Speculation: What’s wrong with this team?

[FinlandPanther]

Discuss.

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[WaitingForThatCab]

Add a poll.

My vote: Head coach.

 

[Marco 85]

My vote is the goalies first then POMO second because of the Staals.

 

[Boothinator]

This team doesn't know how to play the game. Listless effort. This is on the coach

 

[WaitingForThatCab]

In all seriousness, this team has a lot of problems.

Eric Staal is maybe flying under the radar now with a couple of goals, but the Staal brothers playing a combined 40 minutes a night lately is a huge problem. The guys are cooked, can't skate, and the lack of speed + skating ability drags down the entire squad when they are on the ice. That's on BILL ZITO.

Goaltending has been a major issue all season. Knight and Bob can't seem to both play well at the same time, and even when they are playing well, they are still too often giving up bad, backbreaking goals at critical times.

Another issue I see is that the effort is poor. There's just no intensity out there. The team isn't skating hard, turtles up in the third with the lead, and from one period to the next you don't know if they'll have twenty (low quality) shots or two shots altogether.

Everything is discombobulated. Terrible line changes that lead to scoring chances in every single game, players unable to make basic plays in odd-man situations, and other elementary stuff. The decisions on who to play in the final three minutes of the game -- as well as when to pull the goalie -- have been baffling. This team has been atrocious in end of game extra skater situations and I think it's in large part due to who's out there.

So, the biggest problem in the room, the only one that could realistically be addressed right now, is the head coach. Clock's ticking, IMO. This guy is a bad, bad coach. This team looks like it's coached by Tom Rowe. I got nothing more I can add that's worse than that.

I don't even list injuries, because the guys going in and out of the lineup with injuries and illness weren't playing very well to begin with.

 

[Gentle Man]

I vote goalies first.

2nd goal tonight shouldn't go in

Boston should have been a win

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

They're just bad TBH. Goalies have cost a few, Staal probably another, but like tonight, Staal was good, Bob was fine, got embarrassed in the 3rd against a tired team. I don't see any solution and I doubt PoMo is getting fired, my hope is they make a trade/bring in a free agent next year and fire Tallas.

I vote goalies first.

2nd goal tonight shouldn't go in

Boston should have been a win

I kind of agree but it was a bad turnover and Bob saved a goal above expected, he was decent enough. This is a 6-3 win last year. Knight's Boston game is the only in a long while where goaltending has sucked.

 

[barkovcanfinnish]

We’ve been discombobulated all season. Big playoff failure the season before, the blockbuster Tkachuk trade, the coaching change, losing Duclair long-term, bringing in the old Staals to play a lot of minutes, etc

We had a lot happen during the offseason. And most of it wasn’t positive.

Important players have been hurt or sick a lot this season, hard to establish a rhythm or consistency with important guys coming in and out of the lineup every few games. And sometimes we couldn’t even have 20 guys dressed for cap reasons.

We went from being a dominant hockey team to a deer in the headlights.

 

[Vilam]

1. Coach
2. Goalies
3. Injuries

In that order.

 

[FrolikFan67]

An already thin roster getting hit with injuries and illness, no scoring touch, lack of production from top guys (Barkov and Ekblad particularly), and lousy goaltending.

We don’t have the depth we had last year, we didn’t get hit with injuries and illness last year like we are now (until Ekblad went down later in the season but we were deep enough to maintain pace), Barkov scored like 39 goals in only 60 something games, right now he’s pacing for like 22. Half of our offense is Lomberg, Eric staal, Hornqvist, cousins, Lundell who can’t score and was out of the lineup lately, callups like Dalpe and Denisenko and heponiemi (which granted, I like Dalpe and deni over some of those others). Luostarinen I like but he’s not a bonafide top-6 guy, more of a solid 3rd liner. Barkov’s either been sick or injured or playing below his abilities, Ekblads either been injured or playing below his abilities, Reinhart started incredibly snakebitten. Duclairs been out this entire season so far. Bennett’s pacing for like 20. The only bright spots have been Verhaeghe and tkachuk on offense with Forsling and montour (and Mahura) on D. Gudas has been out now, already down Weegar, so it’s been a mess.

