ADSF- (1)Florida vs (4)NY Islanders (Islanders win 4-2)

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

WOOOOOHHHH!!! Big win! Panthers come home for the pivotal game 5.

Ok, so some of you aren't entertained for whatever reason, but every game has been a tight checking affair with big momentum swings both ways all throughout the game, and every game has been a 1 goal game with a lot of drama at the end.

What else do you really want?

And this... is the difference between being emotionally invested, and really not caring.

[Saqe]

I don't think this series is that bad/boring. NYI is a one line team that pretty much has been dominated throughout the series- they just aren't a very good team. Without Tavares the series would already be over.

Also Florida's inexperience is pretty evident and has shown in the two losses where they weren't able to put the Isles away.

[metallicat]

I didn't even know that Florida Panthers were still in the NHL, let alone the playoffs this year.

[SofaProfessor]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

I didn't even know that Florida Panthers were still in the NHL, let alone the playoffs this year.

You're not serious right now, are you?

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

I didn't even know that Florida Panthers were still in the NHL, let alone the playoffs this year.

Do you watch like three games a year?

It's easy to forget guys like Shawn Thornton and Steve Kampfer are still in the League. However, you've forgotten about an entire team? And one that's been all over the press recently, with Jagr and the whole 'Spacey in Space' thing?

Wut?

[metallicat]

Originally Posted by SofaProfessor

You're not serious right now, are you?

Totally. They're irrelevant, so I guess j just forgot about them.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Why wrong with that?

I mean, I kind of remember Tampa Bay but two teams still in Florida? Who knew.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

Totally. They're irrelevant, so I guess j just forgot about them.

In what? The standings?

Um, nope.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

Totally. They're irrelevant, so I guess j just forgot about them.

From an Oiler fan. Oh the ironing.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Saqe

I don't think this series is that bad/boring. NYI is a one line team that pretty much has been dominated throughout the series- they just aren't a very good team. Without Tavares the series would already be over.

Also Florida's inexperience is pretty evident and has shown in the two losses where they weren't able to put the Isles away.

Pretty much this. This series is the learning curve for a young team, much like the Flames of last year. Probably the better team by a decent margin, but lose games to the inferior team only because they haven't been there before.

If they win the series, they'll be on their way to becoming a perennial playoff threat. It's a process towards making a championship team.

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Pretty much this. This series is the learning curve for a young team, much like the Flames of last year. Probably the better team by a decent margin, but lose games to the inferior team only because they haven't been there before.

Also the Islanders have a really good PP because of... Tavares again. Big advantage there but otherwise yeah, 5 on 5 the Panthers are clearly the better team.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Saqe

Also the Islanders have a really good PP because of... Tavares again. Big advantage there but otherwise yeah, 5 on 5 the Panthers are clearly the better team.

Yes, also exceptional on the penalty kill. They've been dominant on the special teams, but as long as the referees call it relatively evenly the Panthers should win.

[SofaProfessor]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

Totally. They're irrelevant, so I guess j just forgot about them.

This coming from the fan of a team that should have been relegated out of the NHL 4 or 5 years ago.

[btimbit]

lol. Forgot about the Panthers? A team like the Hurricanes, sure, that's easy to not think of too often. But it's pretty hard to forget about guys like Jagr, Ekblad and Barkov though.

[metallicat]

More people, the NHL included, probably should forget about the Panthers.

The Oilers suck, we all know that already.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

More people, the NHL included, probably should forget about the Panthers.

The Oilers suck, we all know that already.

Yeah Oilers fans probably should forget about the Panthers. Because their rebuild and its success is making EDM's look like a joke. Why take a defensemen high in the draft? Someday soon you'll have an entire forward core of top 5 picks, surely that will be the best offence in the league right? Right? Right?

RIGHT?

[Da_Chief]

The sad part is that Florida has been re-building longer then the Oilers. So Florida gives Edmonton some hope so they can have a winning season too.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

The sad part is that Florida has been re-building longer then the Oilers. So Florida gives Edmonton some hope so they can have a winning season too.

Lies. Nobody has been rebuilding longer than the Oilers.

[SuperMatt18]

Actually both have had 10 season stretches of not making the playoffs.

