There's no sugarcoating it: The Panthers aren't close, and need...

Every year it's the same crap. Second and third tier players. Boring. Boring. Boring. Get em outta here.

this team will do nothing more until we get new ownership. these owners dont care about the on ice product at all. all they care about is selling advertising on every square inch of arena and sponsorships. this team hasnt had. they will do everything with the bare minimum being spent on talent. thats why jokinen was traded with so little in return ($5 mill bye bye). thats why nothing was added via trade and bouw was not traded, they didnt want any more salary coming back. trade bouw for players and those players get paychecks. let him walk away for nothing and then pay nothing. trust me, nothing will change until these jokes leave town.

The Blues made the playoffs.. they had catastrophic injuries this year, had 75 points last season... Last year we had 85 points. and we made an "enormous jump from 11th to 9th place. Martin blamed Jokinen. Who will he blame this year? it's HIS team? Vokoun? His. Bouwmeester? Dvorak? Peltonen??? THe problem with this team is clear it's the number one line of Cohen - Yormark - Martin .. line. until that changes.. nothing else will.. Besides everyone saying that we're "a few pieces away" is dreaming. Bouwmeester plays 30 minutes a night. and he's gone, so we have a mediocre defense again.. They will not spend the money to fill that hole. so we are back to square one, because not only do you have a huge deficit in skilled players in offense, but you just lost your best player for nothing. NOTHING.. not even a puck... disgusting

i will bet anyone 100 dollars that I can score more than any of these sissies... I only have to stand in front of the net and let the puck deflect off of me! Oh Yes, that is what I call hockey!?!

Ethan, really, you're better than this. You're the same cantankerous Florida sports fan; you support not trading Bousmeester, then you complain when they don't make the playoffs. I had a lot more respect for you before I read this. And calling out Horton? Sure, he was hurt this year. But for 4 mil he's not a bad deal. Don't give into this fickle market. Yeah, the ownership is weak. You can't do anything about that. So quit complaining like a little girl. Besides, it's not like you go to the games for free right???

Ethan, I think your statement that the Panthers aren't close depends on what you mean. You spent most of this article talking about how the Panthers haven't made the playoffs. If that's the standard, then YES THEY ARE CLOSE. They will finish no more than 4 points out of the playoffs, no worse than tied for 9th place. Is that disappointing? Yes. But it's VERY CLOSE to being in the playoffs.

However, if when you say close you mean to the Stanley Cup (though you never mentioned it), then no, they aren't close at all, barring a 2003 Marlins-like run through the playoffs. I know you are factoring in losing Bouw when saying how close we are, but this team as it stands tonight was very close to making the playoffs. 4-6 points away from being the FOUR SEED, home ice in Round 1.

Reading you write about the Panthers is very interesting. You are sort of schizo when it comes to them. There's hope! There's not. We'll make it! We won't make it. It was a strong season! We're not even close to the playoffs. And you always seem...burned by the Cats, like they personally let you down. It's an attitude that never comes through when you talk about the Dolphins, Marlins, or Heat. Maybe you're just a big hockey fan?

Closing thought: Cmon Bouw! Great weather, no state income tax, pretty women, far and away the star of the team. Is it worth giving up all that to be a second-tier star in a "hockey town"? Re-sign!

FIRE MARTIN

All we can do is wait until next year

I think that if we all boycott tonights game and no one shows up maybe that will send a message that the fans are not going to support such a bad product year in and year out.

If Martin stays then that is all I will need to know,and the only thing I will look foward to in October is Halloween.

PANTHERS SUCK AND I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE

Agreed...the team needs a top of the line scorer that can pump in 35+ goals a season. ramp up the scoring and we will be playoff bound.

The Panthers need scorers. Haven't had a top tier scorer since Bure (also the last time we made the playoffs) Time for mgt to spend some money and get us some quality offense. They want arses in the stands, spend the money, and they will come.

How bout "waiting" for the young guys through the draft and the best we get are Weiss (a second line center on a playoff team at best) Horton (laziness brings him down to mediocrity) and Bouwmeester (who hides when its his time to shine)? Where's our hope now?

