SUNRISE, Fla. -- A small group gathered at BankAtlantic Center on Saturday morning while countless others sat in front of computers at home to do something not seen in these parts for some time.
Stanley Cup playoff tickets officially went on sale. And for the first time in more than a decade, South Florida is invited to the party.
"This is, by far, the best time of the season," said Sean Bergenheim, a playoff hero for the Lightning last season with nine postseason goals.
"This is when the fun begins. Not that the regular season isn't fun, but this has a little extra. We're hoping to do something here that hasn't been done in a long time. I'm really excited. We all are. You get one or two wins and everything snowballs. That's what happened for us in Tampa last year."
By virtue of Philadelphia's 2-1 victory over Buffalo last Thursday, the Panthers clinched a spot in the postseason for the first time since 2000. The Panthers' run of 11 years and 10 seasons (2004-05 was wiped out because of a labor lockout) between appearances is an NHL record that might not be conquered. Toronto holds the current drought as the Maple Leafs are in their seventh consecutive playoff -free April.
"I have no idea what it will be like to be honest with you," said Stephen Weiss, a Toronto native who will make his postseason debut with the Panthers after 637 NHL regular-season games.
"I hope it will be like other buildings that you see on TV: Pandemonium, 20,000 people standing and waving towels the whole game. I'm looking forward to it. I hope the fans do as well. I just want to get it going; stop talking about it."
The playoffs begin this week, and the Panthers hold home-ice advantage in the opening round after beating the Hurricanes on Saturday to claim the first division title in franchise history.
Florida will play host to New Jersey. The series opener is expected to be held Thursday in Sunrise.
Backing in?
The Panthers might not be going into the playoffs playing their best hockey of the season. Florida had lost eight of nine and five in a row coming into Saturday's regular-season finale. But the playoffs are a new season. Everything a team has going for it needs to be forgotten - it doesn't matter what you did in the regular season. Same with a team on a negative run.
Everything in the playoffs starts fresh. It's spring cleaning for hockey teams.
"I guess the word 'amped up' is something you would use," coach Kevin Dineen said. "The level of intensity gets amped up, the level of importance at every faceoff, every finished check. Those are things you talk to your players about, but it's not really needed because they recognize it and they know there's a lot of other teams sitting at home that would love to be a part of where you are right now.
"You want to continue that feeling. It can last for a week or it can last for almost three months."
The Panthers' transformation from being the worst team in the Eastern Conference to one of its playoff teams started in February 2011. Convinced the Panthers were not a playoff team, general manager Dale Tallon systematically began dumping veteran salaries via trades at the deadline.
Tallon traded captain Bryan McCabe to the Rangers, Cory Stillman and Bryan Allen to the Hurricanes, Radek Dvorak to Atlanta and Dennis Wideman to the Capitals. Although the Panthers looked like a minor-league team with some big names still around (Stephen Weiss, Tomas Vokoun, David Booth, etc.), the short-term pain was for long-term results.
"That was one of the low points of my time here," Weiss said.
Tallon had about $18 million committed to salaries when he went to the June draft and needed to get the payroll up to about $40 million to hit the salary cap floor. Tallon, with all that money in his pocket, remade the roster in a hurry. The first move was getting defensemen Brian Campbell from Chicago in a trade.
Once Campbell waived his no-trade clause, other players around the league noticed. Finally, free agents were taking the Panthers seriously. One by one, players headed south.
'Coming together'
On opening day, the Panthers had 14 different players suited up that weren't on the previous season's roster. Dineen, hired to replace the fired Pete DeBoer, did a nice job putting all the new pieces together.
"We had some pretty sketchy preseason games but we're all pros and coming together as quick as possible was one of our goals," said Ed Jovanovski, who started his career in Florida in 1994 and returned by signing a four-year deal July 1. "We all played hard for each other and things just fell into place."
Dineen now goes into the playoffs with plenty of experience at his call. Of Florida's 23 roster players all but Weiss and seven others have previous playoff experience. Kris Versteeg, Mikael Samuelsson, Tomas Kopecky, Campbell and John Madden all have their name engraved on the Stanley Cup.
"We're not green," Dineen said, "by any means."
Jovanovski, for instance, is no stranger to the postseason and is a link to the Panthers playoff past. Of Florida's 31 postseason games in franchise history, Jovanovski has played in 27 of them. Of those games, 22 came in Florida's fabled run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996 while Jovanovski was a fresh-faced rookie.
