14-15 Season Preview, Schedule Released - noles367's Blog

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noles367's Blog

14-15 Season Preview, Schedule Released

Posted on April 10, 2013 at 06:16 PM.

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Covering the Florida Panthers in GM Connected league ALHL2

The 2014-2015 season is officially here. Opening night is tomorrow. The NHL released the schedule last month. The Cats will open the season in Pittsburgh. Battle of the Sedins. Get your head right.

There will be no more of this. No clue which on plays for Florida

The Florida Panthers were about the 2nd best team in the NHL last year. They had a good run, maybe better than anyone could have imagined. Still you knew changes were around the bend. We found out how serious Panthers management was about winning. Lets sort through the chaos that was the offseason.

LOSSES:

- D Brad Stuart

We were sad to see Stuart go. Since his trade to Florida last summer, Stuart instantly became a top pairing defenseman, playing alongside Dimitry Kulikov. He got a boatload of cash from Dallas so we can't blame him for leaving. Panthers management knew it was coming and responded by getting much younger on the blue line.

- D Lubomir Visnovsky

Lubomir had a good run with the Cats. His trade deadline price was steep, but he was a valuable member of the team. Would have loved to have him back but it wasn't meant to be.

- D Filip Kuba

Lets be honest, Kuba is as old as balls. He was hurt and scratched for half the season and didn't get a look in the playoffs. Not a huge loss whatsoever.

- LW Tomas Fleishmann

The Panthers were too close to the cap so someone had to go. Tyler Ennis was going to take his spot on the second line so no sense paying $4.5 mil for a third line player. He scored some big goals as a Panther and we wish him well in Montreal

- G Pascal Leclaire

Dude put up monster numbers during the first third of the season. But after Markstrom took the reigns, his only job was to open the door to the bunch. Since the Islanders will be paying Ricky D for the rest of his life, he became a cheaper replacement for a backup.

ADDITIONS:

We covered our Free Agent additions in our last post. Basically we just got some Swedish dude.

Jared Tinordi comes over in the Fleishmann trade. He was a 1st round pick a few years back. At 6'7" he is a monster. May or may not get to play in Florida this season. Our understanding is after Alex Petrovic, he will be the next Dman called up in case of injury.

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Lots of noise about potential line combos. Nothing solid to report. Only the Mullet knows. Our best guess is the following:

Huberdeau � Sedin � Mueller
Ennis � Pavelski � Neal
Bergenheim � Weiss � Clarkson
Horak � Antropov � Fontaine

Kulikov � Ellis
Ellerby � Gudbranson
Barker � Despres

If that's the case, the top 2 lines really have great scoring potential. And look at that 3rd line. My god. D pairings could be a little crazy until they find the right fits.

Season kicks off Thursday night in Pittsburgh. Nationally televised game. Buckle up.