Yesterday IN San Jose,  he notched a goal and an assist to help the Panthers beat the Sharks in overtime. Yes… the Sharks. Heatley, Thornton, Marleau… same team. Mattias fought all night long for the puck. He got a beautiful “dirty” goal in front of the net, and won a faceoff in overtime that allowed Bryan Allen to score the game winner.

So Shawn Mattias. He has promise. He is the prospect I am most excited to see bloom here in Florida. However. Mark Parrish was pretty exciting too… and he was traded as soon as he bloomed. But Mattias is here now, and it lets me believe that we didn’t totally get screwed out of the Luongo deal… it just took a few years for it to pay off for the Panthers.

Ahhh Panthers game day. Nothing like waking up early in the morning on a Saturday when you have a hockey game to watch later on in the evening. Unfortunately, I won’t be attending this game. It will be the first home game I’ve missed in three months. Had a new addition to the family last night, so I will be spending time with family. But I will be watching.

I am going to try to introduce a new feature here today. I can’t promise it will happen every game, as I work on many nights, but I am going to do my best here. It is going to be called “My Panthers Pick”. Each game I will select a player that I believe will produce heavily. This doesn’t mean he will score a hat trick, but he will do the little things like play hard on the boards, make smart passes, and clear the traffic in front of the net. So my first “Panthers Pick” is:

JASON GARRISON

I make this pick for several reasons. Him being young is not one of them; our entire team is young.. but last game against the Flyers he scored his first career NHL goal and added an assist while playing the best game of his young career. He’s gotten a taste of what it’s like to succeed and he is going to want more. With the trades of Jordan Leopold and Dennis Seidenberg, he is getting his NHL audition. And he simply most score 100. He logged over 19 minutes of ice time and was given significant time on the powerplay. Tonight against the Canes he’ll face a significant test. Make no mistake about it, the Canes may appear to be down and out, but they are not. Any offense with Eric Staal on it is a dangerous offense. Head coach Peter Deboer should give him significant minutes against the high powered offensive forward. Garrisons size (6’2, 220 lbs) makes him dangerous. He is very quick on the skates, and will provide a road block that Staal must try to get around. Predictions for him tonight: 1 assist. Playing with Bryan McCabe will help any young defenceman develop. As he logs game time, and practice time with McCabe, expect him to turn into an elite talent.

So why not pick Dmitry Kulikov? Well while I do believe he is going to become an AMAZING, and I do mean AMAZING, talent.. I think coming back from an injury before the Olympic break, then having been thrown on the top defensive pair and being expected to produce immediately, is going to stunt the growth of this future star. This gives Garrison the advantage of being able to slide in and surprise everyone. So will I be right? Will Jason Garrison have another great game tonight? We find out in less than four hours…

I’d also like to take this time to state my opinion about the outbreak of illegal and dangerous hitting going on in the NHL right now. Being a Panthers fan I got to see this type of hit back in October when Mike Richards railed David Booth in open ice. You can argue Booth was “admiring” his pass, or that he had his head down; but nothing good will ever come when you hit someone in open ice. Hockey players are taught to “hug” the boards when expecting a hit or when battling along the boards. Being so close to the boards allows them to absorb the hit. In open ice… there’s no safety. The other night, Max Lapierre hit Sharks’ forward Scott Nichol from behind after he scored a goal. Nichol slid face first into the boards and was frantically moving on the ice in pain. If you haven’t seen the hit, it is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mAdKiK_Fto

Not cool. Not cool at all. I’d like to see teams take action against players for this type of action, not just the league. Because one day, a player won’t get up after being hit like this.

GO CATS!!

It took three seconds. I think every Panthers’ fan was feeling the same amount of frustration as the players were. Everyone in this franchise is frustrated right now.. from the towel boy on up to our new owners; whom by the way didn’t make too many friends inside the locker room when they released a “letter to the fans” some two weeks ago. The trade deadline has come and gone. What a BORING trade deadline it was. I know I was at work with my IPhone in hand refreshing my Hockeybuzz app every five minutes to see if there was a trade worth knowing about. Nothing good really happened. As usual, the Capitals went out and gathered about 100 new players to help them score even more goals. Although, the Caps lack goaltending at times and that is always their downfall… The Panthers did make a few trades.. sending away our two best d-men, Dennis Seidenberg and Jordan Leopold, away for picks and prospects. You can never argue with picks and prospects. The Panthers sure do have a lot of each. We acquired a few young defencemen and some big “tough guy”. Nothing to get excited about. I was totally expecting a trade involving Nathan Horton or Tomas Vokoun. I am convinced their high salaries are what kept them from be traded. I have been saying for the last three months that Weiss, Booth, Frolik and Kulikov are those who should stay. Maybe Reinprecht as a 3rd line center. Everyone else goes. Just my opinion of course. Tomas Vokoun deserves to be in the playoffs. He deserves a run at the cup. I sure hope he gets it soon…