Hindsight is 20/20 but adding a playoff seasoned forward at the the deadline just may have been the difference and that should be Martin's nail in the coffin.

They need to overpay and get Johan Franzen here. He knows how to win, scores goals and makes those around him better. He would be a number one center here. They still need to get another top six forward on top of that.

Panthers need offense, that has always been the problem this year. Trade Vokoun, use Andy in goal and get him a back-up, get rid of Horton, and get some offensive talent.
And because the buck stops with the GM, it is clear that JM has to be fired. A new GM is desperately needed for this franchise, or it will lose the remaining fans it now has. I am a Panthers fan from day one and remain one, but JM has got to go.

Amen, Ethan!

Trade Vokoun for some offense.

VoKoun let in too many soft goals when it counts,get rid of him and his big dollars and go with Andy,we need to ax Martin and stop giving him a pass he BLOW's, squeeking into the eight spot is also unacceptable. Bring in some veteran players who don't choke every year

We need someone like bill parcell someone that knows how to find talent late in the draft and that is not with Jm

panthers may have to make some drastic moves. horton will not be the 40 goal scorer people envisioned. weiss is a good playmaker but is easily pushed off the puck in the corners. and vokoun lets in way too many soft goals. and olezs has yet to show that he can withstand the rigors of a full season.that being said, most teams in the league have similar problems. bettman wanted parity, he got it.

Louie wrote:

Panthers need offense, that has always been the problem this year. Trade Vokoun, use Andy in goal and get him a back-up, get rid of Horton, and get some offensive talent.
And because the buck stops with the GM, it is clear that JM has to be fired. A new GM is desperately needed for this franchise, or it will lose the remaining fans it now has. I am a Panthers fan from day one and remain one, but JM has got to go.

I wouldn't trade Vokoun, lest you forget the guy was an All-Star last season and is a bonafide world class goalie. The problem is, he continuously faces more shots than most NHL goalies should have to endure. That's the fault of the slop in front of him. Check the most recent stats, Vokoun in 2nd overall in the league with a .926% save percentage. If any goalie has to continuously endure around 40 shots per game of course some bad ones will go in.

The same exact thing happened to Roberto Luongo while he was here. The guy face a crippling number of shots and even a world class, all-star goalie like Luongo can only do so much. Now Luongo has a good team in front of him in Vancouver and he's headed to the playoffs....again.

Vokoun doesn't have the skill in front of him to limit the shots he faces, so yes, he will inevitably let him some softies. Vokoun has saved our arses more times than I can count, but he's human. He can only do so much when the team in front of him is just not that good.

Valeri Bure wrote:

<quoted text>
I wouldn't trade Vokoun, lest you forget the guy was an All-Star last season and is a bonafide world class goalie. The problem is, he continuously faces more shots than most NHL goalies should have to endure. That's the fault of the slop in front of him. Check the most recent stats, Vokoun in 2nd overall in the league with a .926% save percentage. If any goalie has to continuously endure around 40 shots per game of course some bad ones will go in.
The same exact thing happened to Roberto Luongo while he was here. The guy face a crippling number of shots and even a world class, all-star goalie like Luongo can only do so much. Now Luongo has a good team in front of him in Vancouver and he's headed to the playoffs....again.
Vokoun doesn't have the skill in front of him to limit the shots he faces, so yes, he will inevitably let him some softies. Vokoun has saved our arses more times than I can count, but he's human. He can only do so much when the team in front of him is just not that good.

You just made another argument for getting rid of Martin.. Weren't we supposed to have a stifling defense? Especially since our forwards are unskilled, shouln't they be defensive minded? than why are we giving up so many shots??? As far as Vokoun facing too many shots, he gave up soft goals throughout the year. He's slow, flops around and is out of position way too much. He may have been an All Star with Nashville, but not with the Panthers.. If he was in an All Star game it's not because he deserved it, it's because the all star committee tries to get at least one player from each team into the game, and that's the best they could do. Last year Vokoun had a TERRIBLE start, and that probably caused us any chance at a post season. This year he was bad in the second half of the year. porous & ponderous... Face it. We suck. The Blues hadn't made the post season in 3 years. were in the cellar last year (75 points) and are in now... that's turning a franchise around 3 years.. not 8.