After 15 games I am ready to declare the Panthers dead for the 2009-10 NHL season. From AP-
Even without two-time MVP Alex Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals are still quite adept at putting the puck in the net — especially against the defensively challenged Florida Panthers.
Tomas Fleischmann scored twice during a five-goal third period, and the short-handed Capitals beat the Panthers 7-4 Saturday night for a sweep of their home-and-home series.
Washington played a third straight game without Ovechkin, who has an upper body injury. The Capitals were also without injured defensemen Mike Green and Jeff Schultz, both of whom were hurt Friday night during a 4-1 victory in Florida.
But Washington prevailed anyway, amassing a season-high seven goals in the process.
The Panthers scored four goals without David Booth and Radek Dvorak. I will repeat it again, Washington will not make the Stanley Cup finals as long as they try to ride the back of Goalie Jose Theodore to get there.
As mediocre as Theodore is, one half of Florida’s goaltending tandem is even worse. Scott Clemmensen has played in 4 games this year for Florida and been horrible in three of them. In addition to last night’s seven goals, he gave up five to Dallas in a game a little over a week ago, and before that against Buffalo gave up two goals in the first 90 seconds of play. Coach Peter DeBoer yanked Clemmensen but the damage was already fatal. Florida went on to lose 5-1.
Here’s a question for any NHL stats officianados- Why didn’t Clemmensen get the defeat for the 5-1 loss to Buffalo? He left the game early but Florida never tied the score after he left the game. In baseball if a starting pitcher leaves a game and his team never regains the lead later on or ties the game, he gets the loss. No matter what the score was when the starter was removed.
Back to Clemmensen, his stats are horrific this year other than his 2-1 record in goal. He has a .838 save pct and is allowing 5.14 goals a game. What if Alexander Ovechkin had been playing last night? Dallas was without Mike Modano when Clemmensen let five pucks get past him in that game.
Florida had great goaltending last year with Tomas Vokoun and Craig Anderson. They combined for nine shutouts and that is no easy feat as the Panthers Defensemen with the exception of now departed Jay Bouwmeester, always had problems when it came to getting the puck out of the Florida zone. In the offseason, Anderson became a unrestricted free agent and eventually signed with Colorado where he has continued to to excel in goal.
The Panthers signed Scott Clemmensen who was coming off a breakthrough year in New Jersey. Clemmensen was excellent last year, but had shown very little before that said he was a quality NHL Goalie. Florida signed Clemmensen rather than Anderson probably in order to save the team about 1.5 million dollars over the next two years.
Clemmensen is a bust in my opinion and if Florida was serious about fielding a winning hockey team, they’d let this bum go and call up Mike Brodeur or Alexander Salak from Rochester. Of course Florida management will let financial considerations decide their personnel moves, and because they’d have to eat Clemmensen’s salary were they to release him, GM Randy Sexton will keep him on the Panther roster to the absolute detriment of the team he is supposed to be running. Just like Washington keeps playing the underperforming Theodore. Unfortunately Florida doesn’t have the talent to make a five goals a game goalie a winner in the NHL.
7 points in 14 games to equals the worst previous start in Hurricane history previously set in 1993. From AP-
Tomas Vokoun made 31 saves for his second straight shutout, Steve Reinprecht opened the scoring early in the third period and the Florida Panthers extended the Carolina Hurricanes’ winless streak to 10 games with a 3-0 victory Wednesday night.
Vokoun beat the St. Louis Blues 4-0 on Saturday.
Cory Stillman added a power-play goal and an assist and Reinprecht also had an assist. Defenseman Bryan Allen scored an empty-net goal with 2:01 left.
Cam Ward stopped 22 shots for Carolina, 0-6-0 in the road.
The Panthers have won three straight after opening 2-7-1.
Carolina, 0-7-3 during its losing streak, hasn’t won since beating Florida 7-2 on Oct. 9 in its fourth game of the season.
The Hurricanes were shut out for the third time this season. They have scored two goals or less in 11 of their 14 games.
