Florida Panthers playoff drought leaves fans parched

Right on the money I'm afraid...

Jaques Martin has to go. He's had his chances to succeed, if he was a cat he'd be on his 12th or 13th life by now. DeBoer was a great hire, some of the players he's brought in/drafted are great, but it's time to move on. If this playoff drought continues much longer it will kill hockey in South Florida.

As much as a hate to say it, they need to trade Vokoun, re-sign Anderson and let Jay go, and use the trade/extra money to bring in some legitimate scoring threats.

Well written Ethan.........We are not 10 players away....we are a good sniper, a great set-up man........Want to know why a team like Boston or a team like San Jose can pick up good players?

They have something worth to trade!

We need one or two players!!!!

Couldn't Agree More with everything in this article!

Skolnick is living in a dream world.

1. This team has not and will not spend the money needed to get the talent this club needs to compete at a higher level. It started when Cohen promised to reinvest the 10 million he had saved by trading Pavel Bure only to never do a thing with that money. He's been squeezing the nickel until the bull farts ever since by spending only just enough money to give fans the "illusion" that SSE is committed. The problem is compounded when overpaying deadwood like Olesz, Mclean, Peltonen, Weiss, Horton and so on has had the opposite affect by taking money needed to sign REAL talent.

2. As of result of the legacy this team has created over the years and the alienation of many high profile NHL players, Florida has gained the reputation as a "player purgatory'. Players who sign here as free agents are either desperate, at the end of their career, have no where else to go or are trying to rekindle past days of glory. Consequently most NHL players don't want to play for Florida because they know it is a career killer and if they don't do well here they are likely to be thrown under the bus and bad-mouthed as many have already been in the past.

The bottom line is that Florida has put itself in a very bad position. Even if they had wads of cash ready to spend in the FA market (which they don't), they would be hard pressed to find the quality of players they need to rebuild this club and bring back some semblance of respect around the league. I had always hoped it wouldn't reach that point, but this franchise has done everything it can to shoot itself in the foot. It has drafted very poorly, made horrible trades, alienated all-star talent, scared off veterans and overrated many players who don't even belong in the NHL and would be career AHLers with other franchises. Throw in an inexperienced GM and an owner who has no clue how to run a hockey franchise and the results speak for themselves.

St. Louis Blues 75pts last year... PLAYOFFS this year. They had a TON of injuries.. great management, great coach. well done. It doesn't take 8 years to turn a team around

Fish Fan wrote:

Right on the money I'm afraid...
Jaques Martin has to go. He's had his chances to succeed, if he was a cat he'd be on his 12th or 13th life by now. DeBoer was a great hire, some of the players he's brought in/drafted are great, but it's time to move on. If this playoff drought continues much longer it will kill hockey in South Florida.
As much as a hate to say it, they need to trade Vokoun, re-sign Anderson and let Jay go, and use the trade/extra money to bring in some legitimate scoring threats.

Good post

Please cover those Ice Dancers up a little...if their costumes get any smaller, it'll be pasties and thongs. This is a family entertainment event, not a Gentleman's Club. But apparently the sales/advertising staff misses that point.

RED BARON wrote:

Skolnick is living in a dream world.
1. This team has not and will not spend the money needed to get the talent this club needs to compete at a higher level. It started when Cohen promised to reinvest the 10 million he had saved by trading Pavel Bure only to never do a thing with that money. He's been squeezing the nickel until the bull farts ever since by spending only just enough money to give fans the "illusion" that SSE is committed. The problem is compounded when overpaying deadwood like Olesz, Mclean, Peltonen, Weiss, Horton and so on has had the opposite affect by taking money needed to sign REAL talent.
2. As of result of the legacy this team has created over the years and the alienation of many high profile NHL players, Florida has gained the reputation as a "player purgatory'. Players who sign here as free agents are either desperate, at the end of their career, have no where else to go or are trying to rekindle past days of glory. Consequently most NHL players don't want to play for Florida because they know it is a career killer and if they don't do well here they are likely to be thrown under the bus and bad-mouthed as many have already been in the past.
The bottom line is that Florida has put itself in a very bad position. Even if they had wads of cash ready to spend in the FA market (which they don't), they would be hard pressed to find the quality of players they need to rebuild this club and bring back some semblance of respect around the league. I had always hoped it wouldn't reach that point, but this franchise has done everything it can to shoot itself in the foot. It has drafted very poorly, made horrible trades, alienated all-star talent, scared off veterans and overrated many players who don't even belong in the NHL and would be career AHLers with other franchises. Throw in an inexperienced GM and an owner who has no clue how to run a hockey franchise and the results speak for themselves.

