I am a sports junkie. Whether it be basketball season, football season, baseball season, hockey season, or a major tennis tournament going on odds are I'm keeping track and watching games. The super bowl recently ended, which leaves a big gap as football is definitely in my top tier of sports to follow. I don't have a team I root for in football, but I really enjoy following the plays and try to know as much as possible about every team. (definitely not for gambling purposes) The end of football season meant the start of the hockey season. My love for hockey is drastically different from football, as I am centered on one team. The Florida Panthers are my favorite athletic team across every sport out there. I watched virtually all of the games last year. They overpaid for a goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky that may as well have gone blind the day he signed with the team. The top line led by captain Alexander Barkov and goal leader Mike Hoffman contributed 65 percent of the offense, and we lacked any sort of defensive presence. Veteran defenseman Keith Yandle had a midlife identity crisis that made him think he was a shooter. When you combine no defense with a bad goaltender you get a disappointment. Then the offseason happened. The Panthers didn't re-sign Mike Hoffman. Instead, they opted for giving Mackenzie Weager and Brett Connoly extensions. Useless. They brought in Hornquist, whose aging out of the league, and Anthony Duclair, a fast winger. They also signed a very young player named Owen Tippet. That is where the Panthers set on opening night. In the hardest division in hockey, the central, with a roster of new players that looked like a mess. Here we are, a month and a half later watching them set franchise records. They are 12-2-2 sporting a 86 point percentage, which is unheard of. It is their best start in franchise history and the best in the NHL this year. They don't lose road games. They don't lose home games. They play well from behind. They don't lose to the division rival and defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Hornquist is a machine, Barkov established himself as one of the best scorers in hockey, and the release of sharp-shooter Mike Hoffman has given the Panthers a new identity. They play physically with great defesne. Yandle still thinks he's a shooter but that's ok for now. They have a top special teams in the NHL. This is what Panthers fans have been waiting for for years!! I'm so excited to see where this season goes. Do you think the new Panthers have what it takes to make a legitimate playoff run?
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