Before this season started, the Florida Panthers might as well have called themselves a band of pirates, as in they were basically raiding the free agent markets for players just to hit the cap floor. As of Christmas, they will stand in first place in the Southeast Division with 43 points, six points ahead of the Winnipeg Jets. The offense is led by Kris Versteeg and Stephen Weiss, with Versteeg being the player Toronto thought they were getting last year and Weiss finally getting a fair shake as to what he can do when surrounded by talent. Currently, attendance figures don't reflect the team's performance, but the fact that the on-ice product sees Versteeg and Weiss as the leading scorers compared to last year's leaders Weiss and Mike Santorelli. This all is happening despite being the only team without a permanent captain, although a familiar face in Ed Jovanovski and Weiss are both worthy candidates for the job should the Panthers decide to name one. Do I expect the Panthers to keep this up? Probably not, but the Capitals haven't found their way under Dale Hunter and the Lightning's goalie problem has been exposed...again, so anything is possible. And the Panthers are only going to get better once they deem Jacob Markstrom ready for the starter's job, a spot currently held by Jose Theodore, who himself, just might have rediscovered the 2002 magic.
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