February 10
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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For a change, the Panthers and goalie Scott Clemmensen didn't get off to a horrible start. It wasn't exactly a quick one or pretty game, either, but two second-period goals by a torrid Sean Bergenheim and slumping Mike Santorelli against stingy Kings goalie Jonathan Quick would be all the offense needed for Clemmensen to lead the Panthers to a 3-1 victory Thursday night in front of 14,929 fans in BankAtlantic Center. The Panthers snapped their first two-game losing streak since late October and ended a seven-game slide (0-6-1) to the Kings dating back to a Nov. 27, 2002 win in Los Angeles. They also avenged an early season 2-1 loss in the Staples Center in which they thoroughly outplayed"
February 9
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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That 4-0 shellacking the Panthers endured Tuesday in Washington was more than a punch to the gut. It had the impact of a shove down a flight of stairs. That's how far they fell from the Southeast Division lead to ninth place in the Eastern Conference, two points out of the final playoff spot. Last week, the Panthers did the same to the Capitals in a 4-2 win on home ice. As the two teams take this yo-yo routine into the final 30 games, it appears increasingly likely that the Panthers will have to win the division title to end their NHL-record 11-year playoff drought. The automatic berth for a division champion is the only certainty for any team in the Southeast."
February 8
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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While most of the Panthers took a mental healthy day off today after Tuesday's 4-0 thrashing at the hands of the Capitals and old pal Tomas Vokoun, several injured Panthers skated for 60 minutes at Saveology.com Iceplex. Goalie Jose Theodore, who has been nursing a lingering knee injury on and off since Jan. 1, will suit up for tomorrow's home clash against the Kings but will back up Scott Clemmensen most likely for one more game before playing in one of the weekend back-to-back sets against New Jersey and the Isles."
February 8
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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The resurgent Panthers have waited nearly 11 years to be involved in a game with such significant playoff ramifications in February. It took them just 13 seconds to take on their usual second-half role as patsies to the Southeast Division-leading bully Capitals who got two goals from their burly superstar Alexander Ovechkin en route to a 4-0 loss Tuesday night at the Verizon Center. With their No. 1 goalie Jose Theodore sitting at home in South Florida rehabbing a lingering minor knee injury, former Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun easily bested his understudy of two seasons, Scott Clemmensen, who for the second game in a row couldn't overcome a shaky start in which he gave up two goals on the"
February 7
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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It read like a barrage on the scoreboard: four goals allowed by the Panthers in the second period of Saturday night's rout at Tampa Bay. Scott Clemmensen termed it a blip for a Panthers defense that has been sturdy most of the season, even in the absence of injured defensemen Ed Jovanovski and Dmitry Kulikov. The veteran goalie sees no cause to sound the alarm as the Panthers continue a string of vital games against division foes Tuesday in Washington. "The overall body of work that we've done as a team and that our D corps has done over the past month here with Jovanovski and Kulikov being out has been terrific. You look at that 10-minute blip there the other night. Obviously, that was"
February 6
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Perhaps lost in the shambles of Saturday night's 6-3 debacle defeat to the surging Lightning was the surprising and brief NHL debut of Panthers goaltender Brian Foster. It also happened to be Foster's 25th birthday, certainly an evening he would never forget. "I was a little nervous but not as much as I expected,'' said Foster, who stopped the only shot he faced in 4:52 of relief of a besieged Scott Clemmensen at the end of the second period before Clemmensen was reinserted to start the third. "My first NHL experience, I'll never forget my 25th birthday. So far so good.''"
February 5
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Panthers coach Kevin Dineen warned his players to not let the fatigue of playing back-to-back games dull their hockey minds or cause them to be out of position. He also said the Panthers would have to shadow the Lightning stars, specifically Martin St Louis and Steven Stamkos. Even the best laid plans of mice and men can go awry, especially when facing a desperate team at home trying to cling to faint playoff hopes. Throw in a hot goaltender in Scott Clemmensen, who was due for a clunker and it added up to a sloppy 6-3 loss to the star-studded Lightning Saturday night at a sold-out Tampa Bay Times Forum."
