Matthew Tkachuk, Courtesy ESPN.com

Panthers’ identity has outcasts dying to grow and bare teeth

 “There is a creature alive today who has survived millions of years of evolution, without change, without logic, it lives to kill. A mindless eating machine, it will attack, it will devour. Anything. It is as if God created the Devil and gave him . . . jaws.”   This

NHL’s Eastern Conference: change is in the air

 It’s been the ignition switch triggering many a discussion since the salary cap came into play 17 years ago – the days of dynasties in the National Hockey League are done. The Montreal Canadiens of the 1970s, NY Islanders and Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s dominated hockey at its grandest

Hey Tampa, this wasn’t supposed to happen

 Cap-shmap. So here we are in the era of the great equalizer, aka the National Hockey League salary cap. In a very great way, the salary cap was intended more for restriction than anything else. To be more precise – restrictive to any kind of dynasty. In no way whatsoever

Trade-deadline turmoil in Toronto?

 It’s expected the Ottawa Senators will look a lot like the Ottawa Senators come Monday next week. In other words, don’t expect much noise at the trade deadline (3 p.m. ET March 21st). Outside of shipping out a couple of minor role players and potentially Swiss army knife Nick Paul,

Nick Paul: Stay or Go?

 They did it with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Mark Stone. Will the Ottawa Senators hit the trifecta with Nick Paul? Seems like a reasonable question: Will Ottawa trade off one of its key contributors and more popular skaters at the NHL’s trade deadline? The similarities are striking. All three are/were in

String of losing needs to be snipped

 Photo: Courtesy iHeart Radio You know about that saying re-insanity right: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? If you’re the latest rendition of the Toronto Maple Leafs that means, of course, nailing it repeatedly during the regular season then coughing up a hairball in

Leafs house in disrepair

 ABOVE: Sheldon Keefe, head coach of the Leafs. (courtesyNHL.com) Supposing you bought a house and decided to invest millions of dollars into upgrades. A few months into renovations you discovered there were enormous cracks in the foundation and all that money you’d shot into the home were wasted. Then supposing you decided