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How many of these articles will we write before we
finally pen one about Mike Keenan's permanent retirement? Without further
adieu here goes nothing.
Duane
Sutter was fired as coach of the Panthers and good old Iron Mike Keenan
takes over his 7th NHL team as bench boss and behind the scenes manipulator.
The Keenan era will begin quickly in Florida. Look for Keenan's new squad to
get tougher, with added responsibility being placed on Jason Weimer, Brad
Ferrence, and Paul Laus. The only thing about Iron Mike is that he still
loves talented players, as long as they work hard and buy into his system.
While guys like Kristian Huselius, Niklas Hagman, and Marcus Nilson will
probably do just that, it's hard to believe that the Bure Brothers will be
as accomodating. The Panthers are not a large market team and quickly found
out that to be able to afford Pavel Bure they needed to cut corners
elsewhere. These corners involved trimming their defense, and sacrificing
offensive depth. The injury to Valeri Bure didn't help, but much of the
blame can be placed squarely at the feet of management.
Our
Take: Look for the new management in
Florida to listen to offers for both Bures. Look for them also to move
Trevor Kidd with an eye to bringing in a more affordable backup. Keenan will
do his darndest to turn this into a blue-collar team. But how can you have a
blue-collar team when you have players that like the finer things in life?
The Bure brothers have never bought in to any coaches system and likely
never will. On the flipside, Mike Keenan may not exactly be the best guy for
the job. In a recent interview, Tony Amonte, didn't have pleasant things to
say about his old coach when asked to compare him to his current Blackhawks
skipper. "Brian Sutter has
forgotten more things as a coach than Mike Keenan knows."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Fantasy
Impact: So where is this going to
leave your players? Well, watch the first few games closely. Mike Keenan has
pets. Those pets get considerably more icetime than the others. Things will
happen fast. In fact so fast that we will dedicate a large chunk of next
Sunday's weekly email to "Who's in and Who's out" in
Florida.
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