If Kris Versteeg's right knee could talk, it would say what Panther fans already know. This team and shortened season are snakebit in ways that are unprecedented, even for this usually-futile franchise.
Versteeg was just getting his legs back under him after missing almost a month with a chest injury suffered from a cheap hit by Alex Ovechkin. This time, Versteeg was caught awkwardly by Radko Gudas(one of the best names in hockey, by the way) on a clean hit, creating a new injury for the oft-injured winger. He will be undergoing season-ending knee surgery over the next few days. The Panthers just can't get out of their own way to gain any momentum.
The 3-2 loss at home to the Lightning was as expected as practically every seat in Club Red being empty again. The Panthers are just plain bad this year, and the laundry list of long-term injuries is absolutely the reason, not an excuse, for the poor results. Few teams have the youthful experience in their systems to absorb losing 9 starters. Sure they will do their best, but the performance will suffer, and that is surely the case with the Cats. Florida is widely known as the #1 ranked organization in the NHL regarding depth and prospects, but this is too much to handle.
Stephen Weiss, Jose Theodore, Mike Weaver, Kris Versteeg, Scottie Upshall, Dmitri Kulikov, Ed Jovanovski, Sean Bergenheim, and Michael Caruso have been out for much of the year if not gone for the year already. While these aren't superstars by any means most were part of the backbone that propelled Florida into its first division championship in franchise history last season and first playoff berth in over a decade.
After the arduous lockout process, Panther fans were chomping at the bit to continue the success experienced last season, but it just has not come together for this team. By season's end the Panthers will be far and away in first place in man games lost due to injury, and add to that Jacob Markstrom learning the ropes on the fly and that is a disaster cocktail.
In this shortened "asterisk" season, it could be worse as a deep draft awaits and hopefully a top 3 pick awaits GM Dale Tallon. Unless the Panthers are able to go on a run of winning 8 out of the next 10 games, this season is practically over. Might as well call up more kids and see what they have in preparation for next year.
After Scott Timmins' unfortunate issues in San Antonio earlier this week, it is likely Quinton Howden will be the next forward called up, and promising defenseman Alex Petrovic has taken the ice again for the Rampage after recovering from a knee injury. Word is he will be called up as soon as his conditioning is up to par. Since these two players are definitely part of the long term plans for this organization, it will be great to see what they will bring to the table, whether it is by default or not.
48 game season or not, it is surely depressing to be looking to the draft in mid-March, but at least this nightmare is ONLY 48 games and the club can recharge during the summer. But what a long summer it will be...
Dan Spiegel...
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