When your team’s fans have been waiting 28 seasons (a.k.a. “forever”) to celebrate a first championship, there are two things they don’t want to hear about from the folks running the franchise: Excuses. Or patience.
That is why the Florida Panthers made a coaching change last month despite the best regular season in club history. And why a new star, Matthew Tkachuk, was introduced Monday at the Cats’ hockey arena in Sunrise.
Florida spent big because you get what you pay for, if you’re lucky. And the Panthers just got a guy who scored more goals last season (42), for Calgary, than any player has for the Panthers since Pavel Bure in 2001. Panthers general manager Bill Zito calls him “a generational player,” and, at age 24 and signed long-term, he could be just that in South Florida.
