No Respect In Panthersland

This past season in the National Hockey League was one of the worst in history in terms of bad officiating, blown calls, and contested goals. Never before have the men in stripes resembled walking zebras so much. However, one team in particular seemed to bear the brunt of this incompetence.

No team had a worse powerplay differential than the Florida Panthers. At -59, the Panthers spent nearly two hours more this season shorthanded than on the powerplay. A ridiculous number like that might be understandable for a dirty team like the Anaheim Ducks, but the Panthers? The not scrappy, not grinding, not physical Panthers? It doesn't add up.

If that wasn't bad enough, one of the Panthers main rivals, the Carolina Hurricanes, had over a +60 powerplay differential. That means the Hurricanes spent over 4 hours more than the Panthers with an extra guy on the ice.

That's four whole hockey games with a man advantage.

If that's not ridiculous enough, the Panthers had two goals waived off towards the end of the season that, upon further review, were both clearly goals. One of these didn't even go to replay, and the other was obviously not reviewed long enough. Both of these goals ended up costing the Panthers games, and arguably, their season.

So why do the Panthers get every blown call against them? The answer may be simpler than you think.

What other team can you think of that has less star power than the Florida Panthers? Yes, many of us like to think that Olli Jokinen is a superstar, but he's simply the best player the Panthers have. He's no Ovechkin, or Jagr, or Kovalchuk. Those guys get calls because they're stars, and the refs hold them in higher places.

Think about baseball. If Tom Glavine is on the hill and he throws a borderline strike, he's probably going to get the call because he's well respected and he gets that kind of call. If that same pitch is thrown by say, Andrew Miller, he probably won't get that call.

It's the same deal in hockey. Without a genuine superstar, the refs will continue to walk all over the Panthers. The only difference is hopefully next season the Panthers will have a coach that might actually give a damn, instead of staring at the refs with a blank look every time the Panthers took a phantom penalty with two minutes to go in a one goal game.

Or maybe one of the higher powers will read this and go out and get that superstar. The Panthers will continue to get no respect until they do.