South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Hyde: This really is the Panthers’ year
For run at Cup. Key additions should make big impact begin season. Dave Hyde makes predictions as Panthers
Sometimes you just have a feeling about a team. Sometimes you just look at the talent and timeline and say it’s their season.
And sometimes you’re just hostage to a column:
This is the Florida Panthers year.
Some columnists have an annual, holiday-gift column in which they dispense presents to local names (“To Jimmy Butler — a new cappuccino machine!”). Some have an annual ode-to-baseball’s Opening Day column (“More beautiful than a Cezanne painting of a sunset …”).
It is my doomed fate for much of the past quarter-century to predict it’s the Panthers’ year, the one they’ll not just make the playoffs but advance in them. This season makes 25 years since they accomplished that. But center Aleksander Barkov thinks something’s changed entering Sunday’s opener against the Chicago Blackhawks.
“It’s my eighth season here in the same organization, but for the first time it feels like it’s a fresh start,” Barkov said. “I’m in the same organization, but I feel everything is new. We have a new team, new guys here, new management.
“For a lot of guys, it’s like a new chapter of their life and new chapter of their
career. At the same time for a couple of us guys who have been here for a long time it feels the same way — fresh start, fresh team and looking good in training camp. I think everyone’s excited.”
See, this really, really is the Panthers’ year.
Sure, technically, last year I wrote if it wasn’t the Panthers year with the additions of Hall of Fame coach in Joel Quenneville, free-agent goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and various other roster pieces, it would never be their year.
And it wasn’t their year. They did make the “playoffs” in the pandemic-contorted season — or at least the “qualifying round” for seeds 5-12 (they were the 10th seed). But they were pushovers for the New York Islanders, turned over half the roster in the offseason and had another front-office shuffle, with general manager Bill Zito arriving from Columbus to replace Dale Tallon.
That represents the fourth GM change in the past six seasons (Tallon was GM twice). Staggered among those front-office changes are four coaching changes too.
“Obviously, when a team changes, and lot of people in the organization changes, that means things aren’t going the right way,” Barkov said.
What’s different this year? Well, Barkov’s two wings on the top line, Anthony Duclair and Carter Verhaeghe. ThePanthers have a deep 11 defensemen to pick from, including more who actually think defense first than recent years. Veteran Radko Gudas fits that part.
“It’s something they were looking for,” he said. “I want to have a strong net presence, make sure there are no easy rebounds [and] everything’s in order around the net.”
New GM. New players. New fortunes?
“There’s an attitude that’s noticeable,” Quenneville said. “I think that’s different. Whether it’s pushing one another properly on a line, sitting on the bench encouraging one another — seems like there’s more rah-rah. Seems like it’s a closer group in a short amount of time.
“We’ll look forward to seeing that growing. That can be very important to our succes, knowing we’re close, together, supportive.”
Maybe all that explains why it’s the Panthers’ year to actually win a playoff series. Or maybe it’s random karma. Just last weekend in the NFL, the Cleveland Browns won their first playoff game since 1994 and the Buffalo Bills their first since 1995.
Only the Cincinnati Bengals (30 years) and Detroit Lions (29 years) have gone longer than the Panthers among major sports teams without advancing in the playoffs. In hockey, Toronto is second-longest at 15 seasons. (Buffalo at 13 seasons is the only other team in double digits.)
By comparison, since the Panthers last advanced in a postseason in 1996, expansion twin Tampa Bay, has won 18 playoff series and two Stanley Cups. The Panthers have made four playoffs in that span, including last season.
Panthers fans have steadfastly lived and died with their team — mostly died. Mostly, they’ve gone away. That’s the nature of sports. Only winning will bring them back.
And so I write again: Really, honestly, truly this is the Panthers’ year.