Issue #31 Vol. 35, September 8th, 2009
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Sports

Think the Coyotes are bad?

By Garth McLennan

Over the past several months, the bulk of NHL discussions have been devoted to the continual mess in Arizona, where the Phoenix Coyotes have stumbled through a series of comedic errors involving team bankruptcy, the increasingly ridiculous battle between Jim Balsillie and Gary Bettman and protracted court dispute over who really owns the franchise.

But while the Coyotes have been hogging all the headlines due to their ineptitude, one other struggling, Southern United States-based team has also been going through tumultuous times, and that’s the Florida Panthers.

The problems in Miami are almost as numerous and serious as the ones in Glendale for the Coyotes. For 16 years now, the Panthers have existed in the Sunshine state, and in that time they have managed just three playoff appearances. Aside from a surprising Stanley Cup showing in 1996, where they lost to Colorado in four straight games, the Panthers have never moved past the first round of the post-season. To put it simply, they have been consistently terrible for pretty much their entire tenure in the NHL.

As expected, frequently poor results with little signs of change hasn’t exactly packed fans into the seats. Never mind the fact that Miami has zero hockey history and that another Florida team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, are located just a few hours away.

For a state that is about as foreign to hockey as you can get, the Panthers haven’t made it easy to be loyal to their squad. Besides not winning a playoff game since Clinton was in office, the BankAtlantic Center, where the Panthers play, is miles and miles away from the city center, with little public transportation available to get there and back. Basically, it’s like driving to Abbotsford from Vancouver to see a Canucks’ game.

Then there’s the fact that Florida hasn’t exactly endeared their fans with many marketable hockey heroes. Besides the electrifying Pavel Bure, most of the Panthers’ top end players haven’t been superstars. Sure, Jay Bouwmeester is an incredible defenseman that any team in the league would love to have, but for a team playing out of a very non-traditional hockey market, Bouwmeester isn’t the type of player who will sell tickets.

When you consider the team’s front office, it’s a disaster. The Panthers seem to change their head coach or general manager every year and after firing Jacques Martin from the GM role several months ago, they are still without a GM. Randy Sexton has been acting as a part-time GM since then.

Think about that for a moment: a part time GM. This isn’t a bantam C team where a parent steps in to manage. We’re talking about a multi-million dollar organization in one of the best leagues in the sports world, and the Panthers are letting a guy run the show part time? I mean, how can anyone expect them to improve with that kind of business plan?

The Panthers made a late charge for the playoffs last season, but inevitably fell short. They then removed what little hope remained for 2009-10 by allowing Bouwmeester to leave for the Calgary Flames and did little to fill the void. To give them some credit, they did lock up forward, and team leading scorer David Booth to a six-year contract, and that’s a good thing. But again, while Booth is undoubtedly a talented player, he’s not going to get a new arena built or save the franchise.

It might be stating the obvious, but what the Panthers need is a player like Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin. They need a larger-than-life personality who can lead the team every night and who is worth the price of admission. Look at where the Penguins and Capitals are, respectively, today with Crosby and Ovechkin. Pittsburgh just won the Stanley Cup and Washington is the most exciting team on the planet.

Now, one player, no matter how dynamic, won’t solve all of the Panthers’ woes. But it would go a long way to restoring the relevance of the franchise. Plus, it would give the average family of four a reason to drive an hour out into the middle of nowhere to see a hockey game, and that has to be the first priority for this team.