Florida Panthers

[Chili con Carne]

Looking at the boxscore he had the same PP time as Weiss and others up until the end - maybe the bounces just didn't go his way?

[bondon]

Looking at the boxscore he had the same PP time as Weiss and others up until the end - maybe the bounces just didn't go his way?

Yeah I think its that. I watched some of the game and it just seemed like the pucks were eluding Flash when the Panthers scored.

On one of Weiss' goals Versteeg was pinned against the boards behind the Bolts' net and he passed the puck straight back. It literally just went right in between Flash's skates as he was streaking towards the net and landed right on Weiss' stick and he fired it home.

Thems the breaks sometimes.

[keytolife]

What a monster of a game. 5 PP goals and one shorthanded one. This is awesome after being aenemic all those years on the special teams.

On a side note the Rampage have won too and seem way better than last season.

About Flash, i stated earlier in this thread while he will be a valuable guy i don´t see his production near Steegs and Weiss ones and so far i predict the truth.

The good:

Gudbranson: Filling up the sheet on PIMs again but played great so far.

Versteeg/Weiss: What to say -instant chemistry like predicted. Steeg is the new fan favorite!

Theodore: I bow down. He really has stepped his game up so far, maybe that crappy preseason is what he needed. Not a believer yet.

Skille: OH my gosh, get on the scoring sheet reward yourself. The guy is amzing.

Garisson: Second goal so far plus great defensive play. He is taking a big step forward this season.

Campbell: Tallon looks like a genius. Is Olsez even playing in Chitown?

I might were that red-coloured glasses today, so don´t expect any rant, it´s just amazing i need to suck this game in for the bad ones that will def. come.

[ross10019]

I've watched some of the Panthers games this year. That 1st line is special, and I think Flash could very well turn out to be the leading scorer on that line (I guess I'm disagreeing with keytolife here) as arguably he is the most skilled of the 3 (although Weiss is very close). Last night's game was just one of those nights - if there was a 3rd assist he would have had 4 points too. As it is, he has a decent statline so far, 3 pts in 4 games wiht 10SOG, if he ends up with 20G/40A/200+SOG as that pace suggests, I'll be a pretty happy camper!

[littleranger]

Has the PP been moving the puck around well all year? Yesterday was the only Panther game I have watched and they seemed to connect on EVERY pass. Wonder if TB played a part in helping the PP? Didn't seem to get in the lanes at all.

[keytolife]

I've watched some of the Panthers games this year. That 1st line is special, and I think Flash could very well turn out to be the leading scorer on that line (I guess I'm disagreeing with keytolife here) as arguably he is the most skilled of the 3 (although Weiss is very close). Last night's game was just one of those nights - if there was a 3rd assist he would have had 4 points too. As it is, he has a decent statline so far, 3 pts in 4 games wiht 10SOG, if he ends up with 20G/40A/200+SOG as that pace suggests, I'll be a pretty happy camper!

I disagree to disagree here. I´m in the same camp that Flash is the most talented of those guys without a doubt. I´m just not a believer in health and consistency. That´s all. They look great together and Flash will get his fair share of points.


About the PP it looked great for the full season so far but not as good as in this last game. It made a huge jump from being the worst last season to where it is now. The new special team coaches have done great work.

[keytolife]

Like expected the Panthers take the schedule loss with tired legs. But a lil more effort was expected the Caps made it look very easy.

Bergenheim was out with a minor injury and Ellerby played for the first time.

The good:

Markstrom looked absolutly brilliant in his first start, he was let down by the not existing offensive tonight. No matter what he will get returned when Clemmenson returns.

Mike Weaver: Gotta give credit where credit is true, he was rock solid tonight and threw his body arround.

The bad:

Dmitry Kulikov continues his unimpressive play, a lot of risky passes tonight again. He should stop that.

Flash tries to hard and making easy mistakes that way as well. Didn´t like his play one bit tonight.

