Florida Panthers

Ollie hates playing for Jacques?

Once again the Ollie Jokinen trade rumours have popped up and this time they appear to be pretty heated. How much truth there is to them will remain to be seen, however I have seen and heard more than a couple times that they are “hot” and the time is ripe!
On HNIC it was reported (I didn’t see it) that Ollie “hates” playing for Jacques Martin and that he would welcome a trade. It is apparently known that Ollie and Martin are not the best of friends and we all know that Ollie owes the emergence of his career to Mike Keenan, so there may be some truth to the Flames being one of the teams that wants him.

Ollie is not the first Panther to have been heard saying that he doesn’t like playing the Martin style of play. Gary Roberts had expressed the same while with the Panthers, as well as a few others. Not that these players don’t want to be responsible defensively which is what Martin expects and preaches. It’s just that his system even in the new NHL does not allow for any creativity and the forecheck and pressure against the oppostion is fairly non-existent.
I am so tired of seeing the Panthers finally get control of the puck carry it across the red line and then dump it in with EVERYONE going off for a line change. I must admit, I can pretty much predict when it will happen, and I am not even watching the clock for ice time.

Martin (I will refer to him as Uncle Jack from now on as that is my wife’s nickname for him) has taken a relatively young team with speed and quickness, and put the brakes on them, and from this observer it is boring. I would much rather watch the New Jersey Devils play the New Jersey Devils, that is how tough it sometimes is to watch them play. I have been trying to figure out what their identity really is. Puck possesion, up-tempo, physical, trapping? I don’t really know, but as much as I love hockey, I am finding it hard to like watching the Panthers, and would rather see uncle Jack (see above) go rather than Ollie.

Will ownership trade Ollie? While making that move would require getting some real value in return, I would be surprised if it happened. He is the face of the Panthers, and the team leader, and has become their most consistent player. Besides the fact he is their captain and number one forward. That being said, this franchise has done some really silly things so it is possible, but ownership would be crazy to make the move. I’m not even going to entertain the possible players or teams that are said to want him, as it’s pure speculation. The one thing that might make Ollie feel better is to give him a couple of real linemates. He was pretty happy for a couple years when he played with Roberts and Horton. But Uncle Jack traded Roberts and Horton is now on the second line, but so much for consistency. It’s too bad when your number one forward/center, doesn’t get number one treatment. That is one thing that could prove to be the downfall of this coaching staff. A comment made by one of the reporters was fire the passionless Martin, and give the job to Kitchen cause he has ice in his veins. Well Martin is passionless no doubt about that, but Kitchen is repsonsible for the defense, and they are not doing their job either so that move would be worse. Shawn Matthias has provided a real spark playing on the first line with Ollie, but it remains to be seen if uncle Jack keeps him around after some of the injuried players come back. I think if Ollie and Matthias continue to click they will have no choice but to keep him up, but I also thought that Anthony Stewart was going to get a chance to prove himself as well, and that hasn’t turned out too well since he is stuck on the 4th line.

While the Panthers need a turnaround or something that will ignite their play, moving Jokinen to me is not the answer, other than giving him the opportunity to be in the playoffs. I would rather see a coaching change, and if that would make me happy, imagine what it would do for Ollie Jokinen!