WPTV’s Mike Trim talks to Panthers radio host Doug Plagens

WPTV’s Mike Trim talks to Panthers radio host Doug Plagens

[Music] Heat up here. [Music] Oh, here we go. Cue the music. Panthers 360. We decided to get out of the studio today. We are here at Baptist Health Ice Flex. The Panthers just wrapped up practice here 12:15. We are on our WPTV News YouTube page live. Get your comments in. Very, very special guest joining me right next to me, Doug Pleans, the radio voice of your Florida Panthers. Doug, first of all, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for being here and thanks for having me on the show. Yeah, listen, and for those that aren’t familiar with the radio voice and how long you how long have you been with the Panthers and uh going on what season now? Year 11 for me here with the Panthers and my 18th year in professional hockey. Wow. So, you know a thing or two. That’s why we brought you on. Listen, so um you travel with the team, you’ve see them intimately, you see every game. You call every game. You do a great job with it. Um we’re 10, we’re at the 10 game mark right now. What are you seeing from the early early version of this form of the Panthers team even dealing with the injuries? Do you like what you see? What kind of tell the viewers what you’ve seen from the press box? Well, I do like what I’ve seen and 10 games in, this is enough of a sample size now that I think you can start to formulate some opinions. You can see some of how things might look longterm. And for this group coming in, even though there is so much continuity, and we can get to that in a moment, you knew it was going to look a little different because Alexander Barov had the unfortunate injury during training camp. You knew Matthew Kachchuck was going to be out and it’s a matter of time for him. Still wait and see there. Bill Zo in training camp said Decemberish hopefully for him. So, we’ll wait and see there. And then on that first road trip the Panthers had, they got the tough news that Demetri Kulicov was going to be out months. and Tomas Nok who was a big part of the Panthers on the Cup run last year. He’s out long term. So, you knew it was going to look a little bit different at least. Now, you look at the lineup the Panthers have these last handful of games. You and I talked about it off the air a little bit. 16 of the 18 skaters the Panthers had on the ice in their last game, and this has been the case for most games this season, played for the Panthers in the playoffs last year. So, yeah, there’s a lot of continuity with this team even with the injuries. And when you have that kind of continuity and you have a lot of players who are slotted properly for their styles of play, you don’t look at the Panthers depth chart or the or the lines and think that somebody’s miscast or somebody’s out of place. It’s still is a very good roster. So, a lot of credit goes to Bill Zto there for assembling a roster of this caliber and Paul Maurice getting everybody in places to succeed. That being said, you knew it was going to look a little bit different because Alexander Barov, Matthew Kachchuck, these aren’t just two of the Panthers best players. These are two of the best players in the league in the league on the planet. That’s 160 to 180 points, maybe more out of the lineup over the course of a whole season. Of course, you’re hoping that you can get Matthew Kachchuck back in Decemberish and Marov. We’ll wait and see as far as that goes. So, there’s a lot of points out of the lineup right now as far as the Panthers go. Offensively, you figured it might be a little bit different, but if that last game against Vegas is any indication, everything clicked against the biggest test the Panthers have had through the 10 games so far. Toughest team they played. I’m glad you bring up the Vegas and and and the game that we’re referencing because Bob had his first shut out of the year. In fact, in the clip provided by the Florida Panthers. Let’s hear what Sergey Babroski said after that win at home against Vegas. It’s definitely lots lots of games. You know, I again I thank thank God for the journey. I thank the uh players what I played with and coaches what I’ve been uh coached. So, it’s uh yeah, but I’m I’m excited about future. So, it’s it’s all in the past and I’m excited about next game. Uh, you know, he’s just very humble. Just on to the next one is Bob. Um, and you know, hopefully in the next upcoming games we we see Terasov maybe get his first win as a Panther as well. But, uh, so taking you off the ice for a second, you’re there at Ammer Bank Arena. You’re there on the road. Um, 11 years in, you’ve had two of the most famous, if not listen, I rank him as two of the most famous calls ever in Panthers radio history. You’re Stanley Cup champion. They’re raising it. Did it rank as the two best for you? And what did that feel like making those calls when they won it all the past two seasons? They have to rank at the top. They’re really in their own classification. You can’t really compare anything else to Stanley Cup clinching games. June 24th, 2024. June 17, 2025. The two biggest days in the history of the Florida Panthers franchise. But that’s what it’s all about. And we know working in this business, we’re not going to be the ones on the ice having any impact in who wins and loses a hockey game. But that being said, you work in media, you work in sport, you work in this business, in this industry because you want to get as close to those big moments as you possibly can. Whether it be a big team moment, a big individual moment that’s historic, whatever the case may be, you want to be around those big moments and those big games. And from our perspective, when those opportunities come up, you want to make sure that you do those moments and those games justice. You want to make sure that you present them in a way that the folks out there are going to enjoy that we can be proud of and we can leave at the end of it knowing that uh