11 hours ago
Who's calling the Panthers ‘The ‘NHL's Pre-Eminent Dirtbags?'
Perhaps you expect Panthers hate from sports opinion columnists, especially those from Canada. But, you don't expect The Wall Street Journal to act like the Panthers' second consecutive Stanley Cup tanked the stock market.
'The NHL's Pre-Eminent Dirtbags Are Now Stanley Cup Champions' snarled the headline on a Wednesday story that seems to ignore the Panthers lifted Stanley last year, too.
'The Panthers specialize in playing dirtbag hockey,' reads the prose from WSJ's Laine Higgins.
The story points out the Panthers' ability to play on the edge and over it (most penalties taken in the playoffs) without paying for it (best penalty kill in the playoffs) gets opponents off their games. And, it does compliment the Panthers' team defense.
The story didn't give as much credit to the physical toll playing a big, fast, enthusiastically bodychecking team like the Panthers does to you over a seven-game series. Nor did it give as much credit for the Panthers ability to finish scoring chances (4.09 goals per game, best in the playoffs this year).
It did call Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett 'unscrupulous' and point out his collisions with Toronto goalie Anthony Solarz (concussion) and Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner (a Game 1 goal that led to an ensuing power-play goal when Edmonton's appeal for goalie interference got denied).
We would get comment from the Panthers, but they're a bit busy parading the Stanley Cup around to bars, the neighbors' houses and whatnot.
Nothing new for South Florida
From Miami to Fort Lauderdale to the Palm Beach-Martin county line, this area's used to the its championship teams being hated.
Remember all the harrumphing and whining during the Heat's Big 3 era? While some NBA fans appreciated the gorgeous basketball displayed nightly by Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and the supporting cast, others pouted 'no fair!' and fumed 'built not bought' as if the Heat opened a vault to vacuum up the stars.
And, no team in college-affiliated football history — and few in any sport — ever will be reviled as widely as the University of Miami Hurricanes of the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s. To the dismay of opposing fans, national media and opponents, those teams backed up their incessant trash talking, celebratory dances and struts by gleefully mollywhopping opponents.
Really, these Panthers resemble the original Panthers of the franchise's first four years, albeit far more skilled.
Panthers general manager Bob Clarke, president Bill Torrey and coach Roger Neilson knew there wouldn't be a surfeit of offensive talent in the expansion draft. So, they chose players they hated playing against. They remembered checks finished almost too late, hard stops sending ice shavings into the masks of kneeling goalies, trash talk, entire benches screaming threats at guys who played hard and nasty for 60 minutes.
Two moments that epitomized those Panthers came in Game 3 of the 1996 Eastern Conference final against Pittsburgh. In the first period, Bill Lindsay poked and goaded Penguins superstar right wing Jaromir Jagr. Lindsay eventually got a punch to the head. Jagr got two minutes for roughing. Later, with the Panthers up 5-2, infuriated Pittsburgh semi-deity Mario Lemieux expressed his frustration with a roughing penalty of his own.
Now, 28 years later, Lindsay smiles from the radio booth in the press box at a team that's the best form of the Panthers.
