Florida Panthers

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Undoubtedly, hockey fans thought back to this adage in 2004: For the second time under Gary Bettman the league suffered a work stoppage.

When all seemed glitzy and good following the '04-'05 lost season, Roger Daltrey’s belted chorus “We won’t get fooled again” was apropos.

Fast forward seven years and we are staring another lockout in the face. Blame Bettman all you want- indeed all of this has transpired under his watch- but there is a greater problem underlying the Collective Bargaining Agreements.

When the league locked out in 2004 the main issue (and there were plenty) was the gr...

With the 23rd overall pick, the Florida Panthers selected Michael Matheson. 

In terms of skating defensemen, few in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft are valued as highly as Matheson. The 6-foot-1, 180 pound Matheson finished with 11 goals and 16 assists in 53 games for the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints.

Due to his intentions to play at Boston College next year, Matheson will be a prospect who most likely will come to fruition in the future.

The 18-year old blueliner will most likely add a solid top-notch prospect to a system with the ability to shut down the opposition one-on-one.

Despite struggling at times with consistency in Dubuque, Matheson&rs...

The Florida Panthers may have been a little overexcited to be in the playoffs for the first time in 12 years - 12 years to the day that they last went to the playoffs, in fact. At least, that's what their first-period play looked like, and they had relatively little offensive against the Devils.

New Jersey put up 26 SOG against Jose Theodore - who gave up 3 goals - while the Panthers didn't even break double digits. The first was Patrik Elias at 6:31; the second was a power play goal by Dainius Zubrus at 14:11, and the third was Ryan Carter at 14:56. The Devils pounded Theodore and nailed the Panthers into their own zone for large stretches at a time. The 26 SOG is a ne...

Everybody was making jokes at the Panthers' expense last summer. There were the Dale Tallon jokes, with the Florida GM filling out the roster with great speed, and sizeable contracts. As free agency opened, the league looked on in awe as Florida announced signing after signing. There was the roster, filled with players that most hockey fans across the league were ready to dismiss as a laughable collection of misfits who didn't seem to fit in anywhere else. By the time training camp opened, half the roster had been turned over, and the team was being led by a first-year NHL coach.

Most people thought the Panthers would be lucky if they could claw themselves a few spots h...