June 23, 200818 yr wasn't that Martin sitting next to Randolph in the van? they are now in year 18 of the 5 year plan.... the Cats organization has no freakin clue.....none
June 23, 200818 yr Terrible move and why the Panthers are one of the worst franchises in all of sports. Really sad because I would love to be able to attend an NHL playoff game in South Florida again sometime soon, one of the most exciting events to see in person, IMO. Its very hard to argue against that. The panthers havent dont ANYTHING since the 1999-2000 season when they got swept in the first round of the playoffs. They've only made the playoffs once since the end of the 1996-1997 season. I dont know if they are the worst franchise in all of sports, but they certainly are the most irrelevant team. If you were to rank all 132 teams (nhl, nba, nfl and mlb) the panthers are surely ranked last as the team that gets any type of national attention. You would be hard pressed to find an average fan that could name one or two players. The most noteworthy things they have done the last 8-10 years was trade away pavel bure and give away Loungo. I still go to games and I still like the panthers, but its really sad what they've become.
June 23, 200818 yr stuff coming out about olli the day after is not good. the vancouver and calgary GM's publicly said they had no interest, insinutating that character issues scared them off. brian biggane has a blog where a league executive is calling olli a "dog" - saying he's always the first one off the ice in practice and just is a terrible influence on his teamates. and steve gorten, a seperate source i'd imagine, says jokinen quit playing last year in order to get martin fired, which led to a split in the lockerroom. we were only what, 2-4 points out for a good stretch there? i'm pretty sure a couple of guys would rather have made the playoffs than having seen martin get fired. whether it's true or not, there's alot of smoke out there. and you know the old cliche..... regardless, he had to be dealt because it's obvious there is/was alot of tension in that room. if you read martin's comments about the trade he keeps saying "...and we changed the chemistry in the lockeroom" what do you guys think he's trying to tell us? he's being dubbed as a modern-day alexei yashin - and it's not long after this stuff came out about yashin that his career went down the toilet.... we need to replace his production, but i get the feeling we are a better team right now than we were yesterday. and let me add that i'm not exactly mr. positive. i was all over the organization when they accepted that pile of steaming horseshit for luongo. i just have a hunch. we'll see how it plays out. I saw what Gorten wrote. If it's true...that's pretty unprofessional on Olli's part. To tell you the truth, I could care less at this point...he's gone. It's time for change (hopefully for the better). Rhe fact that he only scored 5 goals in the last 2 months of the season really hurt his value...In addition to all the sulking
June 23, 200818 yr Great Palm Beach Post article http://www.palmbeachpost.com/panthers/cont...21panthers.html Panthers stock up on defense on draft's second day By BRIAN BIGGANE Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 21, 2008 OTTAWA ? It might be a while before the Panthers are in position to complain they're short on defensemen. Continuing their weekend-long theme of improving their blueline corps, the Panthers selected defensemen with three of their five picks as the 2008 NHL entry draft concluded Saturday with the last six rounds at Scotiabank Place. Panthers General Manager Jacques Martin made a first strike at upgrading his defense Friday night when he dealt captain Olli Jokinen to Phoenix for Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton. "Ballard was the centerpiece," Martin said. "When you look at his age, at the dimensions he brings, that's a significant improvement to the defense." Although the draftees may not be ready to join the NHL player pool, the Panthers added more punch on defense by picking Colby Robak in the second round, Adam Comrie in the third and Matthew Bartkowski in the seventh. Florida also selected goaltender Jacob Markstrom with the first pick of the second round and forward A.J. Jenks in the fourth. With free agency starting July 1, Martin feels he has as many as 11 NHL-ready defensemen available for next season and could dangle one or two to get the forward help he needs to replace Jokinen and his 70-80 points per season. "The one area we wanted to improve our depth was defense," Martin said. "That was an area where the draft was kind of deep. "We have a good mix there now. All our guys are under 29 years old, and we've got eight defensemen ... then two kids who are going to push for jobs." Ballard and Boynton join Jay Bouwmeester, Mike Van Ryn, Noah Welch, Cory Murphy, Bryan Allen and Karlis Skrastins on the back line. Keaton Ellerby, the No. 1 pick a year ago, and free-agent signee Jason Garrison also will contend for jobs in training camp. "But you almost need 10 defensemen," Martin said. The moves make it unlikely Jassen Cullimore, Magnus Johansson and Steve Montador, all of whom will be unrestricted free agents July 1, will be re-signed. Martin's next challenge will be shoring up his offense. He'll be expecting big contributions from youngsters such as Shawn Matthias and Michael Frolik, who likely make the team as 20-year-old rookies. "Our skill level (now) is more on the (young) side," he admitted. "The back end is looking more like the veterans. But that's not a bad mix. Look at the Red Wings: They've got the scoring from the young guys, and then the (Kris) Drapers and (Kirk) Maltbys to round out the team." It's been speculated Martin could offer buyouts to veteran forwards such as Jozef Stumpel, Ville Peltonen and Radek Dvorak, but he said he's expecting all three will be part of the team going forward. "I don't see buyouts," he said. "When you look at people like Peltonen and Dvorak, they're both leaders. They bring a significant dimension. Both are complementary players. Both are defensive specialists." Regarding Stumpel, who had just 20 points in 52 games in a 2007-08 season that was shortened by injury, he said, "I'll sit down this week and see where he fits in." One aspect of the Panthers does seem set: the No. 1 line. The trio of David Booth, Stephen Weiss and Nathan Horton, who finished out last season as Florida's best, will return in that capacity. Candidates for the second scoring line include Matthias, Frolik, Rostislav Olesz, Kamil Kreps, Michal Repik, Brett McLean and Richard Zednik. Peter DeBoer, named to replace Martin as coach nine days ago, said he conducted extensive interviews with assistants Mike Kitchen, Guy Charron and Pierre Groulx this weekend, but remained noncommittal about his staff. "I'm going to fly back to Florida Tuesday, meet with Jacques and hope to have it sorted out by the end of the week," he said. DeBoer said he's anxious for training camp to start, even though he begins without an established scorer like Jokinen around. "Everybody's got holes, and we're no different," he said. "I'm a big believer that we'll go to camp, whoever's there we'll go to work with, and it'll become evident pretty quickly where our strengths and weaknesses lie. But for me to say in June before I've been on the ice that we need this or that doesn't make any sense."
