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What We Learned: Panthers poised to take step forward, but how big?
(The Canadian Press)
Seems as though most people see what the Florida Panthers are capable of at this point.
Despite the fact that they're in a nails-tough division (or at least a top-heavy one in which points won't be easy to come by a lot of the time, but extremely easy other nights), they are widely seen as something better than a bubble team this season.
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There's plenty of reason to believe in this club, of course. Chief among them, for many people, is the fact that it ripped off a 25-8-2 record after the All-Star break, for one thing. But that was after starting 19-22-6, so even a run like that wasn't quite enough to get the Panthers into the postseason.
And honestly, the second half seemed to briefly give everyone Blue Jackets Derangement Syndrome, which was an extremely common affliction in Ohio when their local NHL team would play like garbage for the first four months of the year, all but mathematically eliminate themselves, then win 20 of their last 27 or something and "only" miss the playoffs by six points instead of the 20 most people would have understandably expected. That, in turn, gave everyone reason to go, "That's something to build on!" without also consulting the team's roster to determine that, no, it probably wasn't.
The difference here, though, is that while no one thinks the Panthers are gonna win 55-plus games or whatever this season, you'd have to say that based on the talent on the roster already, plus the additions over the summer make you think that the average of last year's wildly disparate performances — 96 points in total — is relatively easy to improve upon. That is to say few would be excited about a Troy Brouwer experiment to fill out that lack of fourth-line depth or adding Michael Hutchinson to be the third goalie when one of Luongo or Reimer inevitably misses time. But they needed the organizational depth even if the players don't wow you, and a legit second-line winger Mike Hoffman gives this team a dangerous dimension even when Sasha Barkov isn't on the ice.
And of course, most of the good players on this team are still in their primes or improving, which needs to be taken into account. Evgeni Dadonov and Hoffman the greybeards up front despite both still being on the right side of 30, at 29 and 28, respectively. Nick Bjugstad is 26, Jonathan Huberdeau and Vince Trocheck are both 25, Barkov is 23, Jared McCann is 22. Henrik Borgström is 21 and could be a surprise contributor to the offense.
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And even if you think Dadonov and Hoffman, due to age, are likely to decline, you have to consider that both will play with linemates who are improving. In fact, the line of Dadonov, Barkov, and Bjugstad — which only got put together around the time the Panthers starting winning like crazy — was great at putting the puck in the net, yes, and also one of the best in the league possession-wise, so it's reasonable to assume that 82 games of that group will go a lot better for Florida than 30-something.
Meanwhile, giving Trocheck another legitimate weapon on his wing for the second line to go along with Huberdeau makes that line pretty scary as well. Not much else needs to be said about it: If you're going Huberdeau-Trocheck-Hoffman across the ice for your second line, and your top line is a tough-minutes group that puts up results against literally everyone? Forget it.
Hell, even a prospective third line of Borgström, McCann, and Denis Malgin (11-11-22 in 51 without much power play time and less than 14 minutes a night) is one of those future-NHL third lines of three talented guys who can play the game at a good pace. Tough to get all those matchups right for any opponent.
As for the defense, well, I think it's one of those "you like it but you don't love it" groups. It's mostly on the young side — everyone you'd have reason to know about but Keith Yandle is 26 or under — but none of these guys are like, "That's an All-Star kind of player" either. Obviously the closest is Aaron Ekblad , but neither his underlyings nor his actual offensive output really lived up to the hype last season even as the rest of the team kicked serious ass.
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The good news is that even as no one is overwhelming back there, you have to like most of these guys, and if you can go Nos. 1-6 like that (even if you're not the world's biggest Mark Pysyk fan) you're probably feeling pretty good about this group too.
The team's biggest question by far, I think, is what the goaltending looks like. Here's my thinking on it: Luongo is 39, but coming off a .929 season, but he's 39, but James Reimer is probably a good backup, but Luongo is 39, but Hutchinson provides some good cover in case of injury, but Luongo is 39. It's inadvisable to expect .925-plus of literally any goalie alive, let alone one that only has 75 appearances in his last two full seasons and is, I'm not sure if I mentioned, 39 years old. And that was what the Panthers needed to get to just 96 points last year, which, I dunno.
Reimer is probably a league-average goalie, maybe a little better. Luongo should be better than that. But they need to be able to go the full 82 for this team to live up to its true potential. It's certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
Unless something surprising goes wrong (injury, bad PDO, etc.), this certainly feels like a 100-point team, given last year's performance and the growth you can reasonably expect. And in a division with three of the five or six best teams in the league, that would be quite an accomplishment. Honestly, if it weren't for their cross-state rivals in Tampa, Toronto, and Boston, one could easily see this team adding more than, I dunno, five or six points to its season total from last year.
