It's tough any time you don't make the playoffs, but with us missing it by just one point, it really left a bitter taste in all of our mouths. Coming into this year, we're all just anxious to get going.

I feel like we got a lot better throughout the preseason. We played pretty much our full lineup on Saturday against the Lightning, and even though we lost I thought that was definitely our best game so far. There are a few new guys in the lineup, but most of us have been playing together for a while now. We have a lot of chemistry built up and we're excited about the team we have.

The final game of the preseason was also the first for my son, Leonardo.

Leo was born on June 27, and my life hasn't been the same ever since. The second he was born it changed everything. Everything twisted, turned and went upside down. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me. In a way, he's also become my new role model because he makes me want to be a better role model for him.

He makes me want to be a better person at home and he makes me want to be a harder worker at the rink and a better hockey player for him to look up to when he watches me play. He's been a spark, I guess you could say. It was surreal when he was first born. I was so in love with this human that I had only just met. Then, over the next couple of weeks, it really started to hit me.

When he was born, I sent everybody in our team's group text a picture. Like I said, a lot of us have come up together in this organization together, so pretty much everyone is starting to have or think about kids now. We're all a part of building that next generation of Florida Panthers kids.

But, for myself, to see Leo in the stands was super cool. I'm excited to see him enjoy it and see his love for the game grow as he gets older. I honestly can't wait for when he really understands it and can interact with it a little bit more. It was hard for me not to look up at him in the stands.

Having Leo around will definitely make me appreciate being home more this season, but so will all of our fans. We all really feel like that we started to build something with this fanbase at the end of last year. We're building an identity for our team, and building a fanbase along with it.

After the All-Star break, it was really nice to see how many fans were coming out and the huge excitement they had for the push we were making for the playoffs. Even at the preseason finale on Saturday we had around 10,000 bodies in the stands, which was great. It makes all of us in the locker room excited to get the building rocking on Opening Night and beyond.

This is going to by my sixth season in South Florida, and as the years have gone on I've seen the fanbase grow. They've been following this core for a few years. They've been growing with us. Whenever we're winning games, we know there's going to be more fans. We know that's on us. If we prove that we're one of the best teams in the league, it's going to be a sold-out arena.

We want the fans to know that they have a lot to look forward to this season. We had a lot of great crowds during a lot of meaningful games at the end of last season. But this season, we want them all to be meaningful. There's a great team coming up right now. We're right there.

We're a young team, but a lot of our younger guys are our best players and leaders. Barky's our captain now, and three of our four alternates are under 26 years old. This is the young core of guys that have come up together. We're starting to take over this team. We're building an identity centered around the right way to play, the right way to do things. We've learned a lot and taken big steps over the last couple of years. The first game is still a few days away, but the anticipation is through the roof right now in this room. We all wish we could start tomorrow.

Honestly, I think we have the best team we've had yet.

-- Troch