June 30, 200818 yr Author Rostislav Olesz re-signed with the Panthers today (1 day before free agency begins!) It's a 6 year deal. http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=242074&lid...s=secStory_main
July 1, 200818 yr Question why did we trade olli? :banghead You are either :rasta off your ass or have been doing some serious :beer Olli always had :daz years... We just kept :fitness3.... When the off-season came I was :crossfingers he'd be gone or :guillotine (heads will roll lol) I saw on :tv_happy was traded I was like, lets play a sad song for Olli :violin but really I was like :woohoo :party :dancing :elefant :rock :balloons :beer :cheers I even fell in :smlove I went to :disney, :cool some more, even :skippy There is a lot of :debate, but :no :bs, :no :kicknutz, :no more :pullhair because of Olli's slumps, hopefully :no :tissue at the end of the year and we get a little gift (playoffs) :santa... :no more :cussing after Olli misses terribly on a shootout... hopefully we are able to take down the teams we play :killthemall, especially the :stormy Our team just got a lot more :punching :putemup no more :monkey around...:sparta
July 2, 200818 yr Author Stillman = solid signing. Cup experience Has scored 20 goals at least, in 8 of the past 10 seasons. Scored 24 goals...and 41 assists last year He killed the Panthers (can't do that anymore :thumbup ) He's a PP specialist Good stuff. Btw...is it just me or is the floridapanthers.com server REALLY SLOW today? :blink:
July 2, 200818 yr its because the NHL is dumb and didnt expect everybody to be going crazy buzzing about FA talk and signings... I am pretty sure every board is going nuts right now, and the NHL is dumb.
July 2, 200818 yr Author its because the NHL is dumb and didnt expect everybody to be going crazy buzzing about FA talk and signings... I am pretty sure every board is going nuts right now, and the NHL is dumb. Yeah it sucks. :banghead The server is REALLY SLOW! :banghead :banghead
July 4, 200818 yr Hopefully Stillman can motivate the younger guys (especially Weiss and Horton) and have all 3 be 30+ goal scorers next season.
July 6, 200818 yr olesz and stillman onboard? sh*t i'm happy. let's be honest, we all knew olli was on his way out soon anyway.
July 6, 200818 yr If we can't keep JBo, hopefully we can still trade him and get a decent forward in return.
July 7, 200818 yr Question why did we trade olli? :banghead You are either :rasta off your ass or have been doing some serious :beer Olli always had :daz years... We just kept :fitness3.... When the off-season came I was :crossfingers he'd be gone or :guillotine (heads will roll lol) I saw on :tv_happy was traded I was like, lets play a sad song for Olli :violin but really I was like :woohoo :party :dancing :elefant :rock :balloons :beer :cheers I even fell in :smlove I went to :disney, :cool some more, even :skippy There is a lot of :debate, but :no :bs, :no :kicknutz, :no more :pullhair because of Olli's slumps, hopefully :no :tissue at the end of the year and we get a little gift (playoffs) :santa... :no more :cussing after Olli misses terribly on a shootout... hopefully we are able to take down the teams we play :killthemall, especially the :stormy Our team just got a lot more :punching :putemup no more :monkey around...:sparta Can you imagine if Olli stayed?!?!?!?!?! My smiley story would be much different. Vermette (and others) coming here in return for Bo... I would love to have Vermette.
July 18, 200818 yr The schedule for the upcoming season is out, First game is Friday October 10 at the Hurricanes, and the home opener is the next night against the Thrashers.
July 18, 200818 yr Author The schedule for the upcoming season is out, First game is Friday October 10 at the Hurricanes, and the home opener is the next night against the Thrashers. Interesting We go to Phoenix early on in the year, btw, so we'll see Olli pretty quickly.
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