Panthers sign their top draft pick from 2007, Keaton Ellerby

TRUTH wrote:

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Tortie would be the worst thing for a franchise built on integrity. The guy attacked an opponent's fan once, and is known to be whinier than Crosby. The last thing we need is a guy who whines and lays the blame on others. We need someone who will not stand for excuses.

Realist723 wrote:

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Agreed. As you said, there are plenty here in the noisy minority.
Btw, if you'd like good, reational, and educated hockey talk, checkout HFBoards.com or the Panthers official boards. Plenty of knowledgeable guys there. Some who are happy with th ecurrent situation and some who are not. They're just not such negative nancies.

DK Schrute wrote:

just so you guys know, being honest and being negative are 2 different things. Sure there are a few on here who are over the top sometimes but you have to admit most of the negative comments posted on this board are grounded in fact. How positive can you be about a team that hasn't made in the playoffs in 8 years. I've been following NHL hockey for about 30 years and followed the WHA before that (grew up in a WHA outpost) and missing the playoffs that many times in a row is almost unheard of in the post-expansion era NHL.
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Al Pacino wrote:

You still Suc#k It's going to be the SAAAAMMMMMEEEEEEEE thing again.

Realist723 wrote:

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nothing wrong with being upset or even negative, but have you read most of the comments on here? Most are just unrealistic and refuse to look at what is positive. You simply can't pindown the last 7 years ALL on Martin. Cohen, sure, Martin-no! Burke, Bowman, or whomever likely couldn't have done too much better than Martin.
They pull out Philly and Nashville as examples or Biron for a 2nd. That's not realistic and those teams re-built the right way rightaway. They traded away some of the best players they had smartly. Keenan didn't do that and the Luongo trade alone set this team back.
I don't expect people to be all rosey and excited, but at least see what Martin has done as GM. I'm MORE than happy we got a new coach, he couldn't have stayed in that role, but he's made wise decisions as GM, for the most part.

Realist723 wrote:

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Were Allen, Weiss, or Horton "low-balled?" No, they were paid accordingly and were also given long-term contracts.

Realist723 wrote:

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Btw, if you'd like good, reational, and educated hockey talk, checkout HFBoards.com or the Panthers official boards. Plenty of knowledgeable guys there. Some who are happy with th ecurrent situation and some who are not. They're just not such negative nancies.

Numbers Guy wrote:

While I was hopeful of making the playoffs (FINALLY) the past two seasons, I have no illusions about this next one. Or the one after that. Or the one after that.

RED BARON wrote:

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Smart man. I wish some others would figure that out too. This club is headed no where until they hire competent NHL level minds with a proven track record of success at the NHL level. The last time this team truly had that was when Bobby Clark was the GM (who incidently built most of our 1996 roster).

RED BARON wrote:

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Realist... the problem is that you (and many posters alike) don't take into account Martin's career history BEFORE he came to this franchise. You look at the last three years which is considerble, but not enough to send a trend. You are absolutely correct that we cannot blame Martin for the Murray, Dudley, Keenan debacles, but we can certainly blame Cohen. Moreover, when you look at Martin's record in its entirety it doesn't impress many. Taking all those things into account, you have to admit it is very difficult to get really pumped about a team that has an idiot owner and a GM who has no previous experience in the role and a marginal coaching record at best. Once again, we're hoping for a something that will likely never happen. That's called a pipe dream and it pretty much describes this franchise since Cohen bought the team.

RED BARON wrote:

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Just for the record, if any of the "knowledgable guys" were predicting this team to make playoffs the past few seasons, they definitely screwed the pooch on that one.

Schmendrick wrote:

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Realist - you have to learn to ignore a certain number of these doomsayers that feel the need to post negative comments no matter what.
The fact remains that the ownership of this organization has stepped up and the management has responded by tying up its young talent in long-term deals to set up for success on a year-to-year basis.

Wounded Panther wrote:

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WHAT?'Management has stepped-up'???? You have to be joking.
You are a schmendrick.

Realist723 wrote:

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They're not all knowledgeable and there were some (many fans of other teams-HF has boards for every team in the league) had the Panthers winning the Division based on the prior year's defense and the glaring hole in goal that was filled with Vokoun. I and some other, though, were more realistic and figured that we'd probably be 7th or 8th going into the playoffs. None of us had any idea that the defense would be as bad as it was this year. Hopefully Kitchen's on his way out.