It really didnt come as a surprise that the Florida Panthers fired head coach Kevin Dineen Friday, but its not like a change in the coaching staff is going to magically cure what ails this team. Any time a team fails to meet expectations, coaches end up on the chopping block, but that leads to the question: why would there have been expectations put upon the Florida Panthers for the 2013-2014 season? Go back to the 2011-2012 season, when the Panthers won the Southeast Division, with 94 points in 82 games, despite recording 32 regulation and overtime wins, a total that tied non-playoff teams Buffalo, Carolina (who finished last in the Southeast Division) and Colorado for 20th in the league. The Panthers also had a minus-24 goal differential, so anything beyond the point total in the standings suggested they were not really a playoff-calibre team. Consider them a prime example of a team not being what its record is. Then the Panthers proceeded to lose in double-overtime of Game Seven (after losing in overtime in Game Six) in the first round of the playoffs against the eventual Eastern-Conference-Champion New Jersey Devils, making it easy to sell the idea that the Panthers were "this close" to competing with the top teams in the league. It needs to be noted, however, that the Panthers overachieved in 2011-2012, to even generate mediocre results disguised as playoff-worthy. Florida needed to spend a lot of money in the summer of the 2011 season just to get above the salary floor and, as a result, cobbled together a make-shift roster, handing out some contracts that had surprisingly long-term implications. Sure, Florida signed Tomas Fleischmann (four years, $18-million), and he scored a career-high 61 points in 2011-2012, and has generally been a productive scorer since. C Marcel Goc (three years, $5.19-million) has been okay and G Jose Theodore (two years, $3-million) was a low-risk move, but the Panthers also inked RW Scottie Upshall (four years, $14-million), D Ed Jovanovski (four years, $16.5-million) and LW Sean Bergenheim (four years, $11-million), none of whom has provided a decent return on investment. (Injuries have admittedly played a part in their lack of production.) The Panthers also dipped into GM Dale Tallons past and traded for some former Chicago Blackhawks: D Brian Campbell, RW Kris Versteeg and RW Tomas Kopecky. That roster didnt have any business harbouring playoff expectations yet, with Dineen taking over for Peter DeBoer behind the bench, the Panthers defied the odds and reached the postseason, thanks in large part to Fleischmann, Versteeg and Stephen Weiss, their top line that combined for 70 goals and 172 points. Campbell added 53 points while playing nearly 27 minutes per game. That quartet made up the entire list of Florida Panthers to record more than 33 points that season, so there wasnt a lot coming from the supporting cast. The 2013 season brought much worse results, particularly when injuries limited Weiss and Versteeg to a total of 27 games and the goaltending went from decent, ranking 11th with a .914 save percentage, to a league-worst .887 save percentage in the lockout-shortened 2013 season. Those injuries, and subpar goaltending, over a small-sample season may have been what led Tallon to still harbour expectations for this team coming into the 2013-2014 season. Or maybe its because there is a new owner calling the shots that the Panthers couldnt simply see the 2013-2014 season as one for development of their young talent. After all, the Panthers have added some promising young players including LW Jonathan Huberdeau, C Aleksander Barkov and C Nick Bjugstad, who are all playing significant minutes. D Erik Gudbranson, the third overall pick in 2010, and D Dmitry Kulikov, the 14th pick in 2009 are still works in progress, but young enough to be part of what the Panthers are trying to build. G Jacob Markstrom is supposed to be the goaltender of the future, even if the 23-year-old has struggled this year. Forwards Vincent Trocheck and Drew Shore and defencemen Alex Petrovic and Colby Robak have been in the AHL, playing for new head coach Peter Horacheck. Trocheck, who has 11 points in 11 games as a first-year pro and nearly made the Panthers out of training camp, could get his opportunity soon. In the summer of 2013, the Panthers didnt spend big money, but brought in a lot of veterans on low-money deals. Defencemen Tom Gilbert has been a bargain as a top-four defenceman while Matt Gilroy and checking forward Jesse Winchester have been decent. Veteran forwards Brad Boyes and Scott Gomez along with blueliner Ryan Whitney have not been effective and goaltender Tim Thomas hasnt been able to stay healthy in his attempt to return to action after a year off. As a result, the Panthers have the leagues 28th-ranked goal differential (minus-1.36 per game), ahead of only the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres. Unfortunately, the goaltending hasnt gotten any better this season, ranking 28th with an .885 save percentage, and no team can win with goaltending of that calibre, let alone a team that isnt scoring at the other end of the ice and the Panthers rank 29th in 5-on-5 shooting percentage when the score is close. The good news, according to the probabilities of advanced stats, is that the Panthers arent likely to maintain such terrible shooting and save percentages all season, so they are due to get some better results; a little "puck luck" as it were. Of course, being better than their current 3-9-4 record doesnt mean all that much. When those young players start to control play more consistently and the Panthers start getting adequate goaltending, they may turn the corner, but thats going to require patience and the expectations placed on this team dont necessarily allow for patience. Trouble is, when a general manager makes moves that appear to reveal a lack of patience, its fair to start wondering if the next one on the chopping block will be the GM. