Hordichuk remembers old teammate, friend Snyder

By Michael Russo
Staff Writer
Posted October 7 2003
SUNRISE · Darcy Hordichuk spent the early hours of Monday morning reflecting on the telephone and Internet with friends. Then, the Panthers' enforcer cried himself to sleep.

Hordichuk was heartbroken by the loss of his friend and former linemate Dan Snyder, the Atlanta Thrashers center who died Sunday night from brain injuries suffered in a car crash six days before.
"For most of the people in this locker room, they don't know what kind of guy he was," Hordichuk said. "He was a stand-up guy. He was the most cheerful guy. Snides worked so hard to get to the NHL.

"He was always in the minors making not a lot of money. When he made it and he bought his brand-new vehicle, he gave it right to my buddy for three weeks. That was the kind of guy he was. Most people want to hold on to everything and it's all about money. Here's a guy who didn't have much and what he did have, he was always willing to share. We're just all in shock."

In 2001, Hordichuk and Snyder helped lead the old IHL Orlando Solar Bears to the Turner Cup championship. At 3 a.m. Monday, Hordichuk popped that championship tape into his VCR.

"There Snides was in the room holding up the Turner Cup and screaming and yelling and smiling," Hordichuk said, choking up. "I just lost my marbles."

Thrashers teammate Dany Heatley, one of the brightest young stars in the NHL, was charged with vehicular homicide, according to a Fulton County, Ga., district attorney's office spokesman.

On Sept. 29, Heatley was driving his Ferrari an estimated 80 mph on a two-lane road in Buckhead when he lost control and slammed into a brick wall and iron fence. Snyder, in the passenger seat, was thrown from the vehicle and never regained consciousness. Heatley is expected to miss the season with injuries, including a broken jaw and a torn ACL and MCL.

When the Panthers traveled to Atlanta last Tuesday, Hordichuk went to the hospital to visit Snyder and Heatley. He spent time with Snyder's family and even got to push Snyder's stretcher around the hospital as he went for a brain scan.

Hordichuk is thankful he got to see his friend one last time.

"Some things are meant to be," Hordichuk said. "We just so happened to be in the city the night after and I'm glad I could just show my regards to his family. But that's not enough for them. They need everybody's prayers.

"When somebody that close to you passes away, it really wakes you up. People in my family have passed away. But this is different. The kid's 25 years old. It's always cancer somebody dies from, or a stroke, but here's a young guy and it just blows your mind."

Before practice Monday, Panthers coach Mike Keenan met with his young team and asked them to use the Thrashers' tragedy as a learning experience.

"Their sense of invincibility isn't something that can override their logic and rationale," Keenan said. "I just tried to emphasize to the guys that we have to look after each other and use common sense.

"A lot of things have come their way in terms of athleticism, playing in the NHL and being well-compensated. They have a lot of privileges at their disposal that the average young man or teenager doesn't have access to. It's tough to be grounded, but they have to keep their feet on the ground."

Hordichuk feels sorry for his former teammate, Heatley. Besides the legal problems, he has to deal with the psychological scars and guilt of a friend's death.

"The guy was on top of the world and had everything, and in a span of five seconds, his life has changed forever," Hordichuk said. "It's incredible. We have to support him too because he has a rough road ahead. It just goes to show you there are no guarantees in life."

Michael Russo can be reached at mrusso@sun-sentinel.com.

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Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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Forum am 07.08.2002
Bei den Frankfurt Lions soll es in der nächsten Saison der Deutschen Eishockeyliga (DEL) wieder aufwärts gehen. \"Wir wollen endlich wieder mal einen Playoff-Platz erobern und unter die besten acht Teams kommen\", sagte Clubeigner Gerd Schröder.

