RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Florida Panthers have a new coach and a new season, starting with Friday's 6-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Now they need a personality.

This team, bereft of glamour, needs a face fans can embrace.

Let's nominate David Booth.

Booth showed flashes of brilliance in the team's opener. He's got a sprinter's speed and a boxer's quick feet.

He plays with the kind of urgency that's been lacking in the Panthers' languorous starts the past few seasons.

Booth, a 23-year-old forward, gave Florida a 1-0 lead early with a gorgeous goal on which he juked and faked his way to the net like Dwyane Wade.

If the Panthers can score with the style and frequency they demonstrated against Carolina, they surely will end the franchise's seven-year absence from the playoffs. A timid offense has been their downfall.

Friday's game proved the exception, as neither defenders nor goaltender Tomas Vokoun were sharp.

THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT

But it was a gripping, entertaining game, just what Florida needs to win back the nonhardcore fans in Sunrise. The Panthers played at a faster tempo, as if their skates were turbo-charged. They looked light and free, ready for their Dancing With The Stars debut. Booth typified the aggressive style instituted by new coach Peter DeBoer by staying on top of the puck.

Under former coach Jacques Martin (now just the general manager) these players often seemed sluggish and treated the puck like a valuable gemstone sliding around on the ice -- an object to be admired, not attacked.

DeBoer, 40, has spent his career in the Ontario Hockey League, coaching junior players ages 16-20. He has been in Kitchener the past seven years. He should be able to relate better to the young Panthers.

''He lets us play, and the guys are excited,'' Booth said of DeBoer's philosophy. ``It's a fun style. We put a lot of pressure on them. We out-shot them.''

If the Panthers are to break out of their rut, they've got to develop an offense to complement their tough defense, led by Jay Bouwmeester and Vokoun. They traded all-time leading scorer Olli Jokinen to Phoenix. The spot is open.

Nathan Horton, playing at center for the first time since his junior years, doesn't have to fill it all by himself.

He tried, bringing the Panthers within a goal in the third period when he threaded his way to a perfect angle, dragged his stick, then bent his shot like Beckham.

But he doesn't have to be an Alex Ovechkin-type scoring machine if the Panthers can spread the burden with balanced scoring.

Here's where Booth comes in. He's got the guileless, direct countenance of a native Midwesterner, which he is, a Michigan kid who grew up playing roller hockey on the smooth concrete floor of the basement with his two brothers.

''We broke a lot of water heaters,'' he said.

He is the fastest skater on the team. Why? Because he has got the thighs of Eric Heiden or Lance Armstrong.

He's spent the past four summers working out in Detroit with power skater Jennifer Matris, a former figure skater who helps hockey players improve their stride and technique.

''We work on mechanics, do a lot of one-legged drills,'' Booth said through huffs and puffs on a stationary bike after the game. ``It's a grind, but it pays off now.''

Long-suffering Panthers fans can only hope. Saturday's game against Atlanta signals the start of the home season in which the paramount goal is to end the playoff drought that dates back to 2000, curiously spanning the tenure of George W. Bush's failed presidency. The raining rats of the Stanley Cup run? That was way back in 1996.

We're only one game into an 82-game slog, but maybe the Cats are copying the Dolphins, a team also seeking a return from irrelevance with a refreshing, creative change in offensive strategy.

It's time for the end of an era. The Panthers finished 11th in the East last season. They're picked to be as bad or worse in their 15th season under their 10th head coach. But with DeBoer energizing them, they could be as surprisingly potent as the Marlins were and the Dolphins are so far.

A YOUTH MOVEMENT

Booth will be so critical to their success, as will Cory Stillman, Richard Zednik and Stephen Weiss.

Booth had six game-winning goals last year. With a fast start this season, he can help end the Panthers' bad habit of digging a hole, then desperately scrambling for wins in March.

''He played awesome,'' Weiss said of Booth. ``He's got a powerful lower body. When I played junior hockey, his legs were the biggest I'd ever seen. With more games, he'll get smarter, find more holes.''

Booth, who grew up watching Red Wings Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan from his family's front row seats, misses the hockey culture of the Midwest, but believes the Panthers can be a sensation again in South Florida.

''There's so much potential if we start winning,'' he said.

On a rainy night in Raleigh, racing around the rink on tree-trunk-sized legs, Booth looked like part of the answer.

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