Well it's only just begun, but I have to throw my second favorite sport in town some love. The Florida Panthers are sitting at 5-7 through the first 12 games of the season, and have played much more inspired (despite the record), during these first 12 games of the Dale Tallon era. The architect of the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup run has made his presence known like no one else in franchise history. All you have to do is look at how this team skates, and hustles. Gone are the days of the Nathan Hortons of the world, those players with a world of talent but less heart than chihuahua. With us are the junk yard dogs, David Booth, Stephen Weiss, Brian McCabe, Radek Dvorak, Bryan Allen, Cory Stillman, and even Rostislov Olesz, who could've been Horton's twin a couple years ago, has shown some heart most thought he never had. These guys play almost reckless, it's like a controlled train wreck, if that makes any sense. Not to mention the addition of Marty Reasoner, who along with Dvorak is the Panthers highest scoring line. David Booth is starting to get his legs under him, after sitting out last year with a concussion, and Tomas Vokoun is off to a hot start, posting 2 shoutouts already.
One glaring weakness is the power play. The Panthers are 28th in the NHL with a man advantage. Luckily, they are 4th in penalty killing, so at least their not giving it up, as poorly as they are scoring in that scenario. Speaking of scoring, it may surprise some fans to learn that they don't have a scorer in the top 40 (yes top40!), they are 7th in the league in goals scored. Which tells us that the scoring is coming from all over the place. Consider that the top scoring team in the league (Colorado Avalanche), have 9 of their 24 skaters that have not registered a goal. The Panthers on the other hand, have only 3 players that have not tallied a goal just yet. Don't hand me the "assist count as a score" line. You can accidentally touch the puck and get at least 1 assist. It remains to be seen if that trend will continue, but promising nonetheless. Also, Vokoun is not facing as many shots as he has in the past, with the much improved defensive play that they've shown thus far.
It seems as though for the first time ever, there is actually a change of attitude on this team. We can only hope now that this new found hustle and attitude will translate to future success. Speaking of the future, let us not forget that they had what many consider to be the strongest draft in years. None of which have made their NHL debut yet, but I think we'll see the young goaltender Jakob Markstrom before we'll see any of the skaters. With Vokoun getting up there in years, I'm sure they'll want to give him a look this year, so they can plan for the future.
The Panthers host the Toronto Maple Leafs at 7:30 tonight on FSN, channel 39.
One glaring weakness is the power play. The Panthers are 28th in the NHL with a man advantage. Luckily, they are 4th in penalty killing, so at least their not giving it up, as poorly as they are scoring in that scenario. Speaking of scoring, it may surprise some fans to learn that they don't have a scorer in the top 40 (yes top40!), they are 7th in the league in goals scored. Which tells us that the scoring is coming from all over the place. Consider that the top scoring team in the league (Colorado Avalanche), have 9 of their 24 skaters that have not registered a goal. The Panthers on the other hand, have only 3 players that have not tallied a goal just yet. Don't hand me the "assist count as a score" line. You can accidentally touch the puck and get at least 1 assist. It remains to be seen if that trend will continue, but promising nonetheless. Also, Vokoun is not facing as many shots as he has in the past, with the much improved defensive play that they've shown thus far.
It seems as though for the first time ever, there is actually a change of attitude on this team. We can only hope now that this new found hustle and attitude will translate to future success. Speaking of the future, let us not forget that they had what many consider to be the strongest draft in years. None of which have made their NHL debut yet, but I think we'll see the young goaltender Jakob Markstrom before we'll see any of the skaters. With Vokoun getting up there in years, I'm sure they'll want to give him a look this year, so they can plan for the future.
The Panthers host the Toronto Maple Leafs at 7:30 tonight on FSN, channel 39.
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