Florida was 00/01 to 10/11.

Edmonton was 06/07 to now.

So really in this current iteration the Panthers have had a shorter rebuild, and the Oilers can pass the 10 year mark when they miss next season.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

I mean, technically this is the Panthers 2nd rebuild if you look back.

Late 90's after their cup run, they were largely just trying to make it back, and it never worked out very well. Didn't have a pick higher than 12th overall until 2001.

Start looking at their drafting in 2001 for a real look at their first rebuild (notable players outside the first round denoted):

2001: 1st (4th overall) Stephen Weiss, 1st (24th overall) Lukas Krajicek.
2002: 1st (3rd overall) Jay Bouwmeester, 1st (9th overall) Peter Taticek *BUST*, 3rd (67th overall) Greg Campbell (Over 800 GP)
2003: 1st (3rd overall) Nathan Horton, 1st (25th overall) Anthony Stewart, 2nd (38th overall) Kamil Kreps (238 GP), 9th (265th overall) Tanner Glass (500 GP)
2004: 1st (7th overall) Rostislav Olesz, 2nd (53rd overall) David Booth (Over 500 GP)
2005: 1st (20th overall) Kendall McArdle *BUST*
2006: 1st (10th overall) Michael Frolik
2007: 1st (10th overall) Keaton Ellerby
2008: 2nd (31st overall) Jacob Markstrom (83 GP to date), 2nd (47th overall) Colby Robak (47 GP to date, still in the Panthers system), 7th (190th overall) Matt Bartkowski

This is the end of the previous rebuild. Most of the players listed above eventually played for the team, but they never found a way to be a really good team and get over the hump. However, at no point were they near the bottom again, and at no point during their rebuild did they pick 1st overall even once. They picked in the top 4 on three different occasions early on, but moved slowly out of the basement.

By 2010, the purge of this group started happening.

At this point I would say that the Panthers started their current rebuild, though not intentionally so at the time. Here's how they built the current team for the most part:

2009: 1st (14th overall) Dmitry Kulikov, 2nd (44th overall) Drew Shore, 4th (107th overall) Garrett Wilson, 5th (135th overall) Corban Knight

*** In 2010, Panthers had 3 1st round picks, 3 2nd round picks, a 3rd round pick, and 3 4th round picks in return for players they traded away. That's 10 picks in the first 4 rounds.
2010: 1st (3rd overall) Erik Gudbranson, 1st (19th overall) Nick Bjugstad, 1st (25th overall) Quinton Howden, 2nd (36th overall) Alex Petrovic, 2nd (50th overall) Connor Brickley, 4th (99th overall) Joonas Donskoi.

2011: 1st (3rd overall) Jonathan Huberdeau, 2nd (33rd overall) Rocco Grimaldi, 3rd (64th overall) Vincent Trocheck, 3rd (76th overall) Logan Shaw, 7th (184th overall) Iiro Pakarinen *Now playing for the Oilers. Other notables: Jonathan Racine and Kyle Rau, who are still relatively high on the prospect chart for the Panthers.

2012 was the year they made the playoffs again, and consequently traded some draft picks for immediate help
2012: 1st (23rd overall) Michael Matheson (not much NHL time yet due to his college career, but is already playing top pairing minutes with Ekblad in the playoffs)

2013: 1st (2nd overall) Aleksander Barkov, 2nd (31st overall) Ian McCoshen (like Matheson, very highly touted college defenseman yet to get much time in the NHL)

I want to pause here for a second to note that in all this time, the Panthers haven't drafted 1st overall once yet. Some higher picks, yes, but still plenty of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks that became quality NHLers, along with a lot of middling 1st round picks. At this point the Oilers already have their 3rd 1st overall pick in a row.

2014: 1st (1st overall) Aaron Ekblad. This is just the 2nd time in franchise history the Panthers draft 1st overall. The previous time was Ed Jovanovski back in 1994. That's 20 years between 1st overall selections there Oiler fans. That's the way it should be.


So why did I bother to write all that? Just to illustrate that even though the Panthers were mired in mediocrity, or downright awfulness, they've never, ever, come even within a mile of being as bad as the Edmonton Oilers. Few franchises ever have, or ever will again.

In short: E=NG.