The holiday season should bring out the best in all of us: a spirit of giving, goodwill towards men and hope for better days to come. We should put our cynicism aside, at least for this one week or so.
But December 23 is Festivus, and one of the celebrations for Festivus is the Airing of Grievances. With the Florida Panthers, there is never a shortage of grievances to air, and as the great George Costanza put it, “I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it!”
In celebration of the holiday (albeit a little late), here is a grievance to air with the Florida Panthers: why are they seemingly incapable of being anything other than average?
To be fair, there are plenty of times when they’ve been far below average in every department, but most of Panthers history has been of a team in the messy middle: not bad enough to get franchise-changing players and not good enough to make the postseason.
Even with the money spent this offseason and the talent brought in to change that direction, the Panthers are still stuck in the messy middle. No one can gravitate above the fray in Sunrise. Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau continue to be their fantastic selves, but they drag this team out of mediocrity themselves.
Joel Quenneville is one of the best coaches in league history, but at times with the Panthers, you wouldn’t know it. His team can’t impose their will on the game as often as they need to or should, but enough of the time, the talent shines through just enough. For two months, Sergei Bobrovsky was very poor. In December, he’s been lights out. Put it all together, and everything cancels out.
When the Panthers have gone up against teams at or below their level, they have thrived. When they play teams above their level, they have sunk. Against the Bruins, Islanders, and Lightning, the Panthers look completely out of their depth, but against teams like Columbus, San Jose, and Ottawa, they look like they’re the team they think they can be.
They’ve had no winning streak longer than three, and no losing streak longer than three. They have exactly 18 wins and 18 losses. They are a middle of the road team in puck possession. They’re not any better in expected goals. They are, for lack of a better term, average.
Yes, the Florida Panthers have quite often been below average in almost every area of the organization from ownership on down. But clearing that extremely low bar is no accomplishment, especially since they’re only barely clearing that bar to begin with.
Some of the moves they make show a willingness to leave the safe space of mediocrity behind, but they aren’t backed up with further moves to leave it permanently behind. Adding Joel Quenneville and Sergei Bobrovsky is nice, but what about fixing the glaring problems on the blue line that are even more glaring now? What about giving those young players the organization is high on a chance to succeed at the NHL level instead of letting them languish in the minors?
In theory, a team only has to be average to make the postseason in a league where over half the teams make the playoffs. But average hasn’t cut it for the Panthers in their history, and nor should it now. They have the potential to be more than what they are, they have the potential to shake free of the vice-grip of the messy middle, but they never seem to want to be bold enough to do so.
In a year that is so important, it’s time to roll the dice and not hope that things will get better on its own. There’s plenty of evidence, past and present, to suggest that won’t happen. You can’t win by being more average than average.
Once grievances have been aired on Festivus, it’s customary to follow with the Feats of Strength. Normally, that is a wrestling match with the head of the household. Since none of us will win a wrestling match against a Panther (or have a chance to), here is a challenge for the Panthers in its place: be more than what you’ve been, take risks, be bold and back up your words with action. Don’t languish in the past, don’t blindly hope for the future, stand up in the present and be counted.
Perhaps when they show those feats of strength, a Festivus miracle or two will come along.