Florida Panthers: Let’s Forget About Deadlines
Why you shouldn’t care about deadlines and appreciate the team for what it is
Its strange for me to come home after vacation and sit down to a computer, but my mind has been buzzing the entire ten hours from Edmonton, Alberta back home to the small town of High Level. I left home on Wednesday to go and see one of my favorite bands just one more time.
That band is The Tragically Hip
It was May 24th when I got the news that Gord Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. I couldn’t believe the news. I felt like I had all the time in the world to go to Tragically Hip shows because it seemed like every year they were either putting out a new album or touring. After finding out that they were doing just one more set of shows and calling it quits, I knew that this was my only chance to go and see them.
Florida Panthers
I had grown up with the Tragically Hip. To me, they were about as Canadian as the Toronto Maple Leafs or Hockey Night in Canada. I’ve gone on many walks and car rides through -40 degree weather with their music in my ears trekking through snow and ice. Its almost incredible to think about how much Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip meant to me because it felt like they were there for every moment of my life, and I couldn’t think of a band I felt that strongly about. It still hasn’t really set in yet that in mere months, I’m going to wake up to the news of Gord Downie’s passing and no matter what I do, I wont be prepared to handle it.
Strangely enough, my next thought was about how I could have been writing an article about Nick Bjugstad‘s crash into the boards during game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, him getting stretchered off the ice and the possibility of his career ending off that one moment. I thought about Willie Mitchell, and how his injured reserve status is now a career ending injury. I thought about Richard Zednik, who had one of the most gruesome accidents I’ve ever seen when Olli Jokinens skate caught his throat and coated the ice with blood.
Thursday I spent my morning chasing down an Aaron Ekblad rookie card and a new Florida Panthers jersey. Its not easy to be in Edmonton and be a Panthers fan, not only because you aren’t supposed to do something like root for a southern team and if you really have to pick a team, the Panthers aren’t a team they expect you to pick. In fact, I would say if you ever find yourself in Alberta and come across someone in Florida Panthers gear, its me.
I never did succeed in finding that jersey, but I did end up finding my Aaron Ekblad card. Of course, I could have easily purchased over a dozen overpriced Connor McDavid rookie cards, or one of three Wayne Gretzky rookie cards I found but I had to have the Ekblad, despite four clerks saying “Aaron who?” when I asked if they had one. The situation was funnier when one of the guys who asked me who Aaron Ekblad was looked at my sweater and said “Thats a wicked sweater. Kevin Spacey is my favorite actor. Where did you get that?”. I told him I ordered it online and we left the shop.
My loving and patient wife, who had been dragged throughout West Edmonton Mall in a quest resembling something out of The Lord of The Rings looked at me and said “He didn’t notice the Panthers logo on the back, did he?”
Finally at the fifth stop, I found it. As I held it, I thought about how great the things he had accomplished already were. He’s a Calder Trophy winner, a phenomenal draft pick for the Panthers and undoubtedly the future of the franchise. Then I thought about the night Ekblad’s future in the NHL could have stopped dead in its tracks.
Ill never forget it, because I have watched the replay easily fifty times. Matt Hendricks gets stripped of the puck by Aleksander Barkov and the puck slides to the corner. Ekblad makes it behind Al Montoya‘s net to retrieve the puck and gets nailed hard into the boards by Hendricks. I can safely say after repeatedly watching the video from several angles that Hendricks shouldn’t have made the play because Ekblad goes down for the count and had no way to protect himself. Ekblad would be out for four games with a concussion and luckily came back no worse for wear.
We finally left the mall after having lunch with my sister and went to Rexall Place. I decided to wear my nice clothes to the concert. Those nice clothes being my Panthers shirt with Ekblad’s number 5 on the back and a pair of jeans. My wife and I waited about three hours from the time we got there for the show to begin. Between the lineups for overpriced beer and pizza, the merchandise stand and finding our seats, which apparently were designed for the Keebler Elves, it felt like minutes.
The Tragically Hip was by far the best show I have ever gone to, and I highly recommend if you have the chance to watch the final show on August 22nd on CBC, you do so. Every song brought back memories and with each songs ending it was heartbreaking realizing that the band had played it for the last time in that arena. I spent a fair bit of time after the show kicking myself in the ass for not going down to see them years before, because I made excuses like “they aren’t as good as they used to be” or “maybe they wont play the songs I like”. Instead I found myself saying “I wish I hadn’t gone to say goodbye to them”.
It was then and there that I told myself I’d be back in Rexall Place on January 18th, because I felt like I didn’t want to say goodbye to this version of the Florida Panthers. Last season was the most exciting season of hockey I have ever watched out of this team and next year is shaping up to be even more exciting with the long term signings, the addition of new teammates and the changes to the office staff. For years I made excuses like the Panthers could lose and I dont want to pay to see that, or that I really couldnt afford to miss work right after Christmas or that the team isnt as good as it should be. After watching Gord Downie force back tears before he walked off the stage to a standing ovation, I wanted to be able to say I got to see guys like Jonathan Huberdeau in their prime instead of seeing them at the tail end of their careers.
Next: Florida Panthers: How Deep Of A Playoff Run Is Possible?
There is one thing I can admit here and its that I really don’t care if the Panthers don’t win the cup in the next three years. I’ll still be a fan whether we come in 30th place overall or 1st place next season, and I will say the same for every other season going forward. Of course, I would love it if they did, but not winning isn’t going to make me want Tom Rowe to resign from his job as general manager. The Florida Panthers have a bright future but like anything in life, nothing is guaranteed. Enjoy the team, because sometimes we forget that the things we get to appreciate today might be gone tomorrow.