Although "JovoCop" has some more miles on the odometer, talk of making a deep run into the playoffs brings a childish grin to his face.
"Everyone said we didn't have a chance early on and we were pretty motivated," he said. "This is the best time of the year, what we all play for. This is the big stage. We have some guys who have never been here, but a lot who have. It's going to be fun.
"The building is going to rock."
DECADE-PLUS DROUGHT
1999-2000: Led by Pavel Bure's league-leading 58 goals, the Panthers get 98 points to earn the franchise's third postseason berth. Florida promptly gets swept by eventual champ New Jersey.
2000-01: Panthers trade for Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen yet start slow and clean house by firing GM Bryan Murray and coach Terry Murray. Team ends with 66 points and misses the playoffs.
2001-02: Wayne Huizenga sells team to group led by Alan Cohen and Bernie Kosar. The fiery Mike Keenan is brought in to coach after slow start; Bure is traded. Team gets franchise-low 60 points. Franchise's place in South Florida market quickly fades.
2002-03: Another slow start to the season dooms the Panthers as Jokinen comes into his own by leading team with 36 goals. Team finishes fourth in division, misses playoffs.
2003-04: GM Rick Dudley wins power struggle with Keenan (this time), coaches team himself for a bit after firing Iron Mike. Team goes into lockout year by finishing 1-6-2.
2004-05: Season wiped out by lockout but plenty of drama beforehand. Dudley and coach John Torchetti are canned in favor of, yes, new GM Mike Keenan and coach Jacques Martin.
2005-06: New era of NHL doesn't help Panthers fortunes as team finishes fourth in division despite bringing in vets such as Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Roberts, Martin Gelinas and Jozef Stumpel. Their 85 points is an improvement.
2006-07: Keenan trades Luongo to Vancouver in June in a lopsided deal then is fired on Labor Day. Martin takes over as coach and GM. Ed Belfour comes to town and brings his special brand of fun. Martin trades Todd Bertuzzi (main piece of Luongo trade) after back injury limits him to seven games.
2007-08: Panthers make a nice run for the playoffs and win seven in a row March 2-16. But three consecutive divisional losses doom team to golf course again. Martin fired as coach, stays as GM. Jokinen is traded to Phoenix by Martin at the draft.
2008-09: New coach Pete DeBoer's bunch ties Montreal for eighth place but loses tiebreaker as Canadiens have a more shootout wins. Rule is changed, but too late for Panthers. Martin quits to coach Canadiens. Jay Bouwmeester traded before he can walk away as free agent.
2009-10: Season starts in Finland and team gets off to slow start. New GM Randy Sexton compares team to "Titanic," leading new owners to write letter to fans saying "enough is enough." Sexton cleans house at deadline, team finishes last in division for first time in history.
2010-11: Sexton is replaced by Dale Tallon in May and Nathan Horton is traded by June. Tallon decides team isn't making playoffs, goes on salary dump at deadline; team looks like it should be in the AHL. DeBoer is fired a day after team finishes last in Eastern Conference for first time in history.
2011-12: Tallon uses money dumped in previous season to go on a spending spree in the summer, bringing in 13 new players to retool the roster. Fueled by new players, coach Kevin Dineen and retro red uniforms, Panthers start strong and advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2000.
SINCE THEN . . .
Since the last time the Florida Panthers made it to the playoffs, they . . .
Won 347 games, lost 499 (116 in overtime/shootout) and tied 51.
Have accumulated 863 points (average of 78.3 per season)
Have had eight coaches (Terry Murray, Duane Sutter, Mike Keenan, Rick Dudley, John Torchetti, Jacques Martin, Pete DeBoer and Kevin Dineen).
Have had eight general managers (Bryan Murray, Bill Torrey, Chuck Fletcher, Dudley, Keenan, Martin, Randy Sexton and Dale Tallon).
Have had five captains (Scott Mellanby, Pavel Bure, Paul Laus, Olli Jokinen, Bryan McCabe).
Have had three arena names (National Car Rental/Office Depot/BankAtlantic Center).
Have had eight top 10 draft picks (Stephen Weiss, Jay Bouwmeester, Nathan Horton, Rostislav Olesz, Michael Frolik, Keaton Ellerby, Erik Gudbranson, Jonathan Huberdeau).
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