Florida Panthers Season Prediction. Can You Handle The Truth?

Last season in South Florida was a disaster.  No reason to sugarcoat it.  After missing the playoffs in 2008-2009 by one point, the Cats missed the playoffs last year by 11 points.  It might as well have been 20.  They were never really in it.  A record setting year in which they missed the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season, as well as finishing last in their division for the first time ever.  Records are made to be broken, but if you’re talking about playoffs this year, please consult a psychiatrist.   Or Jim Mora.

Hope however is on the way.  There is a plan.  There is a blueprint that will be followed and a very detailed and organized manner in which the Florida Panthers will recover.  The question is, can the fans hang on long enough to support this team and not committ suicide?  Ok, it’s not worth killing yourself, but I suggest  keeping all sharp objects away from you during the games, and please no baseball swings at your goalie.

Dale Tallon, the master behind the Chicago Blackhawks rebuild is here to hopefully do the same, in just as short a time.  Building from the draft, acquiring key free agents and making a smart trade or two is how this will get turned around.  We just have to live long enough.  As well as hope that the Panthers brass leaves Tallon alone and allows him to responsibly do his thing.

While the other team in South Florida (Miami Heat) was busy convincing players to bring their talents to South Beach, Tallon hasn’t had much luck with that this summer, and only some less than modest players were acquired which is the main reason this will be another tough year.  Here’s the breaskdown:

Offence:  Last season the Panthers ranked 28th in the NHL in goal scoring.  That was with Nathan Horton and Little Stevie having put up some pretty solid numbers.  Wow, did I just compliment that little weasel?  But remember that the Panthers were without David Booth most of the year due to concussions, and Rusty Olesz was pretty much invisible as he had a scoreless streak of about 32 games.  Oh, and by the way, Little Stevie went about 17 games as well without scoring a goal.  Those things just cannot happen this year, and Horton’s production lazy ass has been traded away.  Booth is allegedly fully recovered, but if the Panthers are going to score more, everyone on this roster is going to need to have a career year.  For some, that will be a tough performance to do.  Weiss can’t honestly get much better, and Michael Frolik who scored 21 goals in his second season is probably good for 25 max.  Newcomers like Chris Higgins who needs to regain his scoring touch, Michael Grabner an unproven player with a ton of promise may not be able to reach it, and Steve Bernier has dissappointed everywhere he’s been, as he can’t seem to decide what type of player he is.  So, as has been the case the past few years, the Panthers will employ a bunch of third and fourth liners in an effort to win games.  Good luck with that.

Defence:  Last season the Panthers defence was one of their strong points, even though they still seemed to give up tons of shots.  However when it became plainly obvious that the playoffs were not happening, the fire sale of defencemen began.  Jordan Leopold and Dennis Seidenberg were traded for draft picks.  In addition, Keith Ballard was traded away in the offseason, not because he wacked Vokoun in the head, but because of his contract and inconsistency.  Dmitry Kulikov was a rookie last year, and handled himself well after rough start.  Jason Garrison impressed enough in the last few weeks to earn a two year contract, and a regular spot this season.  But hope is that Erik Gudbranson the third overall pick in this summer’s draft impresses enough to make the team.  Dennis Wideman acquired from Boston in the Nathan Horton deal will most likely get paired with Captain Bryan McCabe.  There will be a battle for the fifth and sixth spots that Gudbranson may be part of, along with Patch Adams, Keaton Ellerby and some others whose names I don’t recall.  Mike Kitchen who is now with the Chicago Blackhawks and has been replaced by former Panther Gord Murphy, should determine if the “D” was bad because of the system, or the players.  Or maybe both.  All I know is that the shots against, must be reduced!

Goaltending:  Tomas Vokoun will be spending his fourth year here in Florida, and it’s the last year of his contract, which means you can say bye-bye at the trade deadline.  I like Vokoun and honestly wish him well.  He deserves to play for a winner, and has taken lots of criticism in his time here.  His stats are comparible to Roberto what’s his name during his time here, so stop complaining, or crying, or whatever it is that you’ve been doing.  Backing up Vokoun is Scott Clemmensen who after a miserable start, settled down towards the end.  It’s really not a bad one two punch, but you try facing 35-40 shots a night and see how you do.  Goaltending is very important, but you need a solid defence in front of you to minimize the shots against.  Waiting in the wings is Jacob Markstrom which will make trading Vokoun very easy.  Just don’t give him away.

Special Teams:  The power play was ranked 29th last season connecting only 14.2% of the time.  Why do you think I referred to the PP as Piss Poor?  Well, this year there’s no sniper to make it any better.  The penalty killing unit was at the bottom half as well, killing off only 79.4% of the penalties for 23rd.  I read once where a coach said that when your special teams’ percentages total more than 100 you’ve done a good job.  Something to strive for I guess, but without shot blocking expert Dennis Seidenberg around, I’m a bit worried about this unit as well.

Toughness: A special category that I added that most of the time wouldn’t garner any attention.  Reason being aftger last year’s none response to David Booth’s hit by Mike Richards, clean or not, the Florida Panthers will lack team toughness again.  They will get pushed around, and there will be little or no response to it.  Not a good thing, especially when the team enforcer plays 30 seconds a night, or is on a plane back to the minors.  The problem is that the Panthers react, which is always a game late. 

Coaching:  As mentioned Mike Kitchen has moved on to Chicago being replaced by Gord Murphy who was in Columbus.  Somehow I don’t know if I feel like that was much of an improvement.  It’s up to the players I guess.  Jim Hulton is still here and fans are pretty frustrated with him.  As for head coach Peter DeBoer, I really feel as though he doesn’t survive the season.  I have nothing against Pete.  I was all for him when he was brought in, but he’s not backed up some of his threats.  Players still getting ice time when they shouldn’t, and others not getting chances that they need.  Be careful youngsters.  Don’t cross Pete, play defence, and make sure you backcheck.  There’s a doghouse, and once you’re in it, there’s a trap door that leads right out of town.

I don’t feel as though breaking this down any further will make my prediction look any better.  In this my second season of writing on this site, I am telling you from now to manage your expectations.  I  will not be saying what you want to hear or read.  I will be honest and be a realist.  Get used to it.  This team will have trouble scoring.  The only strong point right now is goaltending, and possibly the top 3 defencemen.  Maybe.  Beyond that it will be a season of losing more games 3-2, than winning them 6-5.

There are only 15 teams in the Eastern Conference otherwise I would pick the Panthers to finish 16th.  Since that’s not possible, I do however predict a 15th place finish.  And I’m not sorry about that.  It’s a preview of what you’ll be getting all season, and what you’ve always been getting frm me.

The truth!  Hope we can all handle it.

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