Jayzhockey

The '08-'09 season is underway for the Florida Panthers, and as always at this time of year there is hopes and dreams of Playoffs for almost every NHL team.

Parity rules the NHL right now, and especially so in the Eastern Conference. Montreal is the pick for many to win the East, and yes they are good, but by no means great. Pittsburgh has a couple of superstars that should carry their team, but they lost a lot of their depth players and they will find it tough sledding when other teams focus on stopping their star players. The rest of the Eastern Conference teams have many more question marks, which means a wide open race for the playoffs. It truly is a year when you could see as many as 12 teams in contention for the eight playoff spots, up until the last week of the season.

This is all great news if you're a Panther fan because they are definately going to be in the mix. As always, a lot will come down to injuries and winning more than your share of tight games. The Panthers lost 25 games last year by one goal, which caused another year of heartbreak.

I have been asked where are the goals going to come from? Well my friends that is the least of my worries. I have to applaud the move to upgrade the blue line by GM Jaques Martin, even if it cost our Captain Olli Jokinen. The 25 games the Panthers lost by 1 goal were mostly attributed to blowing leads. If you are leading, it means you have scored enough goals to win the game. Jacques did the right thing when he evaluated his team, found the area that needed to be fixed and did something about it. I love what Olli did for this franchise, but I believe both parties knew it was time for a change. Olli is going to flourish in Phoenix, and the Panthers will be a better team.

The Cats upgraded defense, Thomas Vokoun in net, and the emergence of David Booth as a star have the Panthers on the verge of breaking their playoff drought. I am truly excited about the year to come. It will be close down to the end, but I believe the wait for playoff hockey will end. This year they will win more than their share of tight games and yes they will score enough goals.

On that note I will leave you with this. Olli Jokinen played seven years in Florida and scored 419 points. Bud did you know thar over that same span of seven years, Cory Stillman had 412 points? That works out to 1 point a season less.

Here's Bill Lindsay, Steve Goldstein, and Denis Potvin with their look at what the 2008-09 season and what's in store for the Panthers. ...

Jayzhockey

Well, I thought the effort was certainly there Monday night in Montreal. We’ve seen a lot of good things from the team in the first five games. We’re outshooting teams, which we rarely did last season. We’re getting up around 35 shots a night.

I know we’ve only scored three goals the past two games, but I don’t think that’s indicitive of what will happen this year. First of all, you’re not going to run into the kind of goaltending we saw Monday in Montreal every game of the season, so I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. We were 20th in the NHL last season in scoring, but now we’re taking 35 shots a night. The law of averages are that you’ll get three or four goals a night if you’re generating those kinds of shots. I’d be more concerned about goals if we were only getting 20 shots a night.

If you look at last night, it was the inability to finish scoring chances. If you give Nathan Horton enough chances, he’ll score.

I also think we’ll be able to generate goals with the ability of our defensemen. I think they’ll make it happen. You really do notice a difference with the puck-moving defensemen we have now. These guys have the ability to move the puck to the forwards in play.

We play Ottawa next and what happens there is you have to control Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson. It’s not a real deep hockey club like you’ve seen from them in the past. All their scoring is generated through those three guys. And if we’re getting 30 or 35 shots a game, well, they have some question marks in net, so that should be a good bounce back for us.

I liked what I saw in Montreal. They’re one of the top teams but they didn’t generate more scoring chances than we did. And I think our defensemen have proven capable of control another team’s top lines.

I’ll check back soon.

Jayzhockey

We're a month into the season, and the Panthers find themselves in need of some road victories. After setting a franchise record with 19 road wins in 2007-08, the Panthers just have one through the first month of the season. That has to change, as they head out to the west coast to face LA, Phoenix and Anaheim to try and get some critical points.

The Panthers seem to play their best hockey when faced with the challenge of a tougher opponent. Thier best games have come against some of the top teams in the league. The win over San Jose shows you what this team is capable of accomplishing. They need to develop the kind of desperation they show against top teams night in and night out.

To be a playoff team you have to play at your best against everybody, and there would be no better place to start that trend than in LA. The Kings have a young team that is going through some rebuilding. The Panthers will be looking to put together a 60 minute effort to start the road trip on the right foot. Then it will be off to Phoenix and a show down with Olli Jokinen. The trip will finish up against the high powered, Ducks of Anaheim.

The Panthers have the ability to compete against anybody in the league. They have shown us that already. Now they have to do it on a nightly basis. It is still early in the season and I have seen a lot of great things from our team. I believe Peter DeBoer will get the most out of his team, and great performances from his squad will become the norm and not the exception. If they show the desperation and urgency they display against the top teams to every opponent then the victories will start adding up quickly.

I am excited for this road trip, as I feel the Panthers have something to prove and will be a hungry bunch. The NHL season is a marathon not a sprint. There is a lot of hockey left and consistncy will be the key.

Bomber