Analysts on where Panthers' run ranks. And an absurd suggestion; NBA, football media news

Miami Herald

2 days ago

Media notes and thoughts on the eve of the start of the Panthers-Oilers Stanley Cup Final opener at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Edmonton (TNT, Max, truTV):
▪ During the past 50 years, only five teams have made three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals — the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders (who each won four championships in a row), the Edmonton Oilers (who won four and made five appearances in the Cup Final six years), the Tampa Bay Lightning (who won in 2020 and 2021 and lost in 2022) and now the Panthers, who are seeking their second title in a row.
The Canadians, Islanders and Oilers — in no particular order — top any list of the best NHL teams and postseason runs during the past half century. But where would the Panthers rank if they win this series?
'You would have to consider it over the course of the last 25 years right up there with the runs of Chicago and Pittsburgh,' Ed Olczyk, who will join Kenny Albert on the call of the series, said on a TNT conference call this week.
'We'll see what happens in the Finals. If Florida can find a way to win back to back, which is very, very difficult, I don't know where number wise I would put them. But you would have to put them up there with teams that have been regarded with some of the very best we've seen. Pretty darn impressive,.. especially in the salary cap era.'
Chicago won the Cup in 2013 and 2015 but didn't make the Final in 2014. Pittsburgh won it in 2016 and 2017.
Olczyk also mentioned the aforementioned Tampa Bay team and a Los Angeles Kings team that won the Cup in 2012 and 2014 but didn't make the Final in 2013.
If the Panthers win this series convincingly, they and any of those four aforementioned teams (Chicago, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles) can each make a case that they're the best NHL team this century.
'They're going to be right up there; not exactly sure where I would put them,' TNT studio analyst Anson Carter said of where the Panthers would rank in the past 50 years if they win this series.
Carter said that in any such discussion, it's important to remember that 'they were taking down a team that was trying to go for a three-peat in the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's not like they backed their way in. They had to really take out the best.'
There's already profound respect for what the Panthers have accomplished.
'They've been the best team in the playoffs so far,' TNT studio analyst and Hall of Fame goaltender Henrik Lundqvist said. 'You look at how physical they can play. How technical they play, [their] skill. Everything is just at another level. Impressive team.'
TNT studio analyst Rick Bowness, who coached the most games (as a head coach or assistant) in NHL history before retiring last year, said: 'They win in different ways [and] they know how to win. They grind it out. They have the skill. They've got the goalie, they've got the size, they're nasty. They know how to raise their game at the right time.'
▪ Paul Bissonnette mentioned in TNT's studio that former Panthers defenseman Chris Yandle regards Aleksander Barkov as the NHL's second-best player, behind only Edmonton's Connor McDavid.
'Barkov is the leader without a doubt, a franchise player and leads by example,' Bowness said. 'Big, strong, physical guy and is so hard to play against.'
▪ TNT analysts raved about the work of defenseman Seth Jones, who was acquired in March for a steep price (goaltender Spencer Knight and a conditional 2026 first-round pick).
'Seth Jones struggled big time in Chicago,' Bowness said. 'I knew he was a good player. He's an elite player the way he's playing there.'
Added Carter: 'We are seeing the Seth Jones we saw in Columbus when the guy was an absolute destroyer. He has been everything and then some for the Panthers.'
▪ I asked Olczyk which Panthers player has surprised him in terms of how good he has become.
'You've got to look at Niko Mikkola,' he said of the defenseman who is completing the second year of a three-year, $7.5 million contract. 'When you add a 6-4, 235-pound defenseman on the back end and not only a massive human defending, but he's got some offensive skills.
'He's going to get paid [in July 2026]. The way he's performed in these playoffs has opened up a lot of eyes in the National Hockey League. He's way more impactful as an offensive player than I saw before.'
You must be kidding
▪ Bissonnette's brashness and candor are generally appreciated, and he's a key cog on a TNT studio team that generates more substantive and lively dialogue than ESPN's NHL studio crew.
But Bissonnette's suggestion that the NHL might need to penalize the Panthers and Lightning for the lack of a state income tax in Florida might be the single most ridiculous remark I've ever heard on a sports studio show.
'Florida not only is an unbelievable team and unbelievable market but the fact you're not paying a state tax – that is an advantage that maybe has to be addressed in the next CBA,' he said on air last week. 'We would be naive to say it's not an advantage.'
In such a far-fetched scenario, the league also would need to penalize the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators, who also play in states without state income taxes.