Huselius Goal Lifts Panthers Over Carolina

SUNRISE - Kristian Huselius scored a goal on his first shot of the season for the third straight year and it proved to be the game winner, as the Florida Panthers opened the 2003-04 NHL season with a 3-1 win over division rival Carolina Thursday night at the Office Depot Center. Huselius found himself alone with the puck in the slot and out-waited Carolina goalie Kevin Weekes before depositing the puck into the empty net at the 7:37 mark of the third period. Valeri Bure set up the game-winner and Roberto Luongo robbed Danny Markov with 1:30 to play to make the goal stand up. Viktor Kozlov added an empty-net goal to seal the deal in the waning seconds.

flpanthers.com
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UUUUUUIIIIIIII
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Forum am 07.08.2002
Bei den Frankfurt Lions soll es in der nächsten Saison der Deutschen Eishockeyliga (DEL) wieder aufwärts gehen. \"Wir wollen endlich wieder mal einen Playoff-Platz erobern und unter die besten acht Teams kommen\", sagte Clubeigner Gerd Schröder.

Messier's versatility a bonus for Keenan

By Michael Russo
Staff Writer
Posted October 10 2003

SUNRISE · One day he's playing forward, the next he's on the blue line. The versatile Eric Messier doesn't get dizzy and confused.

If anything, the anticipation of what position he's playing on a given day adds to the excitement of showing up for work.

"Maybe I'm the third goalie sometimes, you never know," joked Messier, the longtime Colorado Avalanche forward/defenseman who made his Panthers debut Thursday night against Carolina.

For the record, Messier was playing right wing Thursday on a line with Darcy Hordichuk and Byron Ritchie.

"I'm OK whenever I'm playing," said Messier, 29. "Wherever they need me is fine with me.

"It's fun having to be ready to play any position and you never know when someone's going to get hurt."

For coach Mike Keenan, having Messier as a forward is a luxury. In the Panthers' first exhibition game, defenseman Jeff Paul injured his mouth in a fight. Down to five defensemen, Keenan immediately moved Messier to the blue line.

Keenan said Messier could split half the season at forward and defense, like Jimmy Roberts did for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1960s.

"It's always nice to have that kind of flexibility," Keenan said. "Players like [Messier] are very, very valuable. You don't have many players that are capable of doing that."

Messier is a hard-working, gritty player. Up front, he's proven to be a tenacious forechecker and gutsy shot blocker.

"He's very respected by his teammates and dependable defensively," Keenan said. "He does a lot of subtle things on the ice that the average fan probably wouldn't appreciate."

In Saturday's final exhibition game, Messier had several blocked shots and helped pin Tampa Bay, who had an extra attacker, deep in its zone for the final 30 seconds.

Messier has always been considered an expert shot blocker. His secret?

"I close my eyes and hope for the best," he says, laughing.

Asked if he's ever gotten a serious injury, Messier said, "I'll touch some wood. Not yet.

"I'm lucky. It's hit my ribs a couple times, but bruises are part of the game."

Messier brings leadership and experience. On his right leg, he has a tattoo of the Avalanche logo inside the Stanley Cup, signifying the Cup he won with Colorado in 2001. He said a dozen teammates planned to get the tattoo, but only he and Jon Klemm went through with it.

"The others choked," Messier said.

"But guess what? I have room on my left leg," Messier said, referring to the Panthers.

Number change

Rookie Nathan Horton was supposed to wear No. 10, but he changed to No. 16 when he learned the player who previously wore 10 was superstar Pavel Bure.

"A little less pressure," Horton said of his new number. Incidentally, Horton, unaware that radio analyst Randy Moller used to wear 16 for the Panthers, made this comment as Moller stood in front of him.

Moller laughed and said, "Awfully big shoes to fill kid." Moller had three assists in 17 career games as a Panther.

"I'm still distraught the Panthers never retired that number," Moller quipped.

Bure in lineup

Right wing Valeri Bure, out for a week with a groin pull, was able to play. His brother, Pavel, out indefinitely with the Rangers because of a knee injury, attended the game.

Pavel Bure plans to spend a lot of time in South Florida rehabbing, although Valeri said, "You never know with him. One day he could be here. The next day he could be in Moscow." ... Ivan Novoseltsev, Pavel Trnka and Craig MacDonald were scratched. Email story
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Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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UUUUUUIIIIIIII
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Forum am 07.08.2002
Bei den Frankfurt Lions soll es in der nächsten Saison der Deutschen Eishockeyliga (DEL) wieder aufwärts gehen. \"Wir wollen endlich wieder mal einen Playoff-Platz erobern und unter die besten acht Teams kommen\", sagte Clubeigner Gerd Schröder.

