Florida Panthers have no excuse for irrelevancy

No team got a quicker start on this NHL season than the Florida Panthers.

The sticks and pads were barely put away after a disappointing 2018-19 campaign when the Panthers reeled in the best available coach, a three-time Stanley Cup winner at that.

The day the summer signing period started they rolled out a load of cash and came away with the best goalie on the market, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner.

Now the challenge is to get off to a quick start to the season, for a change.

Too many previous Panthers teams have tumbled down the elevator shaft before you could say, “Going up.”

Panthers held back by Lightning

The past two seasons the downfall began with opening-night losses at Tampa Bay.

Consequently, the 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday night had an ominously familiar feel — even with Sergei Bobrovsky in goal and Joel Quenneville behind the bench.

Amid the shrugs of “it’s only one game” some concern showed through, with captain Aleksander Barkov saying, “We had the game in our hands. We played really well. … We need to learn how to win.”

That lent a measure of urgency to Saturday’s home opener in the rematch against the Lightning in Sunrise.

Here in the cradle of rebuilding teams in South Florida, the Under Construction Forever Panthers are finally constituted to make a significant move.

That view is widely held. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic asked every NHL coach to identify a dark-horse contender for this season. According to LeBrun, of the 28 coaches who responded, the Panthers were the team most often cited.

Panthers prepare at the IceDen for the home opener against the Lightning. (Craig Davis for Five Reasons Sports)

Fast start a must

There’s no excuse to stumble out of the gate and get buried behind the pack before Thanksgiving this year.

It’s up to them to rise from irrelevancy and erase the label of Same Old Panthers. All the ingredients have been assembled

All they have to do, as Barkov said, is learn how.

Starting with two games against a Lightning team favored by many to win the Stanley Cup put the onus on the Panthers to figure it out quickly. They whiffed on the first chance in Tampa.

“Nothing wrong with playing the best right off the bat and learning from that and knowing you’ve got to be as good as you need to be every single night,” Quenneville said Friday.

Despite their aggressive offseason, the Panthers face major obstacles in their own division, starting with the Lightning. Toronto has a Cup-caliber team and Boston was a finalist last season.

Lot of obstacles to playoffs

If the Panthers can’t crack that top 3, they’ll have plenty of competition for a wild card.

“Let’s worry about ourselves doing the right things shift in and shift out, and consistency is going to be something that can help us,” Quenneville said. “I just think across the board there is a lot to be excited about. We get some balance in four lines we can be a better team.”

Quenneville stressed positives from the opening-night loss. But some familiar flaws showed there is work to be done, particularly on defense.

While Bobrovsky made some terrific saves, four shots got past him. Defensemen still aren’t clearing the puck and minimizing opponents’ scoring chances like a championship defense must.

A vital task for Quenneville is getting more competent defensive play out of offensive-minded D-men Keith Yandle and Aaron Ekblad, who were a combined minus-3 on the night.

Again, it was just one game against one of the top teams in the league. A scoreless night by the top line of Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Evgenii Dadonov and 0-for-4 by a power play that led the league last year were atypical.

Can Panthers capture South Florida?

There was a lot to like about the second line of Vincent Trocheck, Mike Hoffman and newcomer Brett Connolly, which produced both goals.

But with the Panthers, nothing can be taken for granted, especially expectations for a breakthrough season.

The elusive memory of 1996, the Year of the Rat when South Florida went gaga over the upstart Panthers on an improbable run to the Cup finals, has been an unscratchable itch ever since.

Could hockey rouse the passions of this fickle sports market like that again?

This a much different time and place. But one thing that hasn’t changed, this is a region starved for a winner.

The time is certainly ripe to find out.

Craig Davis has covered South Florida sports and teams for more than four decades. Follow him on Twitter @CraigDavisRuns