head coach: Bryan Murray

roster: C - Ray Whitney, Kirk Muller, Rob Niedermayer, Dave Gagner, Steve Washburn, Chris Wells. LW - Johan Garpenlov, Viktor Kozlov, Bill Lindsay, Radek Dvorak. RW - Scott Mellanby, Ray Sheppard, Dino Ciccarelli, Tom Fitzgerald. D - Robert Svehla, Gord Murphy, Ed Jovanovski, Paul Laus, Terry Carkner, Rhett Warrener, Jeff Norton, Dallas Eakins. G - John Vanbiesbrouck, Kevin Weekes.

injuries: Rob Niedermayer, c (three weeks, knee surgery); Panthers Fans (out-for-season, injured pride).

transactions: Recalled Kevin Weekes, g, from Fort Wayne Komets IHL. Acquired Dino Ciccarelli, rw, and Jeff Norton, d, from Tampa Bay in exchange for Mark Fitzpatrick, g, and Jody Hull, rw.

standings:

Eastern Conference - Atlantic Division   
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
New Jersey   50  31  15   4    66  148  102
Philadelphia 48  27  12   9    63  144  104
Washington   50  25  17   8    58  142  127
NY Rangers   50  16  21  13    45  127  137
Florida      51  15  25  11    41  125  149
NY Islanders 50  16  27   7    39  127  145
Tampa Bay    49   9  32   8    26   87  160

game results:

01/12 at Colorado       L 3-1 
01/14 at Phoenix        L 2-3 
01/21 at Anaheim        L 8-3 
01/22 at Los Angeles    L 3-1 
01/24 at San Jose       T 1-1 

team news:

by Eric Seiden, Florida Correspondent

"It's a hockey night in South Florida, and here come your Panthers," screamed the announcer. Or he would have had the Panthers had any home games. Instead he stayed home and screamed epithets at the television set in the wee hours of the morning during the Panthers' two-part road trip.

Clearly the western road trip wore hard on the Panthers, as they posted a perfect record. That is, to be accurate, a perfectly awful record. They didn't win a single game. Nothing showed it worse than the poor shell-shocked goalies in the game against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim where the defense failed to appear and the goalies (both Vanbiesbrouck and Weekes) fell under the onslaught of pucks.

The big news, though, was not the Panthers, whose stench clouded the state. The big news was a mammoth trade. The Panthers acquired long-in-the-tooth veteran RW Dino Ciccarelli in a four-player deal with Tampa. Seeking to help the struggling offense, the Florida Panthers acquired Ciccarelli and defenseman Jeff Norton in exchange for Mark Fitzpatrick, who has been a pouting, petulant malcontent (he was tossed from a recent practice), and Jody Hull.

The 37-year-old Ciccarelli rejoins Panthers head coach Bryan Murray, having played for him in both Washington and Detroit. He has 11 goals and six assists with 42 penalty minutes in 34 games this season (as of the date of the trade).

"He's a gritty, competitive guy," said Murray. "He brings offense and determination. He will be a real good example to the rest of our players."

Dino's presence also means John Vanbiesbrouck, at 34, is no longer the oldest player on the team. Beezer has already made several subsequent cracks about this new, obviously welcome, statistic.

Ciccarelli ranks fourth among active players and ninth all-time with 597 goals. He has also recorded 580 assists for 1,177 points with 1,370 penalty minutes in 1,190 career games and 18 seasons with Minnesota, Washington, Detroit and Tampa Bay. The four-time All-Star also has collected 118 points in 141 career playoff games.

Overall, most people think Ciccarelli will be a good fit for the team. Of course now I have to learn to spell his name. Three c's, two l's. I'll get it eventually.

Norton, in his 11th season, was the leading Lightning defensemen with 10 points (four goals, six assists) and had a team-high four power-play goals in 37 games. The 1988 U.S. Olympian has compiled 46 goals and 271 assists with 466 penalty minutes over 572 career games with the New York Islanders, San Jose, St. Louis, Edmonton and Tampa Bay.

"He's a skilled defenseman, a very, very good skater who moves the puck well," said Murray of Norton. "He'll help our power play and our mobility on the blue line."

Fitzpatrick and Hull were both original Panthers. As part of the trade, Florida also recalled goaltender Kevin Weekes rom Fort Wayne of the International Hockey League. The 22-year-old is 9-2-0 with a 2.64 GAA and .924 save percentage with the Komets, and also went 0-0-1 with a 1.95 GAA in four appearances with Florida earlier in the season.

Some number shuffling will happen to accommodate the new players: Ciccarelli will wear #22. Washburn is moving back from #22 to #17. Kozlov will be moving back to #25 from #17.

"This is the other part of the trade that's very important," added Murray. "Kevin Weekes has gone to Fort Wayne and has been an outstanding goaltender at that level. He deserves the chance to play in the National Hockey League. We would not have been able to protect Mark Fitzpatrick in the upcoming expansion draft."