Huselius' goal in third wins season opener

By Michael Russo
Staff Writer
Posted October 10 2003

SUNRISE · The loud, thunderous horn as the clock struck zero. The earsplitting applause from an appreciative crowd of 17,212.

To the Panthers, the reaction to their hard-working 3-1 season-opening victory over the Carolina Hurricanes was music to their ears.
The Panthers didn't experience much bliss at Office Depot Center last season, so even though Thursday's game was the first of 82, captain Olli Jokinen already was hailing it a "must-win game."

That's what happens when you're coming off a season with eight home wins.

"We had to set the tone right away and show the fans that this team is going to show up every night and play hard," Jokinen said. "This is a different team from last year. We're a year older. We have many new players. We're going to be one of the hardest-working teams in the league."

The Panthers certainly worked hard against the Hurricanes, who clogged up the neutral zone from start to finish. It takes speed, persistence and short, smart plays to break through. The Panthers never lost their patience and waited for Carolina to make mistakes instead of the other way around.

It happened that way on Niklas Hagman's first-period goal and again on Kristian Huselius' winner 7:37 into the third.

"You get a lot of that in the NHL now, people trying to really make the neutral zone very difficult to access," coach Mike Keenan said. "It's not particularly pretty, but there are ways of getting by."

The Panthers got solid contribution from several newcomers, including Lyle Odelein, who didn't miss a shift after a deflected puck broke his nose in the first period. Also credit Mikael Samuelsson, who made subtle, perfectly executed plays all game; Eric Messier, who almost single-handedly secured the win by holding off three Carolina attackers to set up Viktor Kozlov's empty-netter; and Nathan Horton, who by the third period of his NHL debut had been promoted to the second line.

"It was a perfect 20-guy effort tonight," goalie Roberto Luongo said.

Luongo was clutch in goal with 31 saves, including two game-saving stops in the final minutes -- the first with the knob of his stick on an Eric Staal chance, the second with a sliding pad save to rob a pinched-in Danny Markov.

"That's some pretty good chances in tight, and a guy like that covers in real well," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said.

Luongo said, "If you want to win big games, you have to make big saves in the end of games."

Huselius' winner was a thing of beauty, and amazingly, he scored on his first shot for the third consecutive season. The skilled Valeri Bure made a gritty play at the point to keep the puck in the zone, then got the puck up to Huselius.

Huselius slid across the slot with some dazzling moves, faked out a falling Sean Hill, waited for Kevin Weekes to fall and then fired a shot over top of him for a 2-1 lead.

"Kristian is a goal scorer, and goal scorers can mesmerize a goaltender, freeze a goaltender and out-wait him," Keenan said. "He was really sharp on that play."

Making his NHL debut, Horton looked like a veteran in his first big-league period.

He played a big part on Hagman's goal just by forechecking. He forced Hill to hurry his pass out of the zone, which led to an Erik Cole turnover.

Samuelsson picked up the puck, waited for Horton to get onside, waited for Hagman to get behind the defense and then threaded a pass. Hagman glided in alone and slipped a shot underneath Weekes.

Later in the period, Horton, on the same shift he stripped Craig Adams, worked the puck behind the net, showed strength by getting free of Kevyn Adams and then skated in front of the net to get off a solid back-handed shot.

"I just wanted to go work hard, make some hits and not concentrate on how it was my first game," Horton said.

Michael Russo can be reached at mrusso@sun-sentinel.com.

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Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

____________________________________________
UUUUUUIIIIIIII
--------------------------------------------
Forum am 07.08.2002
Bei den Frankfurt Lions soll es in der nächsten Saison der Deutschen Eishockeyliga (DEL) wieder aufwärts gehen. \"Wir wollen endlich wieder mal einen Playoff-Platz erobern und unter die besten acht Teams kommen\", sagte Clubeigner Gerd Schröder.