Reinprecht scored his ninth goal of the season when Stillman’s wrist shot bounced off his leg and through Ward’s pads. Stillman made it 2-0 at 13:46 when he tipped Bryan McCabe’s slap shot from the point.
Carolina dominated the first period, outshooting Florida 21-4. It was the Hurricanes’ most shots in any period this season.
This was a odd game in a few ways. No scoring for the first 44 plus minutes of play, then three goals in twelve minutes. Carolina had 4 power play chances in a row, then Florida got six man advantages in a row. The game ended with Carolina showing some anger, after the buzzer went off Hurricane and Panther players scuffled behind the Florida net.
After their blazing start to the game, Carolina played listlessly for much of the last two periods. I would have to think Carolina coach Paul Maurice’s job will be in jeopardy soon if a turnaround doesn’t take place soon.
Florida has now won 3 in a row. I’m not yet sold on the Panthers correcting their woeful start to the 2009-10 season. If they split or better their two games with Washington on Friday and Saturday, I might feel more confident about my favorite hockey team.
The cats are up 3-0 with a little over three minutes to go in a game versus the Dallas Stars. Reinprecht has scored eight goals for Florida in 11 games this season. Two of his goals tonight came less than 30 seconds apart against Stars Goalie Alex Auld. Auld played for Florida during the 2006-07 season.
In nine previous NHL seasons he has never scored more than 19 goals. How or why is he suddenly playing like Alexander Ovechkin?
I will update this post either late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Brian Sutherby just scored a goal for Dallas to make the score 3-1.
Update- Dallas has scored another goal. This one after a Florida penalty. The score is 3-2 at the end of the first period.
2nd Update- Florida scored a 4th goal but this time Reinprecht assisted Jason Leopold. The bad news- Dallas once down 3-0 and 4-2 have come back to tie the game at 4 all.
3rd Update- The Panthers won 6-5 in a shootout. Rostislav Olesz scored Florida’s 5th goal and then the winner during the shootout.
The cats are playing the Ottawa Senators tonight. Besides the game, there is plenty of off the ice news involving Florida.
*- David Booth suffered a concussion in as a result of the hit made on in him by Michael Richards in last Saturday night’s game. Booth will be out at least a week.
*- Michael Richards was not suspended. The NHL’s disciplinary system continues to be a joke.
*- Radek Dvorak is also out with a knee injury. His return date is unknown.
*- Are the Panthers lacking in toughness? This legitimate question is being asked a lot after last Saturday’s game. No Panther put up their dukes after Booth was leveled. Should they have or would a fight or retaliatory hit been a case of two wrongs not equaling a right?
I’m more concerned by Florida’s inability to play well when faced by games on back to back nights. The Panthers have always had this problem. Hockey requires a great deal of energy but all NHL teams face back to backs. Why can’t Florida put it out for two games?
*- Bryan Allen was benched for Saturday’s game. The stated reason was that his rehabilitated knee that was severely hurt last year isn’t ready for two games in a row. This makes me question whether Allen can still play period. He hasn’t shown much to me for the first 9 games of the 2009-10 NHL season.
*- To replace Dvorak and Booth, the Panthers called up Kenndal McArdle and Michal Repik from their Rochester affiliate. Why not Shawn Matthias? McArdle, a 1st round pick in 2005 has shown nothing in either the minors or in a few short stints with the Panthers.
*- The Panthers have decided to keep Russian teenager Dmitry Kulikov on the roster. By playing 10 NHL games this year, Kulikov earns credit towards future free agency. Kulikov, a highly touted defenseman, was the Panthers 1st round draft pick this year.
If I had been the Panther management, I would have sent Kulikov to the junior leagues. I do understand why GM Randy Sexton and Peter DeBoer decided not to. Kulikov has shown he is a good NHL player already. He is too young for the AHL by their rules, what will he learn by going to a junior league in Quebec? Nothing, but the Panthers had to way the long term considerations for the team. No one wants Kulikov to be another Jay Bouwmeester. If not for a trade, Bouwmeester was going to jump Florida the moment he became a unrestricted free agent.