February 4
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Throw out the Nyquil. Stash the Ben-Gay and keep the lid on the Vitamin C bottle. The only medicine Panthers forwards Kris Versteeg and Sean Bergenheim needed to get healthier was a strong dose of the Winnipeg Jets. Versteeg, who hadn't played in nine days with the last seven spent in bed with the flu, scored the first goal to ignite a 2-1 victory over the sluggish Jets Friday in front of 16,773 at BankAtlantic Center. Versteeg now has six goals and two assists in his last three games against the Jets this season and 14 points in 12 career games versus the Jets/Thrashers."
February 3
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist, or Don Cherry, to understand that the more puck possession advantage a team has, the more likely offensive success will follow. Duh! Before the injury bug bit hard in December, the Panthers had built a 16-8-4 record by controlling the puck in their offensive zone and were 8-2-3 when outshooting opponents. Overall, the 23-15-11 Panthers are 11-4-6 when winning the shot battle."
February 2
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Panthers coach Kevin Dineen was hoping his well-rested team would, "get their swag," back after the All-Star break, particularly with the first game a battle for Southeast Division supremacy against the Washington Capitals. Before the break, the Panthers had lost five of their last six and 11 of 15 games. That's why they awoke Wednesday in ninth place of the Eastern Conference, out of the playoffs for the first time in months. So far, mission accomplished as Mikael Samuelsson scored two goals and Scott Clemmensen shined in the net to lead the Panthers to a 4-2 victory in the BankAtlantic Center. Their first regulation victory since Jan. 9 also allowed the Panthers to reclaim first place of"
February 1
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Mike Berardino
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Win enough — maybe even a shootout or two, eh? — to call yourselves division champions. "You can sit there and hope for one team or another to win on a given night," Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said Tuesday, "but really, for me, it's about taking care of your own business." Follow that Bachman-Turnover Overdrive appoach within the division over these next 9 1/2 weeks and the NHL's longest playoff drought will finally end after a dozen embarrassing years. That 34-game sprint to the finish line starts tonight at the Bank Atlantic Center against the Capitals, who come in holding the tiebreaker over the Panthers atop the Southleast Division."
February 1
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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On the day before arguably their most important game of the 2011-12 season against the Washington Capitals, the Panthers may be on the brink of their first goalie controversy of the year. While Panthers coach Kevin Dineen verbally quashed that notion by firmly stating that Jose Theodore is his starter, his actions prior to the All-Star break spoke otherwise when he started Scott Clemmensen against the Philadelphia Flyers over a rested, uninjured Theodore. "You always start looking at the immediate games in Colorado and Chicago,'' said Dineen when asked to assess Theodore's season. "They were disappointing to all of us. When you look at the big picture he's had a real positive effect on our"
February 1
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Broward County commissioners overcame concerns about a lopsided deal for taxpayers and gave the Florida Panthers a $7.7 million loan Tuesday for arena renovations. The Panthers' sister company, Arena Operating Company, plans to plow the millions back into the county's BankAtlantic Center on 1 Panthers Parkway in Sunrise, constructing a new club and mini-suites for top-dollar customers. The arrangement also increases the profits the Florida Panthers organization can reap before Broward receives a share to use elsewhere in the county."
January 30
Ottawa Sun
columnist Chris Stevenson
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The days at the beach, as tweeted by Capitals defenceman Mike Green from the Cayman Islands, are over. The neon tans from Las Vegas will now start to fade. The NHL's feel-good weekend here — a resounding success which revolved around the emotional outpouring between Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson and Senators fans — now becomes a fond memory. Ahead is a 30-game sausage grinder that is the rest of the NHL season. "You need the break whether you're here or somewhere else doing something different. This is a part of the season the guys really look forward to, just to recharge the battery," said Maple Leafs winger Joffrey Lupul. "When you get back from this break, you're re-energized and you"
January 30
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Throughout the first half of the NHL season, good things seem to happen for the Panthers when defenseman Brian Campbell is on the ice. That held true on the Scotiabank Place ice in Sunday's wild 59th NHL All-Star game won 12-9 by Campell's blue team captained by Bruins giant Zdeno Chara over the red team captained by Ottawa Senators icon Daniel Alfredsson. New York Rangers stud Marian Gaborik recorded a hat trick and fellow Slovak Marian Hossa scored to snap a tie with just under eight minutes remaining in the third period to put Team Chara ahead."
