Right wing Pavel Bure endorsed Sutter's return after Saturday's season finale against the Rangers. Getting along with the superstar is paramount if a coach does not want to get voted off the island as head coach. I feel we made some progress. This was Sutter's first chance at being an NHL head coach. He was the head coach of Chicago's top minor-league affiliate in the early 1990s.
Leadership goes right to . . .
The assistant captains remaining on the Panthers are Rob Niedermayer, Bure and Robert Svehla. Defenseman Paul Laus is respected by other players both for the toughness he showed early in his career and how hard he has worked at becoming more than just an enforcer. Also in his favor is his history here, being an original Panther, and he is one of the players who sets the mood in the locker room. Laus actually seemed ambivalent about the possibility of being captain. Whoops, skipped over . . .