The play of Kulikov and Steven Reinprecht(who just scored his fifth goal of the season in tonight’s game) have been about the only Panther highlights for the 2009-10 season. At the moment the Panthers are 2-6-1 in addition to being badly banged up. The team is going to have to suck it up or this will the worst season for the team since the lockout. Can the cats get it turned around? Last year the team was struggling and banged up(Booth, Nathan Horton, Cory Stillman for sure and I believe one one more starter were all out injured) at the end of November. The team then went 6-1, including four straight road wins. I don’t think this year’s Panthers can do that type of turnaround but I’ll watch almost every game this year in hope they do.
At the end of one period tonight, Florida and Ottawa are tied 1-1.
He got leveled by a shoulder to his face. From AP-
Florida Panthers left wing David Booth was taken from the ice on a stretcher Saturday night after a hard hit from Philadelphia captain Mike Richards.
With 2:55 left in the second period, Booth had just released the puck in front of the Flyers’ blue line, and Richards delivered a late hit with his shoulder. Both of feet appeared to leave the ice as he struck Booth.
Booth immediately fell face-down and remained motionless for several minutes. Both teams trainers and Flyers team physician Gary Dorshimer attended to him. Booth appeared to be conscious as he was wheeled off following a 7-minute delay.
Richards was given a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct for intent to injure. He could face a suspension.
The verdict on Richards- He should be suspended for two months. I’ve been ranting about the NHL’s jellyfish like reaction to thuggery on ice for as long as I’ve blogged here. My most recent post on a player suspension, was written less than three hours before Booth got knocked out. There’s only one way to stop this, make the penalties so severe that team’s and players will think twice before leveling an opposing hockey player. Two month suspensions when players are carted off on a stretcher. The rest of the hand short handed. You’ll see this shit stop fast with those punitive forms of punishment.
I’d like to strangle Florida Panther announce Bill Lindsay. He was talking about Mike Richards leadership. He was an animal tonight, not a saint and Lindsay should be ashamed of himself for making excuses for what was done today. The Panthers should send Lindsay back to radio broadcasts where no one will hear his stupidity.
Florida is down 5-1 with less than three minutes to play. Another loss will take the team to 2-6-1 this year. Booth is the team’s best player. Another key player, Radek Dvorak, hurt his knee tonight. This is going to be a horrible year for Florida.
The cats split the first two games of the 2009-10 NHL season. From AP-
The Florida Panthers on Monday signed unrestricted free-agent center Dominic Moore to a one-year deal worth $1.1 million.
The signing adds more depth down the middle for the Panthers, who also acquired Steve Reinprecht during the offseason before signing him to a three-year-deal.
Moore posted 12 goals and 29 assists in 63 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs before being traded to the Buffalo Sabres at last season’s trade deadline. He had just three points in 18 games in Buffalo.
The 29-year-old center has 35 goals and 100 points in 305 career NHL games.
The Panthers are thin at Center. They have Gregory Campbell, Bryan Campbell, Steve Reinprecht, Kamil Kreps, and Shawn Matthias. Weiss is a good player, but his faceoff winning percentage was poor in 2008-09. Campbell is coming off his best year ever, Reinprecht I think is just a run of the mill player, Kreps has shown little in his NHL career so far, and Matthias is very green but a good prospect. Moore will help the Panthers win more faceoffs, and I think his acquisition is a good one. Who will the Panthers cut or send down to Rochester to make room on the roster? I’d keep Matthias over Kreps but I’m betting the Panthers do the reverse.
Did the Florida Panthers retain the wrong netminder from their 2008-09 team? From AP-
Craig Anderson always felt he could be a No. 1 goalie in the NHL. After two games he certainly has performed like one for the Colorado Avalanche.
Anderson, who signed as a free agent with the Avalanche in the offseason, stopped 35 shots, and Colorado beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-0 on Saturday.
