I'm So happy we are finally in after years and years and years of frustration!!! Would be nice if the pressure has been lifted from this team and they can get the division on Saturday!
Okay. You're fine with us being #1 in division until the last seconds of the regular season. Fine, I'm not stopping you. I'm only expressing the truth I feel. I won't be happy backing into the playoffs and facing the rags in an away series, as opposed to winning the final game and facing devils at home.
I would prefer winning the division, but I don't think it makes much of a difference if we face the Devils or Rangers.
The formula for this team is pretty simple.
Play hard and get good goaltending, they'll stay in games. Get bad goaltending, we'll get swept in the first round, as has been the case lately with Jose Theodore's play.
And let's be honest; making the playoffs is like winning the Stanley Cup this year if you put things in perspective. Maybe not to you but for many in the fanbase and those in the organization, it absolutely is.
I don't even think Dale Tallon, himself, expected this team to make the playoffs. For once, we had a GM who was smart enough to tell us the direction he actually thought the team was going in and it just so happens he's the one who brings a playoff game to South Florida. Beats the hell out of the unfulfilled promises over the years.
Is one of them to turn back the calendar to April 2000 when they played the Devils in the first round? The revenge factor? The same can be said for April 97 and the Rangers. Kind of ironic that those are the 2 possibilities. Anyways, party on as the Panthers are in the PLAYOFFS. Congrats again.
I would prefer winning the division, but I don't think it makes much of a difference if we face the Devils or Rangers.
The formula for this team is pretty simple.
Play hard and get good goaltending, they'll stay in games. Get bad goaltending, we'll get swept in the first round, as has been the case lately with Jose Theodore's play.
And let's be honest; making the playoffs is like winning the Stanley Cup this year if you put things in perspective. Maybe not to you but for many in the fanbase and those in the organization, it absolutely is.
I don't even think Dale Tallon, himself, expected this team to make the playoffs. For once, we had a GM who was smart enough to tell us the direction he actually thought the team was going in and it just so happens he's the one who brings a playoff game to South Florida. Beats the hell out of the unfulfilled promises over the years.
Everything you say sounds ok, logically speaking. But if we lose the division I'll feel like an opportunity was lost. I can't shake it, sorry. Just the way it is, and I don't really care if anyone agrees.
It's not backing in we earned all 92 points one at a time...just coincidence what win or loss happened on what night.
if you fail to clinch by winning and instead clinch by another team losing then it is by definition "backing into it." i mean thats the definition of it.
im very happy that we finally made it.
but im very disappointed in the panthers play over the last few games. the panthers have done everything they could to give away the playoffs and division lead. its not encouraging.
but as always, i remain hopeful that we will pull things together in our last game and make a solid run in the playoffs. certainly i hope we sell a lot of playoffs tickets and put some money into the owners pockets so they will continue to invest in this team.
if you fail to clinch by winning and instead clinch by another team losing then it is by definition "backing into it." i mean thats the definition of it.
im very happy that we finally made it.
but im very disappointed in the panthers play over the last few games. the panthers have done everything they could to give away the playoffs and division lead. its not encouraging.
but as always, i remain hopeful that we will pull things together in our last game and make a solid run in the playoffs. certainly i hope we sell a lot of playoffs tickets and put some money into the owners pockets so they will continue to invest in this team.
I'm so used to going to other team's pages during this time of the year, and seeing congrats messages from other fanbases. I was not even on HF Boards the last time the Panthers made the playoffs. I was still in High School playing baseball the last time they were in the playoffs. The last time they won a playoff round I was in the 7th grade!
A decade plus of suffering has ended!
This is for all the diehards that have stuck by this team from DAY ONE! From all across North America to Finland to Sweden to freakin Poland to everywhere in between!
This team has proven that it doesn't even matter who they play. They can beat any team on any given night if they play the right way, and they could look like a lottery team on any given night if they come out playing like ****.
I really don't even care who we face in the 1st round. Quite honestly, I'm not even that impressed by the Rangers. They haven't been as great over the past month or so and they could crumble under pressure.
As elite as they've been, they're really not an incredibly high-powered offense like, say, the Penguins.
If Lundqvist struggles, they're as beatable as anyone.
i know what youre getting at, but we really have not proven this at all. sure we can beat any team if we have a great game and they dont
or if we have a great game and they dont have much on the line
or even when a good team has a great game but we get some lucky bounces
but we certainly have not proven that we can beat a very good team in the playoffs when they have home ice advantage. and especially not when they have a goaltender that is one of the all time greats and has owned us many many times. i sure hope we will beat them, but we havent proven that we can.
as for my take on whether it is better to be 3 or 8, its more practical to be 8 and to get the better draft pick. but i dont care about practicality, the fan base needs something to cheer about, and we need to add some banners to our arena, so i hope we win this last game and get ourselves the division win.
If we play the Rangers, there is absolutely 0 pressure on our team. Either way, there won't be much pressure as we won't be favored but if we play the Rangers, all the pressure is on them.
The Rangers have been the 1st seed all year and they play in NY. Expectations are Stanley Cup, period.
Henrik Lundqvist, as of right now, is like the LeBron James of hockey. No one really cares what he does in the regular season. Everyone's waiting to see what he does come playoff time to define his legacy. In his career, he's 15-20 with a 2.6 GAA/.909 save% in the postseason.
Fans have already begun questioning him a bit because he struggled in the month of March.
If we face the Devils, yeah they're probably not as good, but there's less pressure on them.
The Devils also have guys who absolutely kill us, historically. Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias scare me as much, if not more, than any Rangers player and I haven't even mentioned Parise, etc.
I want the division, sure. I'm just saying that I'm personally not going to be that disappointed if we don't get it. We made the playoffs; that's a great achievement for this team.
Whatever happens the rest of the way, we'll always look back at this season and look at this team for what it was: the team that broke the playoff drought/curse. The rest will just be a bonus.
+ if you think losing the division sucks, losing a series to Pete DeBoer might just suck even more. If we lose to the Rangers, no one's really going to take it hard lol. I mean, except for me maybe, because I'll have to hear about it for awhile.
