ry -& Mott's, It’s time to shed the “potential” label By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor fter shelling out a ton of money this summer to basically retain the same team that was clearly outmatched ‘by the Chicago Blackhawks, Canucks GM and newly-anointed president of operations Mike Gillis has left himself little room to hit a bona fide home run with just a month and a half remaining before the start of the 2009-10 season. So in order for Vancouver to prove that they are more than just a playoff-worthy team that won’t make it far past the first or second round, certain members of the current Canucks’ roster need to step up. Guys like Mason Raymond, Steve Bernier and Jannik Hansen have been several years now tagged with that generic “potential” brand. You hear sportscasters talk about it all the time: “Oh, Raymond’s got a lot of upside. Bill...” or “Hansen has all the right tools...” The fact is, we’ ve been hearing how good these guys are going to be for years now. Bernier has bounced around the NHL several times but everywhere he’s gone he’s always been highly touted as a guy who is “almost there.” Plain and simple, if the Canucks are to finally emerge as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, they need more than just two fantastic first liners and a standout goaltender. Now, second line scoring certainly isn’t Vancouver’s only problem, but solving that would be a huge help. All three of the names listed above seem to have the right package to be successful NHLers. They’re all strong skaters, good passers and have decent enough hockey sense to be 20-30 goal scorers. The problem for all three of them is that they just can’t put the puck in the net. There is zero finish for any of those guys. Things got so bad for Bernier that the Canucks hired a skills coach for him over the summer to help him learn how to hit the net. Raymond has blazing speed and some shifty moves with the puck, but for most of the past few years he’s just been racing back and forth up the wing on the boards. All three have been given generous amounts of playing time in the coveted spot as the winger for the Sedin twins, and all three have failed to capitalize on that. I think that its safe to say that this is a make-or-break year for Raymond, Bernier and Hansen. Eventually, there has to be some measure of progression to let you know if you’ve got a talent or just another dime-a-dozen third/fourth liner. Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows both stepped up into prominent roles with the club last year, while Taylor Pyatt, his personal tragedy taken into account, didn’t. The year before that it was Alex Edler who stepped up and proved himself. The year before, Edler, it was Kevin Bieksa. The time has come for guys like Raymond to get rid of the “potential” label. That designation should now move to guys like Cody Hodgson, Cory Schneider or Michael Grabner. And a few years down the road, it will be the time for Jordan Schroeder to fill that role. While Bernier and Hansen both took lesser amounts in contract negotiations, they, along with Raymond, are still on the bubble this year. There’s no. guarantee that any of them will make the team straight out of training camp. It’s time to see what they’ve got. Think the Coyotes are bad? Florida Panthers a mediocre joke By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor ver the past several months, the Or of NHL discussions have been devoted to the continual mess in Arizona, where the Phoenix Coyotes have stumbled through a series of comedic errors involving team bankruptcy, the increasingly ridiculous battle between Jim Balsillie and Gary Bettman and protracted court dispute 18 over who really owns the franchise. But while the Coyotes have been hogging all the headlines due to their ineptitude, one other struggling, Southern United States-based team has also been going through tumultuous times, and that’s the Florida Panthers. The problems in Miami are almost as numerous and serious as the ones in Glendale for the Coyotes. For 16 years now, the Panthers have existed in the Sunshine state, and in that time they have managed just three playoff appearances. Aside from a surprising Stanley Cup showing in 1996, where they lost to Colorado in four straight games, the Panthers have never moved past the first round of the post-season. To put it simply, they have been consistently terrible for pretty much their entire tenure in the NHL. As expected, frequently poor results with little signs of change hasn’t exactly packed fans into the seats. Never mind the fact that Miami has zero hockey history and that another Florida team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, are located just a few hours away. For a state that is about as foreign to hockey as you can get, the Panthers haven’t made it easy to be loyal to their squad. Besides not winning a playoff game since Clinton was in office, the BankAtlantic Center, where the Panthers play, is miles and miles away from the city center, with little public transportation available to get there and back. Basically, it’s like driving to Abbotsford from Vancouver to see a Canucks’ game. Then there’s the fact that Florida hasn’t exactly endeared their fans with many marketable hockey heroes. Besides the electrifying Pavel Bure, most of the Panthers’ top end players haven’t been superstars. Sure, Jay Bouwmeester is an incredible defenseman that any team in the league would love to have, but for a team playing out of a very non-traditional hockey market, Bouwmeester isn’t the type of player who will sell tickets. When you consider the team’s front office, it’s a disaster. The Panthers seem to change their head coach or general manager every year and after firing Jacques Martin from the GM role several months ago, they are still without a GM. Randy Sexton has been acting as a part-time GM since then. Think about that for a moment: a part time GM. This isn’t a bantam C team where a parent steps in to manage. We’re talking about a multi-million dollar organization in one of the best leagues in the sports world, and the Panthers are letting a guy run the show part time? I mean, how can anyone expect them to improve with that kind of business plan? The Panthers made a late charge for the playoffs last season, but inevitably fell short. They then removed what little hope remained for 2009-10 by allowing Bouwmeester to leave for the Calgary Flames and did little to fill the void. To give them some credit, they did lock up forward, and team leading scorer David Booth to a six-year contract, and that’s a good thing. But again, while Booth is undoubtedly a talented player, he’s not going to get a new arena built or save the franchise. It might be stating the obvious, but what the Panthers need is a player like Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin. They need a larger-than-life personality who can lead the team every night and who is worth the price of admission. Look at where the Penguins and Capitals are, respectively, today with Crosby and Ovechkin. Pittsburgh just won the Stanley Cup and Washington is the most exciting team on the planet. Now, one player, no matter how dynamic, won’t solve all of the Panthers’ woes. But it would go a long way to restoring the relevance of the franchise. Plus, it would give the average family of four a reason to drive an hour out into the middle of nowhere to see a hockey game, and that has to be the first priority for this team.