It was Anderson’s eighth career shutout and his first since beating Edmonton 2-0 on Dec. 11, 2008, when he was with Florida.
*****
Paul Stastny and Wojtek Wolski had a goal and assist each, Darcy Tucker also scored and Milan Hejduk had two assists for the Avalanche, who have won their first two games in the post-Joe Sakic era.
Anderson, who’s stopped 73 of 75 shots in his first two games with Colorado, was strong throughout. He made a glove save on a blistering slapshot by Alexander Edler in the first period and poked the puck away from Daniel Sedin on a breakaway in the second.
Anderson has been very impressive since at least early 2008. Before that Florida Coach Jaques Martin showed little confidence in him, and three other teams(Boston, Chicago, and St. Louis) had put Anderson on waivers. I think he’s a more than solid NHL goaltender. Florida didn’t make a mistake in choosing Vokoun over Anderson, but my favorite hockey team could have retained Anderson for just a little bit more money(Three years at 1.2 million for Clemmensen versus 2 years at 1.8 for Anderson) than they are paying their current #2 goalie, Scott Clemmensen. So far as I know Anderson was willing to stay in South Florida.
No I didn’t make a typo in the title of this post. The game was played in Helsinki Finland and for that and another reason I typed the word Finnish instead of finish.
The first game of the 2009-10 NHL is in the books for my favorite hockey team. On a shootout goal by Finnish born defenseman Ville Koistinen, the Florida Panthers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3.
After a scoreless first period, Chicago’s Patrick Kane opened the scoring. Coming off the bench after a penalty, Kane got a breakaway shot past Tomas Vokoun.
Florida quickly came back to tie the game. 2nd year Panther Michael Frolik scored a goal assisted by Steven Reinprecht and Dennis Seidenberg. The second period ended with the game tied 1-1.
Chicago jumped out to a 2-1 lead early in the third period and things looked to get worse when a Florida penalty gave the Blackhawks a power play. Then Chicago returned the favor less than 60 seconds later, they were called for too many players on the ice. Ville Koistinen who got the game winner in overtime, scored a goal less than a minute after the Chicago penalty.
Patrick Sharp scored a goal with a little over 8 minutes to go in the game to put Chicago up 3-2. With time running out, Florida looked like they were going to open the year with a loss. Then for the third time today, Florida rallied from a one goal deficit. Florida’s leading scorer from last season, David Booth, scored a unassisted goal at the 17:39 mark of the 3rd period.
The rest of the third period and overtime were scoreless. Chicago’s Jonathan Toews opened the scoring in the shootout, but Steve Reinprecht immediately got the goal back for Florida. Ville Koistinen’s gamewinner was sandwiched by Tomas Vokoun stops of shootout shots by Patrick Kane and Patrick Kane. Florida had itself an exciting 4-3 shootout victory.
Today’s game was great, but I don’t really know what it tells us about the Florida Panthers for 2009-10. Last season, Florida got out of its quitting habits when behind that were all too prevalent during the Jacques Martin years. I am still modestly confident that the Panthers could make the playoffs for the first time in nine NHL seasons.
Other things of note
*- Goalie Tomas Vokoun didn’t look real sharp today. If I were Panther Coach Peter DeBoer, I’d start Scott Clemmensen in goal for tomorrow’s game. Yes Vokoun stopped 51 of Chicago’s 55 shots today, including 2 of 3 in the shootout, but he looked awkward to me too many times during the game
*- Talking about shots on goal, Chicago had 55, Florida 24!
*- Interim Florida GM Randy Sexton has been given the job on a permanent basis. What the Panthers need is a new owner. Only then may this franchise get their act together rather than letting all the team’s best players go to free agency or trading them away.
*- My viewing of today’s game wasn’t without service interruptions. After all the work I had to do to ensure myself the chance to watch today’s season opener, Comcast decided today was the day to replace the defective cable wiring the technician who came to my house yesterday discovered. At three points during the broadcast, my cable was disconnected.