We essentially had to pray we had no injuries hit us and we’ve dealt with that and more…on top of guys underperforming.

I can’t look at this depleted roster, see guys not finishing on great chances, see guys not performing who should be like Barkov and Ekblad, see the continued lousy goaltending from both guys and just scapegoat the coach as if he’s the whole reason we’re not winning.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

I really feel like the goaltending and illnesses have bought Maurice another year. Dallas went through similar in 2021 (Cup Finals to playoff miss) and Bowness got another year. Wasn't till a 1st round exit this year that he got the axe.

Can we at least get someone like this behind PoMo?

 

[sinDer]

Many things of course.

But I think one of the main problem with this team is one that is not discussed enough imo: lack of leadership.

As good as we’ve been last season, the team looked unprepared to start games most the time. That could be on the coaching staff, but it also has to be on the lack of leadership.

Our « leaders » are just players like Barkov or Ekblad who’ve been playing their whole career in a losing organization or washed up players like Staal or Horny.

Barkov is no captain material, especially when he doesn’t care about hockey like this year.

 

[Gentle Man]

I really feel like the goaltending and illnesses have bought Maurice another year. Dallas went through similar in 2021 (Cup Finals to playoff miss) and Bowness got another year. Wasn't till a 1st round exit this year that he got the axe.

Can we at least get someone like this behind PoMo?

Fine. I'll start showing my pecs

 

[Chino Oscar]

All of the above. Add salary cap issues handcuffing teams ability to withstand injuries to starters.

This season is done. We are missing the playoffs and hopefully pick isn’t top 5 cause that will be putting salt on the wound.

There is hope for next year after we get some salary cap room… oh… and getting tired of Ekblad. Get a first round pick back for him and more salary cap room. Not sure who can take on his salary though.

 

[scholl]

I am biased because I hated the decision to hire Maurice. He fu**** up the chemistry in Winnipeg by having his favorite who were bullying other players. Still there is in my opinion just one answer to this question and it's Maurice. Florida Panthers has completely lost the team identity. It's a mess where players don't have self-confidence and that together with roster issues and Maurice's 'playoff hockey' have led to a boring, losing hockey team.

Second reason is Zito. He overreacted and made a lot of changes when the team was en route to success. It all started when Vatrano was traded.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

The only bright spots have been Verhaeghe and tkachuk on offense with Forsling and montour (and Mahura) on D.

Exactly.
Maurice isn't probably more than an average coach but structurally the Panthers are playing good hockey. It's just that the high rollers like Barkov and Ekblad aren't proving enough value and that the player material assembled by Zito isn't very good. Any sports team is as good as its weakest link so one only needs to glance at EStall and that's the equivalent of where the Panthers are right now. With that in mind, they are, in some regards, overperforming. There's just not enough evidence to back up the argument that Maurice has been a disaster behind the bench and he's the sole reason for where the Panthers are in the standings.

 

[letsgrowcactus]

Exactly.
Maurice isn't probably more than an average coach but structurally the Panthers are playing good hockey. It's just that the high rollers like Barkov and Ekblad aren't proving enough value and that the player material assembled by Zito isn't very good. Any sports team is as good as its weakest link so one only needs to glance at EStall and that's the equivalent of where the Panthers are right now. With that in mind, they are, in some regards, overperforming. There's just not enough evidence to back up the argument that Maurice has been a disaster behind the bench and he's the sole reason for where the Panthers are in the standings.

I'm very much in the hate-Maurice club, but I don't think anybody is saying he's the only problem the team has. He is however the problem that's relatively easiest to fix, especially in the offseason.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

I'm very much in the hate-Maurice club, but I don't think anybody is saying he's the only problem the team has. He is however the problem that's relatively easiest to fix, especially in the offseason.

The first step for that to happen would be that Zito also thinks that Maurice is a problem and I don't think Zito is anywhere near of saying that Maurice might be a problem and thus we'll be seeing Maurice behind the bench for the next two seasons and maybe even more because of how much Zito was gushing over hiring Maurice.