We can all agree, even the delusional Rah Rhas. That Cohen, Yormark, and Martin are poor managers, and ruined NHL in south florida..
This team will always be the same old results until new owners come here..
What is left of all the Rah Rahs that blew smaoke this season, had better learn where the focus belongs..Their numbers are greatly reduced after this season..

As usual Skolnick calls the race as it happens.

The simple fact was after Jokinen was traded, we needed to makeup the 35+ goals and 80 pts that went out the door. Yes the D has been strong, but Martin counted on several players making up for the lack of offense.

A Bouwmeester trade for offense was the key, but Skolnick who I am convinced reports on the panthers with a positive twist on everything, showed how ignorant he is on hockey. You dont build a franchise for 1 year, you build a franchise for a decade. You don't keep 1 player that is a flight risk, but can garner huge return in the trade market, for the sake of 1 season! Skolnick failed to realize this and was too caught up in the excitement of the panthers THIS season. Just shows how the ignorance does not stop in the front office, but flows out to our teams news source.

Also, No one saw this as a problem that the team has not had a Captain all season? Talk about not having leadership when it mattered, but the most important thing was that WE NEED TO KEEP BOUWMEESTER!!. Did anyone really believe that this team was in trouble if bouwmeester was traded?

Two great posts Steve, couldn't agree with you more. I just posted on another thread that in retrospect when you look at everything Martin has done in the last year (except the token signing of Stillman) it was done in fear of losing Bouwmeester and how they would survive without him. The team would not have been any worse off if Bouw would have been dealt and some new blood might have provided a spark when the team was treading water. We all know after he was retained he slumped, the team went into a losing streak blah blah blah...Letting one player sway the way you run an organization is bad management. if Martin is here again next year, hopefully with Bouw finally gone he can relax and make some better decisions.

Fire Martin wrote:

St. Louis Blues 75pts last year... PLAYOFFS this year. They had a TON of injuries.. great management, great coach. well done. It doesn't take 8 years to turn a team around

so true

Jacque Martin has not been great, but he is not the only problem with this team. Its the ownership. They are why the Panthers haven't been to a playoff in 8 years and why they probably won't even go next year.

Red Baron put it perfectly--the team has put itself in this position. That part of the team which has created this player purgatory is the ownership. It the only piece which has been in place continuously in the last decade.

This team needs offence. This team needs to play entertaining good hockey. Big hits don't win hockey games.

Steve I respectfully differ with your statements about Jokinen and Bouw. We did make up the majority of Jokinen's points. Booth increased his goals by 11 and we got 21 or 22 goals from Frolik who wasn't even projected to make the team. Thats 30+ goals. We probably would have gotten more production from Booth if he hadn't missed all those games with injury. If Jokinen had stayed we probably wouldn't have seen Frolik on the team and Booths numbers would have been down also as he wouldn't have gotten as much time on the PP. As for Bouw, I'm thinking that the real reason he wasn't traded was because what was offered in return wasn't good enough. First. Over the years the Panther's have been ripped (by and large rightly)by fans for giving up good players and getting lesser players in return.(refer to the Luongo trade) So had they pulled the trigger on a trade like that the fans would have been livid. Second. If you were a GM on another team and wanted Bouw but were unwilling to give up the quality player or players that it would take to make the deal knowing that it was possibly a rental would you do it? I rather wait and spend the money bidding on him in FA. Personaly I think that Bouw will end up in Western Canada cause thats where daddy wants him. Bouw is a great skater and has good to great offensive skills but he is not a dominating force on the blueline. He is like Scott Neidemeyer in his style. The only difference is that Neidemeyer has been blessed to play with Kevin Stevens and Chris Pronger who covered for his less physical play. I'm not the only one saying this. I only get to watch the Panther's on Center Ice(I only missed 2 televised games)and on many occasions the other teams announcers have voiced the same opinion. We do have two good puck moving defensemen. Ballard and McCabe. They will need to step it up to fill the minutes and numbers the Bouw leaves. If Allen can come back strong and add some toughness on the blueline the defense should be as good as this years. Dont get me wrong this team needs a good 1st line center and management needs to step up and commit to making that happen. If we need to package a few players Oleasz comes to mind for one. they need to do it. Problem is we have so many UFA that it is hard to have some one to deal. If they weren't UFA's I would package McClean/Stwart/ and Oleasz and a pick to get that top line center but since 2 of the 3 are UFA's that cant happen. You would have to give up Horton and Weiss to get that top line guy and then you would still be short of a center and would lose over a 100 points in production and the fans would scream about that. Please dont take this as a personal attack. I respect your uopinion I just disagree. One reason I dont post much on here is because the majority of the poster take and opposing opinion as a personal attack and rather that debate the merits of the issue start attacking the other guy.

