Florida Panthers: Behind Enemy Lines

Tonight the Buffalo Sabres have a chance to do something that just might not happen all that much this year, win more than one game in a row.  A winning streak is just not something that will happen alot for the Buffalo Sabres.  Except when you get the Florida Panthers after you beat the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Florida Panthers are embarking on a four game road trip, looking for a good distraction from the dismal home crowds and the poor start the team has had.  When you start your season 0-3, and there are just no fans in attendance at your games, sometimes a nice long road trip is what you need to get our mind back on hockey and away from the bad attention you have been getting.  Florida starts their road trip in Buffalo, before going on to Washington, Colorado, and Arizona.

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The hockey world got a good laugh out of pictures that surfaced from Sunrise, Florida when it came to attendance numbers.  I mean, team ownership decided to not give away free tickets, successfully emptying out the rest of the arena.  Remember when the Florida Panthers were actually marketing their home games to away crowds?  As much as hockey markets north of the Mason Dixon line got a kick out of the pictures and laughed at the Florida Panthers, the fact of the matter is, empty seats are a by-product of bad teams, not just teams in the South.

But it isn’t just the Florida Panthers that are having a hard time drawing a crowd to sporting events.  Could it honestly just be that there is more than enough going on when it comes to residents of Florida that they can’t take time out of their schedules to go to a game?  Or is it there are just too many transplants living in Florida from all over the country – that just validate that a hockey team in Las Vegas is just a novelty idea, and a bad one at that.

There are those however that defend the Florida Panthers and try to justify a record shattering crowd of sub par proportions.

Tonight’s game just doesn’t pit two bad teams against one another, it pits the number one and number two overall draft picks from the 2014 NHL Entry Draft in the same game, Sam Reinhart and Aaron Ekblad.  Could we actually be seeing what could play out to the top two teams int he 2015 NHL Entry draft as well?

The difference between number one and number two has been clear.  While Sam Reinhart has been largely non existent for the Buffalo Sabres and is on the verge of being sent back down to his junior club, Aaron Ekblad has played well for the Florida Panthers.  The Florida Panthers have the same opportunity that the Buffalo Sabres have, give their draft prospect nine games to see how he fairs, and then send him back to juniors.

Although, being paired with former Buffalo Sabres blue line favorite Brian Campbell, Aaron Ekblad has found himself an NHL home, although, I wouldn’t buy a home in South Florida if I were him.