The Florida Panthers are no strangers to unique marketing campaigns in an effort to put butts in the seats. Earlier this season, with the team fighting for its first playoff berth since 1999-00, the team introduced The Panthers Promise Plan, offering free tickets during the 2009-10 season if they failed to make the playoffs, which they eventually did. According to the team, all free tickets that were promised will be honored next season.
Now, it appears as if the Panthers are bringing NFL super-agent Drew Rosenhaus into the marketing mix.
The Florida Panthers took quite a gamble at the NHL's trade deadline by holding onto soon-to-be free agent defenseman Jay Bouwmeester. In the end, the Panthers not only missed the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season, but now they've also lost their one-time franchise defenseman, as the team traded his rights to Calgary for Jordan Leopold and a third-round pick.
Leopold, like Bouwmeester, will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, assuming deals can't be reached before then.
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Southeast Division.
The Southeast is probably going to be the most boring division in hockey this offseason. Three of the teams don't have the financial capability to make the sort of splash they need, and the other two were good enough to mostly maintain the status quo.
Still, we've got two top-5 draft picks to look forward to, as well as the ongoing sagas surrounding the stars for both Florida franchises.
Around 10 AM ET Friday morning, the Florida Panthers announced on their twitter feed that some breaking news was set to be announced within the hour. The first thought, of course, was centered around the possibility of the team trading defenseman Jay Bouwmeester's rights to a club that intended to sign him. Or, perhaps, that a general manager had been named.
Two hours later, TSN's Darren Dreger announced, via his own twitter feed (naturally), that Florida and Phoenix had made a trade. The deal? Steven Reinprecht to Florida in return for Stefan Meyer. Considering the initial build up, it was kind of a letdown.
After serving as the Florida Panthers general manager for the past four seasons (and head coach for three of those seasons) Jacques Martin will be named the new head coach of the Montreal Canadiens on Monday. During his four-year stint in charge of the Panthers, the team failed to make the playoffs each season, while he brings 14 years of head coaching experience to the Canadiens.
After a brief two-year tenure with the St. Louis Blues in the late 1980s, Martin took over the Ottawa Senators in 1995, leading the team to the playoffs eight times in nine years, while also winning three division titles and the Jack Adams award as coach of the year in 1999.
Long gone from the playoff race, the Atlanta Thrashers are busy playing out the proverbial string. While they did lose Thursday, 3-2 to Florida, there's no denying the Thrashers have been playing some pretty good hockey as of late. They're also feisty. In Thursday's game, captain Ilya Kovalchuk decided it was time to throw some punches, as he got into it with Florida defenseman Bryan McCabe. It was just the fifth fight of Kovalchuk's NHL career (second this season), but there's no doubt he more than held his own.
The Stanley Cup won't be handed out until June, but this is the time when we see teams making runs at the playoffs. And you can't win the Cup if you don't make the playoffs. Race for the Cup is your daily check of where your favorite team stands as the season dwindles.
The field of eight for the 2009 NHL Eastern Conference playoffs is set. Now, the jockeying for position can begin. The New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens clinched the last two spots in the playoffs Thursday night, leaving the Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres out in the cold, despite victories in their respective games.
Each Friday throughout the season, I'll provide you with my predictions on whose stock is on the rise and whose is failing miserably likethe American job marketpretty much everything these days. It's a neat little segment entitledBuys and Sells. There are a few teams/players/issues to buy and a few to sell.
The playoff picture has been in the making for seven months now like an exquisitely handcrafted piece of art. As of this morning, the Eastern Conference race has been completed while there are still two spots up for grabs out west. Today, we'll take a look at the teams that got in, those that didn't and those that are still hanging on to faint glimmers of hope.
Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.
Bruins 5, Canadiens 4: The Montreal Canadiens may have lost on Thursday night, but because they did so in overtime, earning a "Bettman point," they managed to secure a playoff spot, avoiding what would have been a spectacular disappointment in a season of celebrations and championship expectations. Montreal overcame a 3-1 deficit in the second period with a four-goal outburst, including a tally from defenseman Mathieu Schneider who suited up despite earlier reports that his season was over.
Aside from Montreal, the New York Rangers also punched their playoff tickets with a 2-1 win over the Flyers, which means the Florida Panthers, despite their 3-2 win in Atlanta, are mathematically eliminated from contention.
The Stanley Cup won't be handed out until June, but this is the time when we see teams making runs at the playoffs. And you can't win the Cup if you don't make the playoffs. Race for the Cup is your daily check of where your favorite team stands as the season dwindles.
Thanks to a shootout win over Chicago, Columbus is in, leaving us with four playoff spots to decide over the regular season's last four days. Teams like Montreal, the Rangers, Florida, Anaheim, St. Louis, and Nashville are playing with tons of pressure, trying to secure the final spots.
NHL 
The Florida Panthers took quite a gamble at the NHL's trade deadline by holding onto soon-to-be free agent defenseman 
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Southeast Division.
Around 10 AM ET Friday morning, the Florida Panthers 
After serving as the Florida Panthers general manager for the past four seasons (and head coach for three of those seasons) 
The Stanley Cup won't be handed out until June, but this is the time when we see teams making runs at the playoffs. And you can't win the Cup if you don't make the playoffs. 
Each Friday throughout the season, I'll provide you with my predictions on whose stock is on the rise and whose is failing miserably like
The Stanley Cup won't be handed out until June, but this is the time when we see teams making runs at the playoffs. And you can't win the Cup if you don't make the playoffs. 