January 29
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Panthers All-Star defenseman Brian Campbell, their lone representative at Sunday's game in ScotiaBank Place in Ottawa, collects autographs and sticks from his heroes while pursuing MVP honors without incurring a double-digit minus rating. "Everybody's trying to battle for the MVP early on and going after it pretty good. It's always interesting, but you don't want to push it too hard. You don't want to be on the other end and get stuck out there for a lot of goals. Everybody's still worrying about their numbers,'' said Campbell, a four-time All-Star for three different teams. "One year, I had a goal and two assists after the first period. You're sitting in your stall and everybody's kind"
January 27
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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When Panthers General Manager Dale Tallon completed one of the most extensive one-year overhauls in NHL history, he hoped that the handful of players he retained from last year's roster would complement or jell with 14 new additions. Clearly, they have or the Panthers, despite a recent slump, wouldn't have catapulted from dead last in the Eastern Conference last year to a tie for first place in the Southeast Division at the All-Star break. For the most part, those core "holdovers," including forwards Stephen Weiss and Shawn Matthias, along with goalie Scott Clemmensen, defensemen Jason Garrison, Dmitry Kulikov and Mike Weaver are enjoying one of the best seasons of their careers."
January 26
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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As the Panthers disperse for the seven-day All-Star break perhaps they should search for a magic formula to help them in overtime and shootouts. Scoring more goals in regulation might help, too. The Panthers' 3-2 shootout loss to the Flyers Tuesday dropped their overtime mark to 4-11 — the most OT losses in the NHL — and 3-6 in shootouts — the second most shootout defeats. "We got a good push in the third period because we were stinky in the second," Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said. "We've got to figure out a better formula in the shootout. We're just losing too many points up for grabs and not ending up in our back pocket."
January 25
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Panthers coach Kevin Dineen urged his players to leave it all out on the ice with the upcoming seven-day All-Star break looming. They heeded his words, but unfortunately the injury-decimated Flyers had their own ideas, and despite starting eight rookies were able to squeak out a 3-2 shootout victory Tuesday on a game-deciding goal by Claude Giroux that sent most of the 17,739 Panthers fans home feeling empty."
January 24
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Last Wednesday's morning skate at Pepsi Center in Denver seemed as innocuous as any other game-day loosening-up session for the Panthers players as coach Kevin Dineen put them through drills. But for forward Tomas Fleischmann it wasn't routine. In fact, nothing will ever be routine again for Fleischmann, who almost a year to the day earlier came off that ice after a morning skate with his Colorado Avalance teammates and couldn't catch his breath. The thin air of Colorado had triggered a recurring of his blood-clotting issues, only this was far more serious as the clots traveled to both lungs."
January 23
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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A tired group of Panthers began a critical stretch of divisional games with a stirring 4-3 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night that kept them atop the Southeast by the barest of margins over the surging Capitals. If they didn't break their four-game winless streak and eight-game road winless slide, they would've flip-flopped with Washington into eighth place of the Eastern Conference."
January 21
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Neither rain, sleet or especially an all-day snowstorm that caused their team bus to be late and the game against the Blackhawks to be delayed for 30 minutes could stop three eager Panthers from returning to action after long injury-related absences. The Panthers, nearing full strength for the first time in two months, started three forwards, Scottie Upshall, Jack Skille and Sean Bergenheim, who had been out for the past 30, 13 and 12 games respectively. Panthers coach Kevin Dineen, who finally has healthy options to either bench or start deserving players chose to sit out a slumping Mike Santorelli and a banged-up Matt Bradley (bruised eye), to try to inject energy into a tailspinning"