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All you can do is put yourself in the best position to succeed in the playoffs, which won't be easy given who the draw is likely to be even if you get out of the first round. That's life in the Atlantic, I guess.
What We Learned
Anaheim Ducks: Y'know after the Corey Perry injury , which is probably close to a season-ender, I saw a lot of people saying, "Well it's just Corey Perry , not that big of a deal." And it's like yeah sure, Corey Perry isn't Capital-C-capital-P Corey Perry anymore but he had 50-plus points last year and maybe I'll just write about this tomorrow.
Arizona Coyotes: When they put " for better or worse " in a headline about your team-building that's probably bad.
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Boston Bruins: It's almost like sending 75 percent of your team across the international date line hampers early-season performance . Just a theory.
Buffalo Sabres: [ thinking emoji ]
Calgary Flames: Reading about the Flames' options for the third pair and fourth line in this article was a lot like reading Blood Meridian.
Carolina Hurricanes: I know we have bigger problems in Washington right now but this kind of thing should be illegal.
Chicago: …. Ah, nothing to worry about , then.
Colorado Avalanche: Hmm, having depth scoring seems like a good idea. Maybe the Avs will try it this year.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Seth Jones is so much better than people give him credit for, so this injury really hurts.
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Dallas Stars: Pretty cool way to start the season , if you ask me.
Detroit Red Wings: Help them do what exactly?
Edmonton Oilers: Anyone who isn't extremely skeptical of this team needs to see a brain doctor.
Florida Panthers: I really like this team but this is probably toooooooo optimistic . I guess I wouldn't be surprised if they finished third, but like, ease up a bit.
Los Angeles Kings: Dustin Brown's broken finger is exactly the excuse they're going to use to explain why he finishes at a 38-point pace this season.
Minnesota Wild: I'm never gonna count out a Bruce Boudreau team's regular-season chances but with this group? In that division? That's the ceiling.
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Montreal Canadiens: Not a surprise to see Koktaniemi make the club out of camp but they better send him back to Finland after nine games. What would be the point?
Nashville Predators: Eeli Tolvanen getting first-line minutes in the AHL instead of third-line minutes in the NHL makes a lot of sense. Bet he annihilates that league for half a season then gets a call-up.
New Jersey Devils: Counting on a career backup to help you repeat an extremely improbable playoff appearance? Great idea.
New York Islanders: If Lou's looking to make a trade , half the league should be trying to get a second-round pick for their nearest available 31-year-old guy who led the team in hits but had six points last season.
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New York Rangers: Well, what about Cody McLeod ? He sucks. Next question.
Ottawa Senators: Funny to think of the Senators being associated, in any way, with " keeping top picks ."
Philadelphia Flyers: Ah so they want the goaltending to be almost-certainly-bad instead of just maybe-bad. Got it.
Pittsburgh Penguins: If Matt Murray can get back to .920 territory this should be a real scary team.
San Jose Sharks: For me it's a no on this one .
St. Louis Blues: I'm so interested to see what the team does this year . So many questions in that division after the top two teams.
Tampa Bay Lightning: It's wild that a team drafting this late continues to have young kids who can push for spots at even the bottom of a roster this good. What a system they have.
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Toronto Maple Leafs: Do you think the Toronto media knows the Leafs are actually gonna play a pretty good chunk of most of their games at 5-on-5?
Vancouver Canucks: Surprised to see Adam Gaudette get sent to the AHL but then again, it's the Canucks, so not really I guess.
Vegas Golden Knights: How long do you think we need to get into the new season before people stop talking about last season? I'm gonna say "the playoffs."
Washington Capitals: Ilya Samsonov is gonna go like .940 in Hershey . Damn.
Winnipeg Jets: Now this ? This is interesting.
Gold Star Award
Did you know the regular season starts this week? Pretty cool.
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Minus of the Weekend
Say what you want about Tom Wilson as a live act, but he plays the hits .
Play of the Weekend
This is now officially the only acceptable way to celebrate an OT goal.
Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week
User "Hindustan Smyl" has an idea .
To Vancouver: Jacob Trouba + Winnipeg's 1stTo Winnipeg: Chris Tanev + Vancouver's 1st
Signoff
"Quarter Pounder" with cheese? Well, I can see the cheese but… do they have Krusty's Partially Gelatinated, Non-Dairy, Gum-Based Beverages?
Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports hockey columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here .
(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)
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