Cats: real people

Florida had just beat the New York Rangers to clinch home ice to start the NHL playoffs, so the team's Head Rat and Big Cheese decided to splurge.

``I went a little wild and got a BMW,'' he said, as if apologizing. ``But it was the small one!''

His wife OK'd the purchase on one condition. When the family returns to rural Canada for an off-season most experts figured would have begun already, the car stays behind.

See, MacLean isn't a BMW kind of guy. ``The folks back home wouldn't accept it,'' he said, not joking.

These Panthers are a lot like the man at the wheel: more blue-collar than blue-blood, despite appearances. They have moved now among the hockey elite -- they turned back Boston, and the bully-series with Philadelphia that continues up there today seems built for seven games -- yet the Panthers are where they are on hard shoulders and grit, not on the back of superstars.

You gotta love this team.

And South Florida does.

You can feel it.

It isn't the broad, entrenched fan base the Dolphins enjoy, but I swear the bond between the Cats and their rat-packin' fans creates a feeling and an atmosphere you just don't get with the Fish, Heat, Marlins or Canes.

I'll admit I've turned around on a couple of Panther matters.

Rats, for one. I used to think the rain of rubber rodents to mark a goal was silly. It is. But the fans and players love it. Thursday night, I even saw Wayne Huizenga's wife, Marti, toss one. I'm a rat convert.

I also must say the coaching change General Manager Bryan Murray made looks like genius now. I'd still argue Roger Neilsen did not deserve to be fired, but his replacement should be coach of the year, that's all.

Everything about this franchise feels right.

There are no whining millionaires here, no $8 autographs. The players are not a cottage industry for the local constables. The fans cannot complain about chronic underachievement or absence of effort. The fans can only cheer (and throw rats.).

Panthers players, after a particularly hard practice, do not tattle to their union about the mean ol' coach.

When the coach challenges egos by shuffling his lines a bit, the reaction is sacrifice, not complaint.

Any politically correct pro athlete preaches teamwork; these guys live it. They live the hand-drawn message in their Miami Arena dressing room: We know what to expect out of them, and we expect more out of ourselves!!!!

Look around, and notice you do not see Michael Irvin in a fur coat here. No Barry Bonds, shoving a reporter. No Louis Vuitton purses in the locker stalls. No one is missing practice to film a new Nike commercial.

There is a real-people quality about these Panthers. Brian Skrudland drives a VW. Stu Barnes dines out without being recognized. Bill Lindsay chances to meet Demi Moore and he's a starstruck kid.

There is toughness. Svehla looks like he just fought Mike Tyson, thanks to a skateblade to the face Thursday night. ``The referee picked up one of his teeth and brought it to the bench,'' MacLean said. Will Svehla play today? But of course!

There is a selflessness on this team that seems genuine. Gary Sheffield and Dan Marino and Alonzo Mourning can preach big-team-little-me, but you wonder if the national rep and the ego and all those zeros on the paycheck get in the way.

John Vanbiesbrouck talks team-first, and you believe. The guy could give seminars on humble. He works the single most demanding position in all of sports, playing bull's-eye at an archery meet, yet he deflects praise like he deflects pucks: nonstop.

Vanbiesbrouck is the Panthers' MVP, underlined by these playoffs. The guy is saving everything but Green Stamps and soap scraps. Favorable press clippings, he does not save.

Well past midnight after Game 4 here, some 300 fans waited to cheer players as they left the arena. The most popular Panther emerged to the familiar chant: ``Bee-zer!''

The same fans chanted ``Edd-ie, Edd-ie!'' whenever Jovanovski rammed Lindros into Plexiglas.

Now ask yourself. When was the last time you heard fans chant such exuberance for a player from any other of our teams. I don't recall hearing that even when Marino was breaking all those NFL records last fall.

Please appreciate this, John Spanos, as you negotiate for an ownership piece of the Panthers.

You are buying the hardest-working team in hockey.

You are getting, free of charge, the best sports fans in South Florida.