What The Hell Has Happened To The Florida Panthers?

[GlitchMarner]

Last season they had a stellar regular season record and were the highest-scoring team in decades. Now they're under .500 heading into Christmas.

Yes, they lost Huberdeau, but they acquired Tkachuk and he's been better this season (although probably not as good as Huberdeau was last season). They've also lost Weegar and Marchment. I don't think these subtractions alone explain their immense drop-off, however.

What's wrong?

 

[Faterson]

Subtraction by addition of coach?

 

[Baby Pettersson]

Flames, Florida same story. A good trade doesn't make a good team. Gotta get the boys to jive.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Hired a horrible coach and their defense/goaltending sucks. But they are better than their record shows - one of the better five on five teams xgf in the league.

Still don't understand why they fired a young coach who took them to a president's trophy.

 

[super6646]

Flames, Florida same story. A good trade doesn't make a good team. Gotta get the boys to jive.

The flames are in a playoff spot, though I agree they’ve underperformed too.

The Florida defence is awful.

 

[Big Trout]

Broken chemistry relative to last year, Barkov/Ekblad missing games or not being up to par, 14M worth of bad goaltending and add to that PoMo hockey and excuses + Staal bros.

 

[Frank Drebin]

Well, I don't know about the cat, but I sure am enjoying it.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Bad Defense despite what Panthers fans tried to convince us all before the season started. And bad goaltending that isn't covering up the Defensive struggles like it did at times last year.

 

[leafsfan5]

They led the league in comeback wins last year with 29 (unsustainable), their already bad defense got worse, they hired an awful coach, play Eric Staal + Marc Staal a lot of minutes, goaltending is inconsistent

All signs point to regression. Didn't expect it to be this bad, though

 

[tabness]

they need coach Q or someone like him

 

[GAGLine]

They're also missing Duclair. He had 31 goals last year.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Who could have predicted this

 

[ForsbergForever]

Marc and Eric Staal are holding down full time roster spots, that doesn't exactly speak to great roster depth. This needs to be the last season for both of them.

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

should have rehired q as he served his penance. also lost a lot of depth. tkachuk is actually an upgrade over huberdeau. but losing weegar, marchment, maxim, acciari and injuries sure didn't help.

 

[BB88]

Maurice.

That’s Zitos biggest mistake.
There were plenty of red flags around Maurice yet Zito ignored them all. Now Winnipeg looks miles better than last year and Florida million times worse.

Also signing both Staals was an abysmal decision.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Bad lockerroom vibes brought on by Tkachuk:

 

[the_fan]

Making trades for the sake of making trades never works out. It ruins team chemistry. The Huberdeau for Tkachuk trade screwed both teams. Although Flames didn't have a choice because players wanted out

 

[Sky04]

Tampa broke them

 

[Some Other Flame]

Lost some key depth with the big trade and hired a spectacularly mediocre coach.

They can salvage the season by turfing Maurice but doubt it happens

 

[Ouroboros]

It doesn't take very many roster downgrades to drag you back into the pack with the plebs.

 

[isles55]

They lost Weegar and Marchment.

 

[Breakers]

Attrocious cap distribution

 

[holy]

They lost superstar Ben Chiarot on the back end.

 

[BB88]

Making trades for the sake of making trades never works out. It ruins team chemistry. The Huberdeau for Tkachuk trade screwed both teams. Although Flames didn't have a choice because players wanted out

They made that trade for a reason.

It’s a cap league and extends their window

 

[nbwingsfan]

Arguably bottom 5D and G. They don’t have the offense to mask how horrible those are.