Ryan Carter ..... Oh Mike come back soon!

[keytolife]

Short coverage:
Panthers crapped the bad again. Tim Kennedy and Bracken Kearns, were called up since Matthias and Bergenheim were out.

Kearns made his debut at 30 years old.

The good:

Jose Theodore again looked good, not his fault that we lost the time.


The bad:

The offense besides the first line looked non-existent. Especially this second line Booth, Upshall and whoever centers them didn´t get anything going and are a defensive liability. Both went -2 on the night.
Expecting Dadonov to be up soon if they continue that play.

[keytolife]

I will take care on the big trade that occured later on.

For now i will simply give my thoughts about last nights game.

The great:

Jacob Markstrom was brilliant, gigantic i don´t know how to even say how good he looked. He will be brought back to the AHL but hell it looks like he is more than ready to take over. I´m so glad to have this young man on the organiztion.


The good:

Shawn Matthias featuring the rest of the fourth line:

Matthias was the star of the night with two assits and an empty netter. His play before Kennedys goal was amazing. He finally looked like the guy Dobber is talking since ages. I hope he can keep up that pace.
Kennedy scored as well and Jack Skille played his game he is doing since the season started. Keep up that play guys.

The not so good:

Mike Weaver had a night to forget. Lots of mistakes and passes finding noone.

[keytolife]

Sorry for the bad english this time. Usually i let a native speaker read my pieces first but i thought it would be important to get the articel asap.

The world is going to end.

Seriously, if you take a look at some Panthers forums you could imagine that Sunrise is only minutes away from a riot and a march of Panthers fans to Dale Tallons home to repeat the Gadaffi case.

Why is that outrage going on? Cause David Booth was traded alongside Steven Reinprecht and a third-round pick for Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm!

Yes, David was a fan favorite, and yeah David was a class act citizen, no bad word said about the character of the guy. Booth was theonly Panther to be on the cover of the Hockey News since ages. His fantastic play during those one and a half seasons before the concussion happend locked him up a soft spot in all the hearts of Panthers fans. (NHL experts told the media to guess that number somewhere between seven and twelve overall.)

He seems to feel the same way about the Panthers. He burst out in tears the moment he heard about the trade, while stating to teammates that he doesn´t want to leave the team. Booth was not able to get a hold by the media for a comment on the trade afterwards.

Those of you that rightfully haven´t followed whats going on in South Florida seem to be very suprised that this trade happend.

Panthers fans –not so much. We expected it and told others that it will happen sooner than later.

All that seems to be remembered on this forum and in the fantasy world was David´s brilliant play pre-concussion, completly missing out what happend in the mean time.

Booth is nowhere the player he once was, he still takes the same bad angle shots he did, during that time, but now misses the effort and fearlessness he once had before the incident happend. David now is simply a often-shooting forward that is supposed to be sniper but can´t find the net. On top of that David is a defensive liability as you can see by his stats in the plus/minus category over the course of the last seasons. Paying four million for such a guy for four more long years and given him a spot on the top six cause of the contract is only holding back a young team. The trade was made prior before his NTC clause kicks in to make his contract unmovable.

While at first glance the return seems like not much, i personally not only like the trade but freaking love it, Dale Tallon is a genius.

Yes neither Samuelsson nor Sturm are great players anymore but the same can be said about David Booth. The Panthers needed leadership a ton and that will be brought in by the two new arrivals. The two players have expiring contracts; plus the Panthers also shipped out the two remaining millions of Reinprechts salary. Both of the new guys will be shipped at the deadline for picks that should be common knowledge.

Overall this move frees up the necessary capspace Tallon needs to sign the elite winger he promised to bring in playing next to J-Hub next offseason. Tallon talked about that plan for months now and got the necessary space to execute it now.