even though we didn’t have any impact in what happened there, we hope that we were able to present it in the best way possible because this is history. This is history that is taking place. Did you know what you wanted to say? Did you have something pre-planned like I’m going to say it like this or was it totally spurof the- moment? Cuz you have to get that call right. So I’ve never scripted anything like that. I’ve always gone I had some things going through my mind, but as as we saw in 2024, hockey games can end so many different ways. You could have a game like game seven in 2024 where it goes down to the wire and Edmonton’s pressuring and the Panthers are in their defensive end and until Gus Forsling got that puck held up against the boards, you didn’t really think you were out of the woods. You couldn’t you couldn’t declare it over with just yet. Yeah. Or you could have a game that ends in overtime and that ends instantaneously. Or you could have a game like game six this past year where I don’t know that in the moment we were willing to say it, but I knew in my head at the first intermission that party was over could have started at that point and especially by the time the final media timeout in the third period took place. You may as well just started lining up cars for the parade. It was over with at that point in time. So there are a lot of different ways that a hockey game can end. So you don’t want to have everything, I guess, too pre-programmed because you do, as you know, you have to be able to adapt on the fly. Things happen and especially in a sport as fast as hockey, you just have to be prepared for a little bit of everything. I want to ask you this. What do fans get from the radio broadcast versus a TV broadcast? So, I know we’re all one big happy family here and we we have the same goal of bringing the Panthers to the viewers and the fans out there, but what’s particular about a radio broadcast that’s much different from Do you have to be more descriptive? What is it? I think that is the first thing that that uh comes to mind is on the radio, the folks out there don’t have the luxury of being able to see what happens. you know, you can you can step a little far away from your TV screen, still out of the corner of your eye, have a kind of a glance on on what’s going on. But on the radio, uh if if I happen to just take 30 seconds off at some point, you could lose out on multiple possessions, a key play that could shape the hockey game. So, you’ve got to be uh like I said, you’ve got to be you’ve got to be paying extra attention, but it’s up to me to make sure that everybody out there has every bit of information that uh that you need as a game is unfolding and uh Bill Lindsay and I try to do that. Hopefully, everybody enjoys it. We try to do that every night. Yeah, we love down to the uniform and the stick and everything. Okay. Okay. Um so, we have a big road trip after this, you know, slight home stand here. There’s the West Coast road trip. Um, and I’ll ask you about what you what you kind of predict and what we’re going to see there, but do you have a certain game day routine? We want Panthers 360 fans and our YouTube viewers right now at home to know, you know, we talked to Steve Goldstein about his. We’re all different here. When is game day for you, do you have this ritual or is it something else? I wouldn’t say it’s ritual. I would say it’s almost more just routine because I do have a lot of items I have to check off that need to get done every game day. I come to morning skate. Afterward, there’s a media availability. That’s when we get our interviews done for the pregame show. I’m very hands-on and handle a lot of things, more so than maybe a lot of folks out there. But I’m the one that then goes home, cuts all that sound, I edit it, I email it to who’s going to be producing the game in the station that night, and then as it comes, I, you know, so it’s ready when I call for it. So, it’s all there. So, I do a lot of the editing. The game prep a lot of times starts the night before. If it’s a team like Tampa Bay or Toronto, a team that or Carolina, teams that we’ve seen, yes, if it’s a team like that, there might be a little bit less intensive preparation that needs to go into it. But for example, for a team at the time that we’re doing this, a team like tomorrow night, Anaheim comes in. That’s a team that we don’t see more than a couple of times a year. And they’re a team that’s been in transition in recent years. A lot of young guys. So there might be every lately every time you see the Anaheim Ducks, there might be a guy or two you haven’t seen play in person, maybe more. So you have to maybe do a little bit more preparation for a Western Conference team like that that has been in transition that might have some some new names in the mix. So the game prep usually starts the night before I get to the arena. I like to get there early, have everything set up because I just don’t like surprises. I don’t like that. I don’t like any surprise. I like to make sure that we get there, it’s all ready to go. I can eat something, throw the headset on when it’s time to go on the air and and we’re all good. Oh, you got to love it. Well, you know, getting out to the West Coast, we are um coming up on that road swing. You have been part of those over the years. What is it about the West Coast? You try to hit as many teams as possible. I know we’re going to have the Ducks again, the Kings. Um measuring up against them, maybe you only see them on the road once a year. I mean, what is that like? What can we expect from this team after a you know, let’s just call it a it was I don’t want to say a tough a challenging you know fivegame road trip on the eastern seabboard here but when it comes to west coast what what’s the difference there? I’m going to go to In-N-Out Burger a few times. Okay. I’d say at least twice on this trip to California and Vegas. So yeah, I probably will will manage to get some In-N-Out Burger