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November 20, 2002
RAIN IN MIAMI
By Matt Petersen
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MIAMI -- Rain falls on us lucky fools (Miami’s great)
and we’re loving the fact that it’s raining and 75
degrees here in South Florida. Our first night in, we
were wined and dined at the Fairwind’s bar and
restaurant by a Venezuelan hostess named Catharine who
made us forget our good times in Ottawa. Miami doesn’t
take on the characteristics of a normal hockey town --
the air is warm and the people are tan, thin and on
the cutting edge of fashion.
The Panthers have been to the NHL Finals in the 90s,
and they still feature the rat as their unofficial
mascot (remember Scott Mellanby’s locker room rat
incident?), so good hockey karma. The fans here are
into the action, although the seats are still quite
empty on this east coast swing. The seats are packed
pretty tight up where we’re sitting, but it’s lacking
down low. Hint to NHL owners: LOWER TICKET PRICES.
It’ll never happen, I’m preaching to the choir.
Anyway, the action on the ice was swell. A 3-3 tie,
and we get to see an Islanders team that is earning
respect in the
what-team-can-I-jump-on-the-bandwagon-now book of Jeff
Curtis. They’re a pretty sharp squad with pretty good
forwards and maybe the sneaky best third line in all
of hockey that features Jason Blake, Dave Scatchard,
and Jason Weimer. On the checking line, Steve Webb
throws the body at anybody in sight.
The game swayed back and forth the entire way. The
Panthers had the lead going into the final stanza
until Alexi Yashin tied the game for good in the
third. The prettiest goal of the night came in the
first period from Florida Left Wing Nilas Hagman who
took a spin-around pass from Olli Jokinen (two awesome
young players) in front of the crease, and deposited
the puck under the pads of NY goalie Chris Osgood. The
goal gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead going into the first
intermission.
But by far the most amazing “play” on the night came
from the fists of Scatchard who dropped Panther
Defenseman Lance Ward in one punch in a third period
fight. Ward, coming into the fray after he felt one of
his teammates was felled by Scatchard, took a blow to
the honker and preceded to drop to the ice where he
stayed until he was helped to the training room by
some of his mates. We could almost hear the punch from
our third deck seats.
Even though it was thundering outside, and we almost
had a microphone meltdown because of all the humidity,
we had a successful run here in Miami. Like in Jersey,
we couldn’t really get anybody to stop and talk to us
in the downpour, so we waited till after the game
where we found some great people to talk to. They were
all in unison in saying, and we were a little
surprised by this, that they love the drill sergeant
attitude of Mike Keenan. Hey, the guy has won a Cup
after all.
Miami was our most interesting stop of the trip. Not
quite the hockey Mecca as Montreal, but the place did
wonders in helping us recharge the batteries. Good
company at the Fairwinds, good weather, great beaches
and the best scrap we’d seen on the trip. Thanks Dave
Scatchard.
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