Murray didn't mention that the contract negotiations with Vanbiesbrouck have not been going well. Word is out that the Panthers are looking for another goalie for next season, most likely the venerable Curtis Joseph who will be an unrestricted free-agent. Local fans are wondering why not keep Beezer, who at any price will still be less than CuJo.

Murray put his foot in his mouth when he was quoted in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel as saying, "Kevin is a quality guy. He's an NFL goaltender. He's not a minor league goaltender and he deserves to play." Yes, that's right the Panthers have acquired a goaltender from the National Football League.

Speaking of Murray, the most disturbing news this week comes from Bill Torrey who said, "Murray's job is not on the line." And why the hell not? The Panthers (Murray) fired MacLean for the same thing: losing badly. And frankly, the fans liked MacLean much better. "He's going to coach the rest of the season," said Torrey. "At the end of the year, we'll sit down." This despite the fact Torrey and Murray clearly said Murray was in the job only temporarily.

The Herald quotes Murray as saying, "We need some grit. And maybe we had lost that." Hey, Murray that was Skrudland, Smith, and others you traded away needlessly. Hey butt-munch, whose fault was it the Panthers lost their grit? Yours. Lately Murray just pisses everyone off. He's not winning friends in Florida.

For the first time in recent memory, team captain Scott Mellanby has done something, at least on the surface, to make himself possibly worthy of the sew-on letter "C" he wears. After the game with the LA Kings, he called a closed-door meeting. This is the first mention since early in the season that he has done anything worthy of his captaincy. Maybe if he continues to act like a captain he will be worthy of the letter. Alright, fans don't expect him to be Skrudland anytime soon, but the biggest objection was that he didn't act like a captain: here's a start. Good show. Maybe it'll work -- we'll see.

The rumor mill has been rampant (see the bottom of this column). However what isn't a rumor is a Jovanovski trade possibility: "Montreal Canadiens' pro scout Mario Tremblay was at 10 consecutive Panther games. Penguins' assistant GM Ed Johnston was at eight straight Panthers' games. Both were interested in obtaining Eddie Jovanovski."

In reply to this, many Panther fans hope they work out a deal for our consistently erring JovoFlop. Bill Torrey admitted that Ed Jovanovski "has made mistakes" in the Miami Herald but didn't go as far as to say there was a trade in the works.

In hockey news, in the game against the Avalanche, fan favorite Billy Lindsay played his 400th NHL game. The game against Phoenix was notable for being Kirk Muller's 1000th NHL game of his career. "Its a nice milestone. It definitely makes me proud," he said afterward.

The game that followed in Anaheim was notable only in that Anaheim broke team records on the plus side, and Florida broke team records on the minus side. It was sort of reminiscent of the Boston game earlier this year where the Panthers romped. The LA Kings game was a solid contest, though clearly the Panthers are almost as weary as their beleaguered fans. As for San Jose, it was a hard fought battle. However it was a significant note that the only goal was scored by Dino Ciccarelli, and assisted by two other newcomers: Norton and Kozlov, both former Sharks.

LOCAL MEDIA COMMENTS:

This week's choice comments courtesy of Greg Cote.

"Dino Ciccarelli? Old? Not at all. Although I would point out (and not a lot of people know this) that when Ciccarelli first joined the NHL, hockey players didn't use skates, they used skis. Ice hadn't been invented yet."

".... The newest Panther in temp-coach Bryan Murray's grand-plan: Code Name: desperation -- isn't old. No. Bob Hope is old. Dino Ciccarelli? He's vintage."

On Ciccarelli: "The best right wing since Rush Limbaugh."

On goaltending: "You have a glorified minor leaguer in Kevin Weekes. This is not a problem unless Vanbiesbrouck is out. Then suddenly Florida has what might be the Weekest goaltending in the league."

THE RUMOR THAT WILL NOT DIE:

The Sergei Fedorov rumor of the week. (Let the record show I find this hilarious and not likely, however in keeping with tradition, I've managed to come up with a "real" rumor every week and have yet to make one up.) The Florida Panthers are supposedly working on a contract with Fedorov. Reports are six years for $50 million. Fedorov wants a no-trade clause and for it to be guaranteed. There is also a $17 million signing bonus which is being paid up front. The sticking point is how much he'll be paid this year. The Panthers want it to be $2 million this year and $8 million the next six. Fedorov supposedly wants $4 million this year. If the two parties agree to this deal, Detroit will trade Fedorov and Martin LaPointe to Florida for Svehla, Dvorak, Mellanby, Garpenlov and a second-round pick. This rumor makes no sense to anyone. Besides local fans are now grumbling about Fedorov's piss-poor attitude. Frankly, we don't want him.

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