One hesitates to place much if any importance on the second game of an 82-game hockey season. In one sense it would be a little like trying to discern anything from the second lap of a Daytona 500, or foretelling a marriage by the taste of the wedding cake.

And yet Saturday night's 3-2 overtime victory by the Florida Panthers in their NHL home opener felt like it mattered when rising young star David Booth deposited the goal that brought on the big horn blast and the fans' sweet serenade: ``Booooooooooth!''

That made it two goals for the night and three in two games now for Booth, the second-year Panther not quite 24 yet and American-born (Detroit) as a small bonus for any jingoists out there.

The kid scored and sticks raised and fans stood and red jerseys spilled onto the ice and new coach Peter DeBoer accepted handshakes and back slaps for his first NHL victory -- and right then this victory felt important beyond its 1.2 percent sliver of the season. Right then this victory felt needed.

A FRAGILE STATE

That is how fragile this franchise is as it launches its 15th season.

That is how hungry a starved and by all accounts flagging fan base is to believe that this time, this year, things might finally be different.

The season had begun the night before with a 6-4 loss at Carolina, one in which the Panthers blew an early 2-0 lead and left immediate cracks in the notion that the team's defense was its most improved element.

Then the home opener started with two Cats in the penalty box within the first minute, and soon after a 1-0 Atlanta Thrashers lead. Later the Cats would squander a 2-1 advantage to increase the prospect of consecutive division losses to start the season.

That, for this team at this time, would have been Panthers management's nightmare, the worst possible scenario not involving a Zamboni machine running amok into a terrified crowd like an International Harvester cutting across a wheat field. Or an acceleration of global warming melting all the ice.

An 0-2 start, and you would have heard an early ''here we go again'' groan across the region. You would have wondered if the franchise was cursed, if Cats had become Cubs.

It probably is not a real good sign, given the nation's economic crisis, that the Panthers' arena in Sunrise is sponsored by, and named after, a bank. A loss Saturday, and I'd have double-checked the largely new roster making sure they hadn't signed a player named Dow Jones).

All the while thousands of empty seats for the home debut were the sad residue of Florida having last played a playoff game in 2000 -- the unfilled house proof that proof of a playoff team is required.

Booth's game-winning goal didn't bring that proof all at once, but it encouraged a bit of faith. That's enough for now. It made the whole night see merry. It made the whole infant season seem bright.

The club handed out cowbells to fans to kick-start a new ''Rock the Bells'' gimmick. I felt like I was at a Foghat concert at the Sportatorium in 1971, minus the dense fog of marijuana smoke. (From other people, not from me!)

In keeping with the cowbell theme, the Panthers debuted a new, second mascot, a big inflatable cow who bounced spastically onto the ice between the first and second periods. During this brief, inexplicable performance I thought I saw original mascot Stanley C. Panther off in the shadows, seething grimly.

(The best thing about the new cow mascot? On deadline, I was able to milk it for a paragraph!)

ROOTING SECTION

There is potentially a lot about this Panthers team to root for, like Richard Zednik, back from last season's near-fatal skate to the neck; a top goaltender in Tomas Vokoun; a big-time defender in Jay Bouwmeester; a rising star in Nathan Horton; the idea we might be unwrapping a future star named ''Booooooth;'' and the fresh air of a promising, young new coach.

But all of that will get lost, and be largely ignored, if the team isn't winning, and winning enough to still be playing deep into April.

Pretty-good winning will not be good enough. Slightly improved won't cut it. Great-effort-falls-short will offer zero solace. Been there, experienced that.

Eight years between playoff games is just short of forever. No excuses, no almost -- this needs to be a playoff team.

The bedlam and joy in the building Saturday night when David Booth's goal made the red light flash needs to feel not like some special occasion, but like the soundtrack of the season.

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