Three seconds into tonight’s game against the Flyers, the gloves were off. Gregory Campbell and Ian Laperriere dropped the gloves, followed by Nick Tarnasky and Arron Asham (the two would fight for a second time later). But when David Booth dropped the gloves against Mike Richards, the man who nearly ended his career, it was on. The fight only lasted about four seconds, but the crowd roared, and the cats stormed out of the gate and destroyed the Flyers in the 2nd period. I was proud. Every Panthers fan was proud. This won won’t catapult us into the playoffs. It won’t win us the cup. But it made us proud. Some youngsters and the futures of the franchise shined tonight. Shawn Mattias played great. As did our future d-man Jason Garrisson, who got his first career NHL goal. Congratulations to him. In the end, it was all about pride. I am proud to be a Panthers fan. And hey, the season isn’t over yet!

Had a chance to watch some womens hockey lastnight…


I was able to watch the womens game between Finland and China lastnight. Great stuff. I remember a time when the women looked so unorganized.. well these ladies were BRINGING IT! Good game. Great stuff.

Although I am not officially covering tonights game between Slovakia and Czech Republic, I am watching it and it is a great game. Full of NHLers of past and present. Very cool to see my current goaltender, (for how much longer remains a mystery), Tomas Vokoun playing for his country. It's even cooler to see Richard Zednik out there for his country. Even caught a glimpse of Jozef Stumpel! I think he's the only player in any league around the world using wooden sticks! With guys like Jaromir Jagar and Zigmund Palfy out there, we're getting some back and forth action and it's great hockey. I love the Olympics because no matter what my work schedule is, I can come home and watch a hockey game.

I also want to give a shout out to a personal family friend and Olympian, womens goalie for team USA Brianne McLaughlin! Goodluck and go red, white and blue!!

That's all for now,
Enjoy the games!

One point..  After everything the Panthers have gone through the last one+ week, the Panthers finally fought hard enough tonight to get one…

A goal from grinder Nick Tarnasky, and an injured and struggling Stephan Weiss.. and the Panthers finally get one.

Behind a bruised and battered goaltender, a semi attentive audience, and television broadcasters who seemed more interested in other things… the Panthers got one..

And behind a shootout that was actually quite entertaining… the Panthers got one..

As a Panther fan all my life, this has to be one of the toughest stretches I can remember. A team which was dealt a crushing blow just a few games in while playing in Philadelphia, (I am referring to the hit placed on David Booth), and fought through more injuries than almost every other team up until mid- January, is collapsing. Guys like Kendal McCardle and Shawn Mattias were main stays on this team. Victor Oreskovich was a “must have”. We fought to get into 6th place in the eastern conference just a few weeks ago. We laughed at injuries to our all-star goaltender Tomas Vokoun, and our only hope at a sniper, Nathan Horton. We settled for Cory Stillman on the top line, when we were too injury depleted to make up two acceptable top lines. Throw in our real captain (in my opinion), Stephan Weiss, missing a game here and there, an average of 3 goal posts hit per game, and a total lack of confidence, and here we stand. 59 points. Behind an Atlanta team that just traded away their only all star, Ilya Kovalchuk. Barely ahead of an Islander team with an average age of 12, and a Toronto team that almost has more defencemen on its roster than forwards.

Just yesterday, the new majority owners of the Panthers franchise submitted a letter on the teams website about the “changes” to come for this team. We read a few days ago about our General Mangers frustration after an embarassing 4-1 loss at the hands of the last place Carolina Hurricanes as he stated: “this is the last time we will see this particular group of players on the ice as a team”. The next day, we traded a struggling Dominic Moore to the Habs for a 2nd round draft pick in 2011. Dominic Moore went on to score a goal in his first game as a Montreal Canadien. So injury depleted are we that we had to dress Rusty Olesz for the next game, a 3-0 shutout loss at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks, for a faceoff so that we would have the allowed amount of players dressed for an NHL game.. Olesz has a broken finger and is out until after the Olympic break..

And now tonight. We fought to a RARE, and I mean RARE, 2 goal lead. Nick Tarnasky scored a RARE goal. Stephan Weiss fought for a nice, RARE goal on the powerplay… yes you heard correctly, the powerplay. We gave it all we could. And almost like it wasn't meant to be, again, we lost a lead.

And we have to settle for one…