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Washington Redskins Jerseys . -- James Harden scored 31 points, including 25 in the second half, and the Houston Rockets dug out of a double-digit, first-half hole to beat the Orlando Magic 101-89 on Wednesday night. DaRon Payne Jersey .com) - Cincinnati Reds pitcher Mat Latos had an arthroscopic procedure performed on his right elbow last week, the teams official site reported Wednesday. http://www.cheapredskinslockroom.com/AUT...EDSKINS-JERSEY/. Watching them over the past year - and in some cases, two years - has given us a starting point for this seasons Craigs List. Geron Christian Jersey .The Ottawa Senators winger was relegated to a corner seat in the locker-room to allow Daniel Alfredsson to return to his regular stall one last time. Jonathan Allen Redskins Jersey . - Olympic champion Marielle Thompson accomplished her mission of defending her skicross World Cup title at Nakiska Ski Area on Saturday. SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Even when they found themselves in a 3-0 series deficit to San Jose, the Los Angeles Kings never doubted they had what it takes to mount a memorable comeback. Thats what winning a Stanley Cup together two years earlier can do for a teams confidence and thats how a lack of post-season success can eat away at anothers psyche. Anze Kopitar scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period and Jonathan Quick made 39 saves to cap the Kings historic comeback from three games down with a 5-1 victory over the Sharks in Game 7 of their first-round series Wednesday night. "When youve gone to the top of the mountain with the same group of guys its a little bit easier when youre at the bottom to come up," said captain Dustin Brown, who scored an empty-net goal to seal the game. "Thats what a lot of this team is about, our guys who have stuck together and played together for years." Drew Doughty, Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson also scored for the Kings, who became the fourth NHL team to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games. The Kings joined Toronto (1942), the New York Islanders (1975) and Philadelphia (2010) as the only teams to complete that comeback and now will get another California showdown in the second-round with the first Freeway Playoff against the Anaheim Ducks. "Thats fantastic," Doughty said. "This is something were all going to remember for the rest of our lives. Were not done yet. We have to move on." Matt Irwin scored the lone goal and Antti Niemi made 25 saves for the Sharks, who added perhaps their most bitter playoff disappointment to a history of them. San Jose has the second most regular-season wins in the NHL the past 10 seasons but has never made it past the conference finals. "This is as low as its been for me, and for the players that have been together for the six years that Ive been here," coach Todd McLellan said. The way the Sharks started this series by outscoring the Kings 17-8 to win the first three games, it looked as if this could finally be their year. But Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and the rest of their stars went mostly missing the final four games, the power play could not convert on its final 15 chances and the defence made too many lapses, leading to their second sstraight Game 7 loss to their California rivals.dddddddddddd "Theres been a lot of low points, but yeah, this is definitely one of them being up 3-0," Marleau said. The Sharks took their first lead since Game 3 in the opening minute of the second when Irwins point shot beat Quick through a screen to provide a jolt to the crowd that only got bigger when San Jose drew a penalty less than a minute later. But a hooking call on Tommy Wingels negated that power play and Logan Couture then got called for an elbowing penalty, giving Los Angeles a two-man advantage for 6 seconds. Before Wingels could get back into the play, Doughty tied it when he beat Niemi from the faceoff circle. The Sharks had three more power plays in the second period to give them a chance to go back ahead, but Los Angeles killed every one of them with Quick robbing Marleau with a glove save on the goal line to thwart San Joses best chance. "Those were obviously critical," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "Jonathan was able to make that one highlight save. I think that gave us a little momentum." That save was emblematic of a remarkable turnaround this series for Quick, who allowed 16 goals the first three games but held the Sharks to just five over the final four wins. The Kings responded after the fourth penalty kill when last years Game 7 hero Justin Williams found Kopitar, who made a nifty move to beat Niemi with a backhand to give him points in all seven games this series. "Drew, Quickie and Kopi were our three best players tonight," Brown said. "You win and lose with your best players." The Sharks lost because their core players came up empty late in the series with Irwin and third-liner James Sheppard getting the only goals in the final three games. "I think their defence just swallowed us up right now, to be honest with you," Thornton said. "They just played real tight defensively and their goaltender got hot like he usually does this time of the year." NOTES: The Kings became the fifth team to beat the same opponent in Game 7 in consecutive seasons. ... Both teams were without a key defenceman as San Joses Marc-Edouard Vlasic missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury and Willie Mitchell was out for Los Angeles after getting hurt in Game 6. 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