from Dave Hyde of the SunSentinel,

The top two lines can score with the top teams. The defense is full of players around the 300-game mark used as a barometer for necessary experience. Luongo, at 40, remains in the top tier of goalies. And the kids this team built around – Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad – aren’t kids any more.

“They’ve grown up right before our eyes, and they’re men now,’’ General Manager Dale Tallon said. “The transformation is both mental and physical. They know this is their team now. They know it, and they’re ready for that.”

If the Panthers can’t construct a good season with so many central parts in their prime, maybe this team never will make it. Maybe this full organization won’t again, always staying down like some mythological tale of despair....

...They haven’t won a playoff series since 1996. They’re so irrelevant even in the hockey world they’re on one nationally televised game this season. Against Winnipeg. In Finland. Airing 2 p.m. on a weekday.

This is the year to change that, if any is. This is the team, too, if it ever will. Barkov is better at his position than any other South Florida pro is at their position.

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