Last of the end season reviews for you here, number nine of nine. We started with the Belfast Giants and now finish with the team we all love to bits, the one team we have probably met in games more than anyone else. We're gonna play them at least 10 times this year, we played them 14 times last...yes it's the Nottingham Panthers!
Season in summary: For Corey and those of a black and gold persuasion, it was another season with no silverware in the domestic campaign, but they did win a sandwich tray in Italy. Don't why it can be called a Cup when it clearly isn't. It's got them back in the Champions Hockey League after two seasons absence though. But Panthers biggest problem back home was to their inconsistencies and we thought ours were bad. The team wasn't a team, they were simply individuals and that spells disaster. Not the best way to start a new two year contract Corey, gotta buck ideas up methinks.
Performance of the Season: One game for me, and probably the one that really sticks in the mind-set. If you were there, you saw what Panthers are like when they really click but if you weren't then you'll be wishing you had gone. Yes, it's that 8-0 shutout, I repeat the word shutout, of the Cardiff Devils and at Ice Arena Wales. Believe me, it did bloody happen. The much maligned Brian McGrattan scored his first ever goals for the Panthers that night as they blew the home side away. Shame the rest of the season wasn't as good as this, finishing 23 points off the champions isn't good reading.
Low point of the season: We saw it happen, the Panthers fans who were there saw it happen, Corey Neilson saw it all happen too. We're going to select the 8-1 destruction they received at the hand of the Steelers. Steelers tore the Panthers apart with ruthless efficiency that night, and the visitors should have conceded double figures: they were that embarrassing. It was so bad that Panthers only really played for the final minute in the final period. It was like erm, we're losing 8-0 here and we can't be shutout that badly in Sheffield can we? They played, and right on the buzzer Brad Moran bust Moose's shutout. The defence, if you could call it one, didn't exist and gave Jindrich "Henry" Pacl no protection, as for the forwards they were as a limp as a balloon with no air. Yet Rick Strachan claimed it was a very good performance from the visitors, I still want to know what he was drinking that night now...
Player of the Season: Am I forced to pick one out of a roster of individuals who only understood the word "team" when they were in the Continental Cup/Sandwich Tray? Go on then, I'll pick one out and that would be "Big Ern" (McGrattan). He started off very slowly indeed and most of us thought he's gonna get the cases packed and swan off back to NA because he's not enjoying his hockey. But that night in Cardiff changed everything, and he looked a more decent player despite being known more for punching ten bells out of someone. Picking up just 140 PiMs only says everything doesn't it?
Anything else? In order to arrest the domestic silverware slide, Neilson has completely reshuffled his roster for 2017-18 with only eight players returning and one a forward: that being Jeff Brown. He's brought back Evan Mosey after the latter spent two seasons in the AHL with the Rockford Ice Hogs, and also proven scorer Mark Derlago and experienced goaltender Michael Garnett amongst his recruitment. My concern is, will Neilson rely on these solely to get the Panthers back on the domestic winning trail or will he have a roster that works as a "team" to do the same? If it's the former, more problems loom. Neilson has to deliver in 2017-18 or his time could be up and for the most successful modern day Panthers coach that would be a sad way to bow out. Wouldn't it Corey?
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