at some point. But taking it on to the ice, uh the Pan this Panthers team, it’s such a veteran group. Almost better on the road sometimes. They have seen so much. There’s nothing this group hasn’t seen going back to these three straight trips to the Stanley Cup final. These guys know how to navigate the schedule. They know how to keep themselves fresh. So maybe that 3,000mi jaunt across and then going up and down California and it going through that I it may not affect the Panthers the way that it might affect a lot of teams. These guys are, like I said, there’s nothing they have not seen. Now there’s so much competitive balance in the league right now. Mhm. I think that’s the biggest thing. Anaheim and San Jose, two teams in transition, but they can get you on any given night if you’re not careful. Anaheim looks like a team that might be ready to make a step forward and and compete for a playoff spot in the in the Western Conference. San Jose maybe a little bit further down in their rebuild, but they certainly have some pieces and they have uh you know, Mlin Celabbrini as far as non-Panthers out there. That’s a guy I’m a huge fan of. I think they really have a franchise cornerstone type of guy there. So, things are heading in the right direction. San Jose, if you’re not careful with them, they can get you. LA’s always tough and it’s always a tough place to go and they play a structured defensive brand of hockey. They uh they have been tough on the Panthers at times. They’ve played some close games in recent years. So, there’s that. And then, of course, Vegas since they’ve come into the league has been a difficult building to go into for everybody. So, we still owe them after that Stanley Cup loss. That’s it’s always been a tough place to go. This is, like I said, this is really just emblematic of the league. Uh there are there are no walks in the park anymore in the National Hockey League, especially early in the season like we are right now when you have the best players all over the world. Before I get you out of here, Doug, you’re taking time out of your day. We appreciate that. Um so 10ame mark, uh this will play and and get your comments and questions in by the way on WPTV News YouTube page. We’ll get them answered either now or afterward. But 10ame mark, uh 20ame mark, you’ve done this enough. When do you really start to see, okay, this is the version of the team I think we’re going to see for the long haul next couple of months. Is is there a game mark for you? Is there a month? What do you Because it’s so early in the season right now. So, I think for a couple of different reasons, right around Thanksgiving. Yeah. And in November. Mhm. At that point in time, you might be, you know, might be right uh just over 20 games maybe at that point, give or take. Uh you’re looking at that quarter of the season mark that’s in the books. Usually by then it’s when the when the conversations shifts from so and so is having a good start to the season. Yep. Or a tough start to the season. It shifts to they’re just having a good season at that point when you can start changing your your phrasiology at that point. And at that point you usually see what teams are all about. You usually have a good idea of what kind of game teams are trying to play every single night. How teams look when they’re playing their best. You’ve been able to see the trends by that point in time. Plus, there’s the the old stat. I think it’s it’s around threequarters of the time teams that are in the playoff picture on that day when they wake up on Thanksgiving, teams that are in the playoff mix that day, threequarters of the time make the playoffs. Now, the Panthers, I believe, back in the the first year they went to the final, the year they lost to Vegas, they they were the exception to that. Uh they were on the outside looking in that year, wound up obviously getting into the playoffs, had a great second half of the year, went to the cup final, and clearly things have been just fine since. I do think that a lot more can change nowadays maybe than in previous years. I mean there’s so much as we said competitive balance. I think at that point you’re going to have most the league still believing they are a playoff contender whether they’re in the mix or out on that day. I just think things are going to be really compact standingswise this year. So I don’t know that from a percentage standpoint that’s going to hold maybe as much as it has in in years past. But I still think that’s a time of the year when you start to get past the you get past that feeling of the season just started. You’re into the meat of the season and you can look at trends, look at players, and you can kind of make uh make assessments at that point. Well, it’s good to know. It’s good to have a measuring stick and uh you know, anything can still happen afterward or before. This is Doug Pleggin. This is the radio voice of the Florida Panthers. We are so glad you joined us on our WPTV News YouTube page. You can join us. comments, questions, anything you have for Doug. We’ll try to get it answered, you know, a little after this. But, uh, you’ve got a whole week to get ready for. We got a home stand and then a long road trip. Yep. Second, how about that? The first road trip was about a week and a half long. Yep. Panthers wasted no time knocking off road games in in big chunks. So, we’re going to do it again out west. You got that right. We’re looking forward to hearing you on the radio. And listen, Panthers fans at home, let’s go Panthers 360 again. 12:15 every Monday. We’re doing these Doug Flegin this week. Who knows it will be next week. We thank you so much for joining us. We’ll see you later. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

WPTV’s Mike Trim and Panthers radio play-by-play announcer Doug Plagens talk about the latest news with the team. Post your questions below! Also, watch “Panthers 360” airing on South Florida’s 9 each Wednesday night through the hockey season.