Fantasy input:

So should you expect from the two new faces, especially on the fantasy front? To be honest. not much. They are a short gap solution only. Samuelsson will not be any worse than Booth on that second line, and if he sucks well finally Lil Geno can get called up and get his spot in the top six, without the rage of fans about benching their favorite. Regarding Sturm i´m happy to see him wear a Panthers uniform since he is a fellow countryman but that´s about it. Marco will be a non-factor fantasywise.

Bigger question remains, what to expect from Booth in the new environment?

Hogdson and Kesler are his designated linemates. Both are way better players than the guys he played with in Sunrise. Will that result in a huge boost, making him an elite winger again?

I wouldn´t put high hopes on that.The fear about taking hits will not leave out of the sudden, just cause he plays for a diffrent team. His +/- will continue to suck since he simply gives no defensive effort and that usually results in a lot of easy giveaways and in the end in goals against. The new guys he is playing with might be more talented but the only guy he had chemistry in last two years was Mike Santorelli. I wouldn´t bank anything on him finding any with Kesler. He simply isn´t a thirty goals scorer anymore but a lot of guys in fantasy league will pay you like he still is.

Even if he somehow starts hot on the Nucks you should consider Booth as a huge sell high at the moment and would advice each and everybody to sell right now to get something good back while the hopes of fellow Canucks fans are still there on Mr.Sunshine, before they see that a lot of the sun is well behind and autumn has set in.

[dyzfunctioned]

Thanks for the perspective on the Booth trade, Key. Definitely interesting.

[tgraveline]

Yeah I enjoyed it. Though I am curious if Markstrom keeps playing this well if we'll see a goalie platoon brew here. Clemmenson can play in the AHL so why not let Markstrom get more time up here like how the Caps have done with Nuevirth and Theodore in the past? Theodore is playing well, but his injury issues seem to be arising again. I know this was minor, but that's how it always starts with goalies early in the season.

[bondon]

Very interesting perspective Key, thanks for sharing the thoughts.

I really hope you're wrong though LOL...hopefully a change of scenery will give Booth an opportunity to get his career back on track. After so many seasons of losing its easy for players to become stagnant in their surroundings, regardless of how happy they are to be there. Now that he's going to a team that knows how to win and seeing as he and Kesler have played together before it could be a great opportunity for him.

Or you could be right lol.

[bigbabybuda]

That was an awesome analyse of the Booth trade and probably kept me from running out and making a rash decision in trying to deal for him.

[LeMatt]

Thanks for the analysis. You might be right about Booth. Just having a look at his career stats his college career was sporadic. Played great as a freshman but then struggled as a sophomore and it wasn't until his senoir year that he reached a point per game average again. Was his freshman year a fluke?

Then at the AHL level, as a 22yr old, he didn't excel(~0.5ppg) but still managed to jump to the NHL that same year despite his postulated defensive deficiencies.

His 30g season you could attribute to just getting a ton of playing time, which can happen when average players play on terrible teams (they have to put someone on the #1 PP unit). But at the same time he did outscore a few guys (Horton, Frolik, Stillman) that you could argue are more talented than him, so he's not just some joe average who got lucky he must have some talent. That and he was in the USND program as a teen so he has some sort of pedigree.

So, what should Canucks fans expect? A 30g season? Probably not, he's not talented enough to produce that well without getting top line minutes. He won't be playing top PP unit but should get time on the 2nd unit which is an uninspiring Higgins, Hodgson and a Sedin-less Burrows. I think he could hit Mason Raymond-like numbers, 25g, 50pts. But more importantly he adds a speed+size combo that the 2nd line wasn't getting from Raymond/Samuelsson/Hansen/Hodgson.

keytolife, I'd be interested to know your thoughts on Higgins as a Panther. You could argue that based on his play last year that the Canucks shouldn't have expected much, but he turned (back) into a pretty effective player. Hoping maybe lightning could strike twice with Booth. (I'm just hoping so, I just dropped Gionta for Booth ;-) I'm 55% confident it was a good call).