Good article overall. I like your writing style.
Personally, I'm stubborn, in a league wher half the teams make the playoffs, I would call it progress rather than success. Could be semantics.
In re bolland:
"Although you may not agree with his contract, it’s tough to argue against his results"
It's not tough. It's kind of easy. But since it's your quote, whats the factual basis for your written opinion?
It can't be 5 goals 40% of which were empty netters.
It's not his FO % as is was less than half.
We all know he took horrific penalty in last 10 games vs leafs and coughed up a puck vs mtl leading to a shorty game killer.
Aside from a couple of nice shoot out goals, your right. It's not tough to argue. But please, take this opportunity to layout a factual basis with statistical support for your conclusion.
First let me thank you for the kind words, much appreciated!
In regards to Bolland, I can't provide any statistics. You're right, his faceoffs aren't that great, his points aren't an incredible amount, and sure he made a couple mistakes along the final stretch, but so did a bunch of others.
I hate using the cliche but Bolland has the intangibles. Trust me, I was completely against this contract when it happened and continued to voice my issues with it early on in the season. But somewhere around the halfway point I started watching Bolland play, watching him closely.
He still is that pest out there. He draws penalties, he gets in the face of other guys, and he's a valuable player to have. As I said, not everyone will agree with his contract, but first of all it's not any of ours money, and I highly doubt Bolland stays with this team and it costs us re-signing Huby or anyone else. Let's not be ridiculous.
But Bolland is the kind of player that puts you over the top in the playoffs. His value didn't become evident until the Panthers started playing in IMPORTANT games. That's when he really showed what he does on the ice. Again, not a lot of it will show up on the stat sheet and as fans, lots of money should at least yield SOMETHING on paper, but in Bolland's case, it doesn't unfortunately. He's a player full of intangibles that help make this team better.
If you don't see it in him, you don't. Clearly our board is pretty torn on the Bolland issue. You either love him or you hate him, and I did hate him but I've learned to love him because of what he offers. He's just the right kind of player. There's a reason that Toronto was offering him $5 Mill and Vancouver was also sniffing around. It's not just Tallon who values him at that price tag.
When we make the playoffs, I think that is when a lot of those opposing Bolland will see what the rest of us have seen.
In regards to it being "progress" instead of "success"......the reason I chose the word "success" was because I saw a lot of Panthers fans getting down after they fell short of the playoffs and I was just trying to shed some positive light on the season. For a team that has been doom and gloom and misery for so long, there seems to finally be that light at the end of the tunnel. Yes we didn't make the playoffs, but I still consider this season a success because this franchise is finally.....FINALLY on the right path for the first time in 20 years. That's why I prefaced the article with introduction that "most teams wouldn't consider this season a success".