NHL Season Preview: Florida Panthers

by J.P. on Sep 19, 2008 8:00 AM EDT

I've always thought that the perspective in the Panthers logo was way off. I mean, how far away can those hind legs possibly be? Maybe she (right?) was just born with small feet.

Anyway, my Cats preview is up over at FanHouse, and here's a bit from last year's tour de force:

Hit:

Who's On The Hook: Jokinen. In a League in which more than half the teams make the playoffs each year, no one in the NHL has played more regular season games without a playoff appearance than the Panthers captain, whose streak currently stands at 641games. While the blame for the team's failure to make the postseason since the ridiculous-in-retrospect trade that brought Jokinen and Roberto Luongo to South Beach in exchange for Oleg Kvasha and Mark Parrish can't be heaped entirely upon the 28-year-old Finn, he's the guy wearing the "C," he'll be the team's all-time leading scorer by Halloween, and he has posted back-to-back career seasons that have been relatively meaningless, as the Cats finished in fourth place in the Division both years. Jokinen can't do it alone, of course, but it's time for him to start earning those big bucks the team shelled out to extend his contract back in March of 2006, and he can start doing that by leading the Panthers to the playoffs.

You can't spell "Jokinen" without "joke."

Miss:

Bouwmeester is now entering his fifth NHL season, and this is the year that his name should start to become a part of any and every Norris Trophy discussions for the next decade or so.

Meh. I'd still take him on my team any day (but seriously, he couldn't even get one fifth-place vote last year?).

So how 'bout dem Kitties? Can they challenge for a playoff spot or are they headed back to Lotteryville? Which crappy Panther will own the Caps this season and win this year's Jon Sim Award (can anyone dethrone reigning award winner Kamil Kreps)?

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Comments

I feel like the Jon Sim award should be known as the Randy Cunneyworth Award

by Ryan on Sep 19, 2008 8:38 AM EDT reply actions

This year's Jon Sim goes to:

Rusty Olesz!

Book it. Go Cats.

by Whale4ever on Sep 19, 2008 11:03 AM EDT reply actions

Completely off topic, and I didn't get close enough to verify but I am told that Brashear's green t shirt he had yesterday said "I'm a lucky bastard"

by Sombrero Guy on Sep 19, 2008 11:06 AM EDT reply actions

Only partially off-topic RE: "I mean, how far away can those hind legs possibly be? Maybe she (right?) was just born with small feet."

There are like a maximum of eighty living Florida panthers and none in the wild. When they were wild, they were so hemmed into the Florida peninsula for so many hundreds of years, unable to co-mingle with populations further north, that they had to interbreed. The few that I have seen (in zoos) are quite mis-shapen and all of them have deformed hindquarters and tails. Their situation is really quite thoroughly pathetic. I grew up in Fla and I was surprised when that poor creature was picked that as the hockey team's logo. But there is rarely a connection between the mind of a marketing team and "reality". [shrug]

by Anonymous on Sep 19, 2008 11:50 AM EDT reply actions

A new day is coming. We've got the swag working this year, we aren't going to get pwned by some crappy Panther team that wants to degenerate this into a slop fest. 4-1-1, minimum.

by MacVechkin, fka JR on Sep 19, 2008 12:50 PM EDT reply actions

Anonymous:

If there are no panthers living in the wild down here, how is it that so many of them, so regularly, wind up as road pizza on the Alley?

http://marconews.com/news/2008/sep/16/panthers-afterlife-serves-fwc-educational-tool/?partner=RSS

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/sep/03/panther-crossing-signs-installed-along-collier-bou/

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Columnists/SensePlace/colSENSE082308.htm

Just sayin'.

by Whale4ever on Sep 19, 2008 8:25 PM EDT reply actions

1) The Panthers will continue to remain, as we called it on our blog last month in, 'No Man's land' : being too good to be a lottery team and not good enough to make the playoffs. Staying just below thereby getting screwed out of the benefits of both those positions....again

by FAUX RUMORS on Sep 20, 2008 11:05 AM EDT reply actions

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Southeast Standings

	GP	W	L	OTL	PT
Florida Litter Box Cats	54	26	17	11	63
Washington Japers' Rink	54	28	21	5	61
Winnipeg Arctic Ice Hockey	57	26	25	6	58
Tampa Bay Raw Charge	54	24	24	6	54
Carolina Canes Country	56	20	25	11	51