As It Happened; Disappointing Season For The Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers ended off the 2016-17 regular season in disappointment. Based on the off-season moves in the summer, this team was expected to at least make the playoffs. This, did not happen.
The 2016-17 regular season has been a shock for everyone in the organization, including us fans. Management spent a boat load of money adding to the d-core. High profile names like Keith Yandle were brought in to improve the power play. Other serviceable defenseman such as Demers and Pysyk were also brought in to add more depth to the defensive core.
It wasn’t just the defense that received reinforcements/changes, but forwards Jonathan Marchessault and Colton Sceviour were also added to strengthen up our bottom six. A lot of are young players received contract extensions in the process as well. Huberdeau, Ekblad, Trocheck, and Smith were all in for a pay-day, not that they didn’t deserve it. James Reimer was also added to take the pressure off of Roberto Luongo and to give him valuable rest during certain parts of the season. From there, we were all set, yet we think we were.
The Panthers began the season without Huberdeau and Bjugstad. Jonathan took a blow in a preseason game against the New Jersey Devils, where his tendon was split open. Once we saw the skate connect with Jonathan’s heel, we certainly knew he’d be out long term. It was a tough one to swallow. Bjugstad on the other hand broke his hand. This is the last thing Nick needed going into the season. Nick had issues with injuries the past two seasons and just couldn’t find any luck with avoiding the injury bug.
The injuries didn’t stop there. Jussi Jokinen received an injury early in the year, where he was forced to sit out for a couple of weeks. With those three guys out of the lineup, it was a coaches nightmare to create new lines that would click. Scoring started to become an issue once again, as we were missing three important forwards. Players on the bottom line like Marchessault for instance, began to play top minutes. This proved to benefit Jonathan, as he ended the year with 30 goals. Other guys such as Colton Sceviour, struggled with playing top minutes in certain situations. Sceviour found his game towards the end of the year.
Next: Florida Panthers Officially Announce Dale Tallon Back To GM, Rowe Out As Coach
Injuries led to a path none of us fans would expect us to take. Firing coach Gallant. No one ever would have thought that the Florida Panthers would fire their coach so early or at all. The Cats just came off a season where we won the Atlantic Division. Surely Gallant was the right coach for these group of guys. Not according to management unfortunately. Management decided to hit the panic button and fire our beloved coach. This came out of shock.
Sure, the Panthers were out of a playoff spot at the time, but were only 2-3 months into the season. There was more than 50 games to be played and we were only out of the last wild card spot by four points. Four points! There was no justified reason to fire Gerard Gallant, there just wasn’t. It was a clear panic move and in result, we happened to finish eighth last in the league.
Our destiny lies at the draft instead of the playoffs. It’s really unfortunate, as this team had a lot of talent to make some noise in the playoffs. Seeing what’s done is done, we need to move forward. As we heard on Monday, Dale Tallon has been announced as GM again. This, this is how you start the summer off on the right foot. Part of the problem with management was the fact that to many voices were playing roles into making decisions. At the end of the day, one voice and one person should be making the decision, that is Dale Tallon.