GETTING READY FOR THE STORM

Hello Florida and everywhere else, here we are just days away from the start of the NHL season but first we need to deal with the Hurricane.

No, not Carolina. Mathew.

The Cats played a preseason game against Dallas but at a neutral site, in Canada. Panthers equipment guys figured since they were traveling that they'd pack up the road white uniforms. The Stars were listed as the road team so their equipment guy also brought road whites. The result was an all white game (insert racist jokes here) and it must have been quite tough on the refs.

Despite a nice goal assisted by Jagr the Cats fell 2-1 in overtime.

Speaking of Jagr, he won a dumb newspaper contest as he was voted best Panther player by the readers. I'm guessing he had the best name recognition and while a true hall of famer, he's hardly the best player on the Cats. The best drag queen is also listed. Um, yeah.

The roster is starting to shape up with a few more cuts to be made after tonight's rematch with the Stars. Word has it that the Stars will wear their home dark uni's so the Cats will continue to wear white. Honestly, in my day you wore Home Whites. They switched it at some point to sell more sweaters and of course there are the third jersey's to boost sales as well. It is and will always be about the money.

Folks, here in South Florida we love our sports. We are happy about the USA winning the Ryder Cup as many of the guys have homes here. Football is KING. But, the Dolphins stink. The once great Miami Heat have no one left from the Championship teams and the poor Marlins lost their star pitcher in a horrible boating accident. Bottom line here is that the scene is set for the Panthers to grab the headlines here. People here crave a winner and if the Cats can put together a solid season and make the playoffs we could have a lot of tickets sold to PANTHER FANS this season.

OK, back to storm prep......

----}- Bird