There have not been many positive moments so far in this young season for Florida Panthers fans. Although they played a strong game in Tampa in the first game of the season last Thursday, they got into penalty trouble throughout the game and lost 3-2 in overtime.
After the ownership group led by Vincent Viola and Doug Cifu publicly said that they will no longer give away costless or sell discounted tickets as was done in years past, the attendance in the home opener showed with only 11,419 tickets distributed against the New Jersey Devils. A huge step down from the 18,584 that witnessed the Panthers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 in the Panthers home opener last season.
This was done for a few reasons. While Season Seat Owners paid full prices for tickets all season, many others could sit in the same seats for drastically cheaper. Viola and Cifu want to make it fair for the fans who support the team year after year. There has been hardly any marketing around the area and not nearly as much advertising for events coming to the arena during commercial breaks or during games. They want to make coming to Panthers games strictly a hockey environment after former President Michael Yormark frequently designed gimmicks such as bringing $10 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets in return for a costless ticket or advertising the same events coming to the BB&T Center during every faceoff at a Panthers home game.
Unfortunately, the Panthers did not help out their small crowd by losing 5-1 to the Devils where goaltender Roberto Luongo was pulled during the 2nd Period after being down 5-0. On this past Monday night, the Panthers hit an all-time low with only 7,311 showing up to see a game against the Ottawa Senators. The previous record was 10,063 against the Carolina Hurricanes on Halloween night in 2007. Once again, while the Panthers outshot the Senators 30-23, they lost by a 1-0 game as they could not solve Senators goaltender Craig Anderson. Anderson, the former Panthers goaltender, is 11-2 lifetime against Florida. Not only did that game make the Panthers record drop to 0-2-1, but they did not win a game in preseason either and went 0-4-2.
The reports of the low attendance did not just become a big story locally and nationally by the sports media, but on nationally televised news stations as well such as CNN. Relocation rumors were in hundreds of articles all over the Internet and Panthers Nation have been in a panic over the last two days. Doug Cifu, however, quoted to the Florida Panthers Booster Club, "But you should know and your members should know that we are not moving, we are not moving to Quebec and the Broward County Commission discussions are just noise. You can quote me to your members. We care as much about the Cats as you do and it will get better. Thanks for your loyalty and for caring."
While it is easier said than done to feel completely positive about the team's future in South Florida, that statement should make fans feel a bit more rest assured and hope that the team finally gets a win on this upcoming four game road trip. The good news is that they start off the trek in Buffalo on Friday. The Panthers went 3-1 last season against the Sabres and Roberto Luongo, whom has been said by coach Gerard Gallant to be in net, recieved a shutout against them last season. The Sabres did win their last game in Carolina against the Hurricanes 4-3 in a shootout, but were 0-3 previously on the season, were getting outshot on an average of 25 shots per game, and were outscored 14-4.
The Panthers need to shoot as many pucks at the net as possible and find ways to score. While they did outshoot the Senators on Monday night, too many shots were the goaltender's chest or from the blue line, which led to easy saves for Craig Anderson. Also, top players that are depended on need to start producing more and get into the action. Certain players have been mostly unnoticeable and are making careless mistakes that can lead to goals for the opposition. Gerard Gallant was said to be playing around with ideas for different lines in practice over the last two days and will see what might work best in towards of chemistry.
Nevertheless, there are still seventy-nine games left in the regular season for the Panthers with plenty of time to rebound. All it takes is one win for things to turn around and a winning record on a road trip would be huge as the Panthers also travel to Washington D.C. to play the Capitals, to Colorado faceoff against the Avalanche, and to Arizona to meet with the Coyotes. None of those teams have started off the season with a great record just yet as well. Another thing to realize is that the Boston Bruins, one of the league's best teams, just won their first game in a shootout win in Detroit and currently, the Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers, and Philadelphia Flyers are also winless. Be patient, Panthers fans. Things will turn around and as any sports fan in South Florida knows, once teams start winning, the seats fill up as well.