Archive for the 'Florida Panthers' Category
No more excuses. No more trade rumors. No more blown games in the 3rd period up 2 goals. Tonight starts the rest of the season. Time to man up and make the push.
Panthers at Flyers tonight, 7:00 PM.
(Above video was aired 02/13/08 at the BankAtlantic Center, Pre-Game)
The Panther’s found a way to blow a 2 goal lead last night for the second straight game, meanwhile the Carolina Divers managed to steal a point from the Bruins in a shootout loss. This team is soft, has no depth and has no balls when it comes to locking down the opponent in the third period. I was getting rather excited for the prospect of ONE South Florida team to finally have success this year, but that looks like it’s going down the toilet. Jacques Martin needs to be fired. Plain and simple. The old adage of the Florida Panthers is defense. The problem is trying to play just defense without mounting any kind of offensive attack in the third period spells doom when your playing the high octane Penguins. Comments like this coming from Panther players post game is a true sign this team is not being coached right…
“We stuck to our game plan early and often and were doing the little things correctly,” Florida defenseman Bryan Allen said. “But for whatever reason, we’re kind of almost scared out there to play confident and stick to the system, and we turned the puck over and missed assignments and then the puck is in the net a few times.”
Scared up 2-0 in the third? This team is soft.
We need some more depth on this team and an enforcer. I am not counting this team out yet b/c of the weak Southeast Division, but if they managed to slip into the playoffs they will not be ready for what will hit them.
Catch the highlights of the game above. Check out Steve Gorten’s view of the game on his Panthers blog.
Small update coming out of Buffalo on the condition of Richard Zednik. The Buffalo News reports…
Florida Panthers winger Richard Zednik, recovering from a severed artery suffered Sunday against the Buffalo Sabres, has been upgraded to good condition and will likely be placed in a private room sometime today.
“They want to watch it carefully to make sure there are no complications,” Schatia said by telephone today. “He’s going to be in a private room for a couple days. By Thursday, they’ll be able to determine if he can travel. He won’t be able to travel until Saturday.”
The Panthers returned to practice today and tried to get things back to normal. The Caps visit Florida Wednesday night, and forward Rob Globke was summoned from the Panthers’ American Hockey League affiliate in Rochester to fill Zednik’s roster spot.
Post practice video interviews: Jaques Martin, Olli Jokinen, Jassen Cullimore, Tomas Vokoun
If you weren’t watching the Cats in action last night, shame on you b/c they are making the push to capture the division and playing great hockey. You did miss a horrific accident involving Richard Zednik and Captain Olli Jokinen. Zed took Olli Jokinen’s skate to the neck on a freak play which cause a massive amount of blood to squirt from Zed’s neck. This injury reminds us of the Clint Malarchuk incident back in 1989.
If you didn’t see the injury during last nights 5-3 loss in Buffalo you can check it in the YouTube video below. Warning it is very graphic.
Zed underwent surgery last night and is resting comfortably in a Buffalo hospital. SporTech Matter sends warm wishes to him and his family.
The Panthers are planning a press conference for later today.
Update 2:00 PM - Richard Zednik remains in stable condition this afternoon at Buffalo General Hospital. Sonya Noor, M.D., the attending surgeon for Zednik, said the injured player would remain in the intensive care unit and will be evaluated throughout the day.
Important Links - Florida Panthers Messageboard, George Richards Blog, Florida Panthers Official Site
- Got a chance to make it out to the BAC on Friday night for the return of Roberto Luongo and his crazy father in law. The BAC was in a frenzy all night long. 17,000+ fans showed up for the matchup and the free TV giveaways. I didn’t win a TV but I did lose my voice and argue with some silly Canadians. Such fun! Check a few pictures below taken from my iPhone.
- George Richards from the most entertaining and informative blog on Miami Herald gives us an update on our walking wounded. According to JM, Radek Dvorak has two broken bones in his hand, will be out four to six weeks. I spoke to Radek after Saturday’s game, he was optimistic he was going to be OK. Apparently that’s not the case.
- Jason Taylor. All around good guy and official 2008 NFL Pimp.
- Did I mention earlier the Patriots lost? Check some Pats fans reactions here, here and here. KSK is also priceless today.
- Last week the Marlins signed Dallas McPherson. The Mets signed Johan Santana. I’d say we balanced each other out.
- Mercury Morris. Still yapping and yapping and yapping. I guess Tom Brady is cutting his front lawn this morning.
By now I’m sure many of you have removed SporTech Matter from your feed readers, bookmarks and safe email recipient list. We didn’t die, we just multiply! I’ll be honest, South Florida Sports had me down and I needed a little getaway from the daily nuances that were associated with covering this god awful section of the country that has 4 professional sports teams. Combine that with extra stuff to do at work and just the fact I needed more of a life besides blogging and work, and you have the downtime for posting at SporTech Matter. Nevertheless I am back and ready to fire on all cylinders. Or as Chad Johnson would say…”Just give me a call Bill Parcells, stop playing around already!” Lots of stuff went down while I was away so let’s catch up with the most recent notes…
- The Dolphins went absolutely nutty hiring coaches and assistants from all over the NFL and College landscape. So just what did we score? David Lee named QB coach, Brian Gaine Named Assistant Director Of Player Personnel, Tony Sparano named head coach, Mike Maser named offensive line coach, James Saxon? runningbacks coach, Evan Marcus? strength and conditioning coach, Paul Pasqualoni as their defensive coordinator, Todd Bowles as assistant head coach/secondary, Kacy Rodgers as defensive line coach and David Corrao as defensive quality control coach, Karl Dorrell as wide receivers coach. Phew. Talk about a purge. Mary Kate doesn’t even understand a purge like that.
- Today one of the more intriguing rumors came up regarding the Dolphins and the number one overall pick in the draft. Oh I bet you didn’t guess it had to do with the Cowboys? The Boys two 1st rounders and Marion Barber for the 1st overall pick. Apparently the groundwork is in place. Will the Tuna get it done? Ronnie and Marion? What a combo!
- Heat Win! Heat Win! The embarrassment of having Dwyane Wade on your team and possibly breaking the expansion Heat’s record for most consecutive losses in a season would be the icing on the cake for this season. Hey guys guess what??? We haven’t even reached the All Star break yet!
- The Cats have been a feisty bunch lately. The injury bug has bit hard and forced the Cats to call up top prospect Shawn Matthias, the chip they acquired in the Todd Bertuzzi to Detroit deal last season. Shawn spent a little over a week up with the big club and netted 2 goals during his stay. Such a fun kid to watch on the ice.
- Huge ruckus was made the last week or so about the yearly Olli Jokinen trade rumors. Somewhere Mike Keenan is sitting in a dark room writing Mr and Mrs Mike Jokinen on wedding stationary as we speak. Reports said Olli demanded a trade, other reports refuted it. The Cats are at the break sitting in good position to take the divisions. They are notoriously better after the All Star break so things should start to get interesting. Head out to the BAC. They are giving away 20+ Sharp Aquos TV’s this weekend!
- Apparently the Marlins signed a 7′ tall ex-basketball player who up until a few weeks ago has been pitching with less than 100% vision. Yes you just read that correctly.
Hope everyone has been enjoying the New Year. Should be getting a steady dose from now on. One last note. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before I am an absolute music nut. If your a member of LAST.FM add me as a friend so I can get an idea of what kind of music my readers enjoy.
Thanks for sticking around during the downtime.
And so do I. Go grab your Ice Dancers calendar now and enjoy the same visuals as Borat. Wait is Borat still popular? Did I just set this site back a year? Ahh who cares.
LET’S GO CATS!!!