Using Bissonnette's reasoning, should the NHL punish teams in markets where homes are more affordable than, say, New York and Los Angeles? Absurd.
Carter, stunned by Bissonnette's comment, immediately pushed back.
'Nobody was talking about the state tax advantage that Florida and Tampa Bay had when those teams were brutal,' Carter said. 'Why is that an issue now? Use what's in your back pocket. You can say playing in Canada, with a passionate fan base, [is an edge]. You play whatever cards you're dealt. There isn't a such thing as a bad market in the National Hockey League.'
Ratings perspective
▪ While the Panthers' Cup run has generated decent local ratings, by hockey standards, they dwarf those of regular-season Dolphins games.
TNT's coverage of the Panthers-Carolina Eastern Conference finals averaged a 2.3 rating in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, which ranked first among Nielsen's 25 largest markets but also is about a quarter of what Dolphins games produce.
That 2.3 rating means 2.3% of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes tuned in, on average.
Dolphins games are on free television and thus available to a wider audience.
TNT, which alternates the Stanley Cup Final with ESPN, will use something akin to a three-man booth, with Albert and Olczyk upstairs and Brian Boucher behind the bench area.
Wayne Gretzky, who works selectively for TNT, will appear in studio with Lundqvist, Carter, Bissonnette and host Liam McHugh. They will host 60-minute pregame and postgame shows.
Panthers voices Steve Goldstein and Randy Moller anchor 30-minute pregame shows before every game on WSFL-Channel 39.
NBA, college football notes
▪ Harlan and Ernie Johnson Jr. delivered eloquent, graceful sign-offs when TNT concluded 35 years of NBA coverage on Saturday night.
Here's the Harlan goodbye, which was a master class on how to do this type of thing.
Here's the Johnson sign-off, which was poignant and made Charles Barkley tear up, which Barkley revealed on Dan Patrick's show.
▪ Johnson, Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal will stay together for 'Inside The NBA,' which will air on ESPN next season and beyond. The show will continue to be produced by Turner and originate from the network's Atlanta studios.
Barkley told Patrick on Monday that Turner — which will sublicense the show to ESPN — asked him to sign a three- year deal but 'I said I'm going to work two more years and that's what I agreed to. I'm going to be a good soldier' and keep doing the show for his on-air and off-air TNT colleagues.
'I don't think they know the exact [responsibilities],' Barkley said. 'What are we actually going to do? [But] I'm going to trust them. It's going to be awesome working for them.'
ESPN and ABC previously announced those responsibilities: Johnson, Barkley, Smith and O'Neal will host pregame, halftime and postgame shows for ABC's NBA Finals broadcasts, a conference finals on ESPN, some other playoff games on ABC and ESPN, Christmas Day games on ABC and ESPN, the opening week of the season on ESPN, all ABC games after Jan. 1, the final week of the season and other marquee live events.
▪ As for the other Turner announcers, Harlan is expected to be Amazon's No. 2 NBA play-by-player, behind Ian Eagle, with Van Gundy and Candace Parker also headed to Amazon. Miller and Jamal Crawford will be co-lead game analysts on NBC.
Brian Anderson will remain with the network as essentially the voice of Turner Sports.
▪ As part of the deal that gave 'Inside The NBA' to ESPN, Warner Brothers Discovery (TNT's parent company) dropped its lawsuit against the NBA and received a global license to create, produce and distribute new and existing NBA content across its platforms. The deal includes highlight rights for TNT, Bleacher Report and House of Highlights.
As part of the trade, TNT received an ESPN package of 13 Big 12 football games and 15 Big 12 basketball games for each of the next six years.
The football games (beginning with Arizona-Hawaii in Week 1) aren't particularly attractive; they would have been ESPN-plus streaming games had this trade not been made.
▪ Hundreds of college football network assignments and start times were announced last week, particularly in the first three weeks of the season.
Here's a good place to find all of them.
With Amazon's NFL package dominating Thursday nights, more decent college games are moving to Fridays, on Fox, ESPN and elsewhere. There's at least one Friday night game every week, with UM-Louisville, Clemson-Louisville, Georgia Tech-Colorado and Minnesota-Oregon among the best.
A few other notes: LSU-Clemson (Labor Day weekend), Michigan-Oklahoma and UF-LSU are ABC's Saturday night games Weeks 1 through 3... FSU-Alabama gets the 3:30 p.m. ABC window on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend...
Bill Belichick's first game as North Carolina's coach (against TCU) will be the ESPN Labor Day night game...On Black Friday, ABC is scheduling Georgia-Georgia Tech directly against Bears-Eagles on Amazon....
Ohio State had interest in moving its game against Texas to the Sunday night of Labor Day weekend, opposite Notre Dame-Miami, but Fox declined and will air the game at noon Saturday that weekend.