Five Reasons to Stay Tuned In To The Panthers

[coopdaloop123]

Had a few drinks last night after that tough 5-4 loss and put together 5 kinda funny / kinda serious reasons of why we should keep watching down the stretch.

Hope you enjoy and maybe have a laugh.

http://pantherparkway.com/2014/03/1...-in-to-the-florida-panthers-down-the-stretch/

Click to read more...

 

[Gordonx11]

Good list but you forgot about the grade-A commentating from Bill Lindsay

 

[coopdaloop123]

Good list but you forgot about the grade-A commentating from Bill Lindsay

Billy needs to release a dance video called "Billy Breaks It Down"

 

[Sykwitit]

I hate how dead on accurate that bandwagon section is

 

[coopdaloop123]

I hate how dead on accurate that bandwagon section is

the plight of the South Florida fan

 

[JP Mick]

Tell Paige to stop hatin' on twitter, your piece was quite funny and clever. I am going to start a petition to have you replace Harvey Fialkov at the Sun Sentinel.

You wouldn't say to Tim Thomas about his old school Cooper helmet-masks:

What is that? Some kind of old football helmet?

Would you?

 

[coopdaloop123]

haha Timmy has his own style! can't knock it!

 

[LUUUUUIS]

I hate how dead on accurate that bandwagon section is

Bandwagons pay the bills. It's a part of the fabric of entertainment. There's not really such a thing as an influx of hardcore hockey fans. If they were hardcore, they'd already be here.

Coop, article was great.

 

[coopdaloop123]

Bandwagons pay the bills. It's a part of the fabric of entertainment. There's not really such a thing as an influx of hardcore hockey fans. If they were hardcore, they'd already be here.

Coop, article was great.

Thanks! Been doing mostly stories / reports lately, was nice to have some fun w/ something again!

 

[JP Mick]

[nhl]565937[/nhl]

 

[Acadmus]

Guess this is as good a place as any to put this.

There's been positives from this season and they should be mentioned:

1) Barkov, while not playing like MacKinnon, proved nonetheless to be the real deal: a solid centerman with scoring ability.

2) Tallon managed to steal castoffs from Chicago's prospect pool that have proven to be NHL caliber talent. Olsen has been much better than you'd expect from a guy that couldn't make his previous team's roster, and Hayes also puts up enough points to warrant his position. Deadline pickup Pirri seems poised to be a top-6 scoring forward and has contributed quite a few goals in his short time as a Panther.

3) Tallon's shoestring budget pickups prior to this season who we all yawned at also seem to be brilliant acquisitions. Who saw Winchester as a 17-point player on this offensively challenged team, much less Boyes as a 32-point scoring forward who is tied for 2nd on the team and first in goals, the only player on this team that could hit 20 this season?

4) Huberdeau, despite a sophomore slump this year, is only 7 points off the team lead and, if he comes back from injury, will likely hit 30 points. He's "slumped" all the way to 6th on this team, but isn't far back of 1st. We're all disappointed he didn't take a step forward and lead the team this season, but for a normal event in player development in this league (a 2nd year downturn), he still was among the best on the team.

5) Scottie Upshall's resurgence has been a pleasant surprise. Anyone else pick him to be leading the team in points?

6) Despite slow starts, both Brian Campbell (2nd) and Tom Gilbert (5th) are among the team leaders in points and +/-. Exactly where you expect Campbell to be, and much better than we'd expect of Gilbert.

7) Prospects are starting to pan out. Trochek has looked good and has 2 goals in 7 games, all coming in the 4 games since he was called up from the minors. Quinton Howden, who looked like he had no offensive touch in previous callups, has scored 3 goals and 4 points in 4 games. Defenseman Alex Petrovic is +3 in 7 games on a team that has no playoff prospects and is just finishing out the season. Nick Bjugstad has been a stud all season and is proving to be a fairly consistent scorer at the NHL level, something the Panthers almost always have a hard time finding.

The Panthers have a new, wealthy owner going into the offseason that has allegedly green-lighted spending to the cap. If Tallon can do with the top end of the free agency pool what he did with the low end last season, and if he can convince Jovo to retire, the team could make a huge leap forward next year.

So...well, there's obviously reasons to watch this team's coast to the season's end, and still reason to hope for a much MUCH better result next year.

 

[Android 16]

Thanks goodness we don't have to watch prospects come up like Rob Globke, Kamil Kreps, Kenndal McArdle, Anthony Stewart, Janis Sprukts, Juraj Kolnik, Josh Olson or any other "never was". Thanks to Dale, our prospects in 2014 have more skill, more will and are developed better.

 

[iam76]

Also we can play the count the JOVOcop errors....

 

[coopdaloop123]

Thanks goodness we don't have to watch prospects come up like Rob Globke, Kamil Kreps, Kenndal McArdle, Anthony Stewart, Janis Sprukts, Juraj Kolnik, Josh Olson or any other "never was". Thanks to Dale, our prospects in 2014 have more skill, more will and are developed better.

Pretty amazing what DT has done w/ the prospect pool since his arrival. There is a reason Dmitry Kulikov (2009) is currently the longest tenured Panther ... Pre-DT drafts were pretty much terrible.

Now not only are we hitting in the early rounds on guys like Barkov/Trocheck/Huberdeau (if he comes back healthy), but late round picks are always looking decent as well.

 

[Android 16]

Pretty amazing what DT has done w/ the prospect pool since his arrival. There is a reason Dmitry Kulikov (2009) is currently the longest tenured Panther ... Pre-DT drafts were pretty much terrible.

Now not only are we hitting in the early rounds on guys like Barkov/Trocheck/Huberdeau (if he comes back healthy), but late round picks are always looking decent as well.

Any other GM from our past would've traded Kulikov for an awful return by now. Dale was smart to keep Kuli as he has more value to us despite his shortcomings. Unless we're getting a spectacular return in our favor, then Kuli should stay.

 

[coopdaloop123]

Any other GM from our past would've traded Kulikov for an awful return by now. Dale was smart to keep Kuli as he has more value to us despite his shortcomings. Unless we're getting a spectacular return in our favor, then Kuli should stay.

Even if Kuli still gets moved, if DT can sign him to a decent contract this summer his value will increase that much more. Other teams already see Kuli's potential, but if he also has contract security then they will want him that much more.

I'm still only in favor of a Kuli trade if it brings back a legit scoring threat, especially since he's really stepped up his game recently, but either way DT is doing a great job of making him a desirable asset.

 

[Erick*]

I still wish that we could get a big forward for Kulikov, but I'm happy to see that he's playing like an NHL player again.