Post-Season Blues

With the playoffs upon us, the Panthers golfing, prospects' collegiate and junior seasons wrapped up and all but a select few NHLers still playing in the World Championship, there's not much to do.

The Panthers organization has been active this off-season with regard to keeping the site worth reading on a near daily basis, and that's something that in most off-seasons, we have been lacking.

They've kept tabs on the guys over in Switzerland for the World Championship and they've introduced a few new blogs on the site. First, we saw team president and chief operating officer Michael Yormark put out some entries under the name "Sunrise Edition". For the most part, it's a gigantic advertisement and that seems to have irked some people, but really, if reaching out and showing some loyalty to partners and potential advertisers can help solidify the sponsorship base, that's never a bad thing. Unfortunately, there's not much there that deals with the nitty-gritty details about the Cats that summertime makes everyone yearn to understand. If you look at the "Panthers News" section to the right of this page, his entries should be preceded by "Sunrise Edition" and this is the most recent entry.

The other blog that has popped up is written by Dave Joseph. As the description on the left of his entries state, he's the director of internet and publication content. There's a good deal more hockey talk in his first two entries and then some other random stuff. Looking to the right, anything that starts with "Two Minutes For:" is one of Dave's blogs. The most recent entry is right here.

There is an article on the upcoming draft, as well as the "Above the Glass" feature that keeps the TV & radio voices of the Panthers (minus Denis Potvin) busy talking about, at present, the playoffs. All told, the Panthers are doing enough to keep people coming back to the site and to make sure they can't just fade in to obscurity over the summer. Hopefully, they'll keep that up.

With George Richards (Miami Herald) and Steve Gorten (Sun-Sentinel) holding other responsibilities with their respective papers, the day-to-day updates we live by over the course of the regular season have slowed to a nearly interminable crawl.

So for now, while everyone searches for stories to run, features to air and for the best time slots to fill to make the most of what they've got, here are some direct links that have been active recently:

Florida Panthers @ Twitter: This has been great during the WC. Lots of updates and quick news on new content at the site.

South Florida Business Journal: If you care to monitor the potential merger that has been discussed, this link (I've pasted the URL to the sports section), should be a good place to check.

Florida Panthers: Of course. Hopefully they'll keep the new stuff coming in to the heart of the off-season. For the time being, they've stayed busy.

Miami Herald Hockey Section: It's mostly geared towards the playoffs at this point, but a condensed version of George Richards' blog is also in the top left corner, so you could strike off-season gold and find a story in the hockey section and a completely different entry from GR's 'On Frozen Pond' in one click. Or not. But, it's worth a shot.

Sun-Sentinel Panthers' Section: Similar to the Herald, only with the Panthers remaining the prime focus. Steve Gorten's blog is in the upper right corner, so like with the Herald, maybe you'll get good news (or not so good news) in one click. Or maybe not.

Florida Panthers' Official Message Boards: They're totally dead at this point in time. Sign up and talk about something. Please?

I'll try to come up with something worth reading this week because, quite frankly, I'm not in the mood to stop talking about the Panthers, either.