Steve wrote:

As usual Skolnick calls the race as it happens.
The simple fact was after Jokinen was traded, we needed to makeup the 35+ goals and 80 pts that went out the door. Yes the D has been strong, but Martin counted on several players making up for the lack of offense.
A Bouwmeester trade for offense was the key, but Skolnick who I am convinced reports on the panthers with a positive twist on everything, showed how ignorant he is on hockey. You dont build a franchise for 1 year, you build a franchise for a decade. You don't keep 1 player that is a flight risk, but can garner huge return in the trade market, for the sake of 1 season! Skolnick failed to realize this and was too caught up in the excitement of the panthers THIS season. Just shows how the ignorance does not stop in the front office, but flows out to our teams news source.

The Scurge wrote:

..... If they weren't UFA's I would package McClean/Stwart/ and Oleasz and a pick to get that top line center but since 2 of the 3 are UFA's that cant happen.....<quoted text>

McLean is worth zero, Stewart isn't very valuable in the trade market and no team is going to rush to trade much of anything for Olesz if only because he has never proven his underlying talent. Even packaged with a very high draft pick, you wouldn't get a first line player for them. If this team is going to get a first line center they are going to have to do it via the free agent market. I don't even think they can move Vokoun in exchange for a first line center as his $5 million-plus contract is a hard pill to swallow.

And not to throw any salt on the wound - but this past week Luongo was named the #1 star, as he stopped something like 88 of 89 shots and gave up only 1 goal in three games. Lots of Luongo bashers are awful silent nowadays.

Wait a Minute wrote:

<quoted text>
McLean is worth zero, Stewart isn't very valuable in the trade market and no team is going to rush to trade much of anything for Olesz if only because he has never proven his underlying talent. Even packaged with a very high draft pick, you wouldn't get a first line player for them. If this team is going to get a first line center they are going to have to do it via the free agent market. I don't even think they can move Vokoun in exchange for a first line center as his $5 million-plus contract is a hard pill to swallow.
And not to throw any salt on the wound - but this past week Luongo was named the #1 star, as he stopped something like 88 of 89 shots and gave up only 1 goal in three games. Lots of Luongo bashers are awful silent nowadays.

The luongo trade is known as the worst trade in the NHL, history..
It continues to haunt Panther management.. Time dims too many memories...

I dont disagree with you on most of this. Wouldn't you agree that many teams are in the same boat? The cap has changed the dynamic of the league. Teams looking to unload salary and trying to find inexpensive 3rd and 4th line players. Almost every game I watched had lots of empty seats. I keep hearing roumors that the cap will adjust down next season. Many teams have had trouble meeting expenses this season. They will be looking to shed high salaries to make ends meet. Role players will learn to take less to be on a competitive team so that more cap money will be availible for the skill players. My personal opinion is that the teams that learn to work within the cap to build their teams will be successful. The NFL went through this after the cap was installed and look at the Pats, Steelers, and Colts just to name a few. Also i never was one to bad mouth Luongo. I thought it was a bad trade then and still do. How ever even the best player can be a drag in the locker room if he is unhappy with his situation. Jokinen became that way in the last season. Luongo and Vokoun are the same to a certain extent. If your leaders are not happy then the over all team mode goes down. Thats why Olli had to go. Vokoun needs to changes his tune and step up as aleader instead of just caling guys out when its not going well. It's one of those "Lead, Follow or Get out of the way" deals.

Wait a Minute wrote:

<quoted text>
McLean is worth zero, Stewart isn't very valuable in the trade market and no team is going to rush to trade much of anything for Olesz if only because he has never proven his underlying talent. Even packaged with a very high draft pick, you wouldn't get a first line player for them. If this team is going to get a first line center they are going to have to do it via the free agent market. I don't even think they can move Vokoun in exchange for a first line center as his $5 million-plus contract is a hard pill to swallow.
And not to throw any salt on the wound - but this past week Luongo was named the #1 star, as he stopped something like 88 of 89 shots and gave up only 1 goal in three games. Lots of Luongo bashers are awful silent nowadays.