While none of the interruptions lasted more than a few minutes, I was and still am really pissed at Comcast. The reason I had a technician come yesterday was so I could watch today’s game from the comfort of my home. After fixing my connection, this idiotic company decides to do work on my house on the very day and time I wanted to make sure I had cable television. I called to complain to Comcast, but the company refused to stop the work. They could have dug up my backyard 364 days and 21 hours out of the rest of the year. Comcast- Lets screw our paying customers. That must be the company motto.
Today is the first day of the 2009 NHL season and wouldn’t it be nice if I could watch the games. From the New York Times-
The National Hockey League season starts Thursday, but a dispute threatens to keep DirecTV subscribers from watching the games televised by Versus. If there is no resolution, an opening-night doubleheader (Washington at Boston and San Jose at Colorado) will not be seen on DirecTV, and the Rangers-Devils game Monday night will be blacked out.
DirecTV, a satellite operator, pulled Versus from its lineup at midnight Aug. 31 when the two sides could not agree on a request for higher fees by Versus and DirecTV’s plan to change the way it distributes Versus.
Directv and Versus each give different reasons for why the two sides are having this squabble. Either read the rest of the New York Times article to hear them or see this previous post of mine.
In the meantime thousands of NHL hockey fans who subscribe to Directv are about to get screwed over. I’m among them, the Florida Panthers are scheduled to play the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow in a game that will only be carried on Versus and it looks like I’ll be unable to watch it unless I want to go to a sports bar.(Out of the 82 games Florida played the last two seasons, I missed watching maybe 10 games each season. In most instances they were games that weren’t broadcast) I’ve got Comcast Cable too at my house, but Versus isn’t coming in on my television.(Funny thing is, I’m getting every sports channel next to it on my receiver. It’s just Versus that’s blank) Comcast is the owner of Versus. I’m mad at both sides in this silly dispute, but my anger is more focused at Directv and the NHL. Firstly Directv looks to be the unreasonable party, because I have yet to hear any other satellite or cable provider complain about the fees Versus wants. Why isn’t anyone complaining?
Versus is getting plenty of complaints from angry NHL fans. In an effort to placate me when I called to voice my unhappiness , I was offered $50 off the Center Ice Package that I pay for.
As for the NHL they are sitting on the sidelines and taking no stance in this affair. Rather than fight for their fans, they issue empty platitudes about how Directv and Versus are important partners to the league. This dispute is clear proof of how dumb this league was when they entered into a television contract with this third rate television channel. Fans and hockey commentators thought it was dumb after it was announced four years ago and it looks even more idiotic today.
Update- The $50 off offer has been withdrawn by Directv, in spite of me having an appointment for Dish TV to come over tomorrow and hook me up for their service. Directv apparently doesn’t value their long-time customers. I’m bolting after being with them for 8 years. They can also count on me bad mouthing them from this day forward. I was very unhappy with them recently when I learned a Pay Per View movie I ordered was only available on one television set in my house even though I’m paying monthly charges for three receivers in the house.
Comcast came by and I do have Versus now.(My development has a cable deal with Comcast and up till recently EWTN wasn’t shown in English on Directv. My mother-in-law watches EWTN or Filipino Channels all day long) So I will be able to watch tomorrow’s season opener for the Florida Panthers from the comforts of home.
Did you know it is less than 3 weeks to the start of the 2009-10 NHL season? From the Miami Herald-
The Florida Panthers picked up some defensive help Monday after signing defenseman Dennis Seidenberg to a one-year deal.
Last season with Carolina, Seidenberg scored five goals and picked up 25 assists in 70 games.
He is a German citizen who still has to get a visa to play for Florida, but he is expected to join the team later this week — most likely Wednesday in Ottawa.
In six years, Seidenberg has 14 career goals and 70 assists while playing in 295 games.
Seidenberg, who played for Philadelphia and Phoenix before coming to Carolina, is a serviceable defensemen no more. If Florida management thinks this guy and Jordan Leopold will fill the void created by the departure of Jay Bouwmeester, this NHL will continue to miss the playoffs every year far into the future.
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