Ron Cocquyt
As the season is coming to a close, and once again the Panthers will fail to make the playoffs, I need a place to vent. Since I’m a snowbird, I’m only here from November through the end of the season. In the fifteen years we’ve been coming, we’ve seen two playoff series and a grand total of six playoff games. This organization has gone through four owners since I’ve been here and enough coaches and coaching staffs to field an entire senior hockey team. Annually we have purchased plans that vary from 12 to 15 to 20 sets of tickets. We’ve seen the team write new “blueprints for success,” make a variety of promises, change uniforms, add uniforms, add slogans, delete slogans, and nothing much changes.
Right now the team has about a half dozen very good players. In fact, I’d call them elite players, and yet management and player personnel can’t seem to draft and develop solid goaltending, and worse yet, they can’t seem to draft, develop, sign, or trade, for at least four defensemen. This current crop of defensemen may be the worst ever. Keith Yandle could play another 900 games, since he never physically engages with anyone, so there is very little chance he’ll be bruised or injured. Mike Matheson is a complete and total disaster. He came here directly from college during the last playoff run and looked like a future phenom. But it didn’t take long for NHL scouts to figure he had a “lot of tools but no toolbox,” and they quickly exploited and continue to exploit his flaws. He does not see the game as a defenseman. He consistently turns over the puck. All you have to do is see that he is rapidly approaching -30 status. Yet staff continues to play him as a first level defenseman.
Coaching defense on this team is laughable. Aaron Ekblad came here directly from juniors and was an immediate all-star. His play has continued to deteriorate as he does his best to not only play his own position, but also cover up for either Matheson or Yandle. Young Mr. Brown showed up here a little over halfway through the season, and he too looked promising. But now he too is a victim of trying to do more than he is capable of.
I’ve been a coach certified by USA Hockey. I’ve coached in the minor leagues. I’ve been an administrator. I’ve been commissioner of a Jr. A league. I’ve worked at a variety of levels, including being the Director of Hockey Operations for the IHL during the Bob Ufer/Doug Moss era. I’ve put in my time. I know of what I speak and I know what I see. Someone needs to tell me where and why today’s modern defenseman seems to think that he is a goalie. Today’s modern defenseman likes to slide along the ice or genuflect in hopes of breaking up passes or blocking shots. Goalies are paid astronomical sums of money to block shots. Defensemen are paid to take away time and space and knock people off their skates and crush them into the boards. Defensemen are required to make a first and accurate pass to get the team out of trouble in its own zone. They are required to protect the goalie’s blind side by always being positioned on the weak side of the play. If you look at the Panthers, their defensemen are running all over the building, sliding on their bellies, leaving the weak side of the ice undefended, and turning the puck over at very inopportune times. And yet, they continue to get shift after shift of playing time.
This team is not going to win until it gets some grit. I have written in the past that when teams visit BB&T Center, the only pleasant moment they should have is when the door of the plane opens and they get that first pass of warm air across their faces. The rest of their time in South Florida should be about misery, pain, and keeping their head on a swivel. Boston came here last weekend in a critical game for the Panthers and skated around out there as if it were practice. A meaningless fight was staged in the second period, when setting the tone for the evening should have happened in the first thirty seconds of the game. This team needs to get tough, it needs to become physically imposing. It needs to quit chasing the Pittsburg style of play and be more like the Washington Capitals . . . fast and physical. You never play against the Capitals and skate around with your head down. However, this requires players who have that kind of attitude and who understand winning is what counts and what fills the seats.
There should be no one on the Panthers with facial hair – no beards, no moustaches. Beards and moustaches are reserved for playoff runs. Facial hair is something that’s earned on the field of battle in pursuit of the Stanley Cup. The only thing this team has done on the field of battle is continue to disappoint its fans and prepare its individual players for opportunities to play in the World Cup Games over in Europe (whoopee!). Maybe someday the team will return to the uniforms they wore in the 90s – unquestionably one of the best looking professional uniforms ever.
‘Nuff said. You know how I feel. I hope that the great players who are currently on this team have a chance to play with other players who seriously want a chance at the Cup before we lose Ekblad, Huberdeau, Barkov, and Trochek to free agency. And believe me, if the Panthers don’t put together a coaching staff and the appropriate personnel soon, these players will be gone as quickly as they can pack their suitcases, terminate their leases, and get the hell out of here.