 

[cotopaxi]

The team looks like it has no identity at all because of the new "system" Maurice is trying to implement. They're just dumping and chasing pointlessly which kills every last bit of the identity which was the Panthers before this season. I remember there was a time when Barkov would've never once dumped the puck but hold on to dear possession and he was amazingly good at it. Good times.

 

[ProjectPanthers]

Depth. It's the number 1 issue with this team, no doubt. Do others things have an impact? No question, but depth is where this team has fallen apart completely and that blame falls a lot on Bill Zito.

How many times has the team skated with 17 or 18 players? Unacceptable.

The Staal brothers are playing so many minutes because there simply isn't anyone else to replace them. Unacceptable.

Defensive depth is non-existent and the bottom pairing has been whipping boys all season as a result. Unacceptable.

One of your big name players goes down and you have literally no one to bring up and the roster is hurting for balance. Unacceptable.

Paul Maurice is what Paul Maurice is, but Bill Zito hasn't exactly set him up for success. His asset management at last year's deadline combined with his inability to make a tough decision in the off-season (i.e trading Hornqvist) shows his inexperience as a General Manager.

As a result of said poor asset management, there doesn't even seem to be a quick way for this team to pull itself out of this ditch. We don't have a 1st rounder until 2025 lol

 

[KW]

1. Coach
2. Zito
3. Goalies



4. Mods who let Devils fans overtake our board like why?

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

Depth. It's the number 1 issue with this team, no doubt. Do others things have an impact? No question, but depth is where this team has fallen apart completely and that blame falls a lot on Bill Zito.

How many times has the team skated with 17 or 18 players? Unacceptable.

The Staal brothers are playing so many minutes because there simply isn't anyone else to replace them. Unacceptable.

Defensive depth is non-existent and the bottom pairing has been whipping boys all season as a result. Unacceptable.

One of your big name players goes down and you have literally no one to bring up and the roster is hurting for balance. Unacceptable.

Paul Maurice is what Paul Maurice is, but Bill Zito hasn't exactly set him up for success. His asset management at last year's deadline combined with his inability to make a tough decision in the off-season (i.e trading Hornqvist) shows his inexperience as a General Manager.

As a result of said poor asset management, there doesn't even seem to be a quick way for this team to pull itself out of this ditch. We don't have a 1st rounder until 2025 lol

Zito's first season and a half at the helm was excellent but this past year has been downright atrocious. Even though Zito is a rookie GM but he still has plenty of so-called advisors around him and they for an instance couldn't mention at the previous TDL that regular season success necessarily doesn't carry over to the playoffs and therefore he should've been more conservative with the trades.

I wasn't expecting Zito to maintain the same level mgmt success that he had at the beginning but lately this has Jim Benning-type of GMing.

 

[ProjectPanthers]

Zito's first season and a half at the helm was excellent but this past year has been downright atrocious. Even though Zito is a rookie GM but he still has plenty of so-called advisors around him and they for an instance couldn't mention at the previous TDL that regular season success necessarily doesn't carry over to the playoffs and therefore he should've been more conservative with the trades.

I wasn't expecting Zito to maintain the same level mgmt success that he had at the beginning but lately this has Jim Benning-type of GMing.

I would've preferred if the Panthers had a more senior person in the Team President/Hockey Ops role to oversee these trades as Brian Burke has done in the past for some teams.

Zito seems to have been given the keys and we're all along for the ride.

 

[FinlandPanther]

I would've preferred if the Panthers had a more senior person in the Team President/Hockey Ops role to oversee these trades as Brian Burke has done in the past for some teams.

Zito seems to have been given the keys and we're all along for the ride.

The only real trade Zito has made that has been horrible is the Chiarot one. If there was protection on that pick no one would have a problem.

 

[NewEraGM]

The only real trade Zito has made that has been horrible is the Chiarot one. If there was protection on that pick no one would have a problem.

The no protection on that was absolutely outrageous. Almost all trades involving 1st round picks have some kind of protection, on far better players than Ben MFing Chiarot