PEDERSEN: 10 Florida NHL Things, Volume XXIII

1 – #TIMETOREST: The National Hockey League is now on a two week “break” as it wages the first-ever Four Nations Faceoff featuring the best players from Canada, USA, Sweden and Finland in a tournament to be split between Montreal and Boston. However it’s anything but a rest for Florida’s NHL teams as the Stanley Cup champion Panthers have eight players competing amongst the four countries while the Lightning have five. Plus, Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper will serve head coach of Team Canada. Action begins Wednesday with Canada facing Sweden in Montreal.

2 – BREAKING IT DOWN: Florida’s Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett will skate on Canada’s entry, Matthew Tkachuk is on the top line for the Americans, Gustav Forsling is on the Swedish blueline, and the Fins have tapped Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Niko Mikkola and Eetu Luostarinen. Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point, Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli are on Team Canada, Jake Guentzel is part of Team USA and Victor Hedman will captain Sweden.

3 – ROLLING: Both the Cats and Bolts head into the break with a full head of steam. Florida pummeled Ottawa 5-1 in their final game on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena and at 34-20-3, sit in first place in the Atlantic Division. Tampa Bay has caught fire too, winners of four in a row including a 5-3 triumph at Montreal on Sunday, and at 31-20-4, sit third in the Atlantic Division.

4 – KOOOCH: Lightning star winger Nikita Kucherov notched three assists in Tampa Bay’s 6-3 victory at Detroit on Saturday, making him the franchise’s all-time assist leader with 610. Ironically, he surpassed teammate Victor Hedman who briefly set the franchise’s career assist mark in November, surpassing Martin St. Louis (588).

5 – THE GREAT 8: Russia will not compete in the Four Nations Faceoff and there’s never been a great explanation why other than the fact the country’s been held out of other worldwide hockey competitons, plus Olympics, since its invasion of Ukraine. However this two week break will give Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin the opportunity to rest up as he continues his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s career NHL goals record (894). Ovechkin is just 16 goals away from setting the record and with 26 snipes this season  giving him 879 on his career – he’s on pace to surpass The Great One sometime in April.

6 – AROUND THE NHL: The League has generated a lot of great hype in the New Year with its unveiling of each franchise’s All Quarter Century Teams (2000-2025) and we’ve detailed both Florida’s and Tampa Bay’s teams in this column over the past few weeks. However, personal gripe here, but it’s a travesty that the Utah Hockey Club named to its First Team six members of their current squad – their first in Salt Lake City since relocating from Arizona this summer – and completely ignored the franchise’s past as the Coyotes and, before that, the Winnipeg Jets. That’s some big time snubs of franchise greats like Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk, goalies Nikolai Khabibulin and Mike Smith and the greatest player of them all, Dale Hawerchuk. Karma may come into play here down the line.

7 – THE OVAL OFFICE: As is the custom, the Stanley Cup champions were honored at the White House by President Donald Trump last Monday. “This is really special because I watched those games,” President Trump stated. “I was a little bit worried – because Vinny’s a friend of mine – they’d lost three and that coulda been bad. But real champions pull it out. It was a tremendous championship watched by all.”

8 – #9 – The buzz in the press box at Amerant Bank Arena is always delicious and during a recent game, a grizzled hockey vet leaned over and quizzed, “Think the Panthers will sign Bennett?” Pesky Cats forward Sam Bennett has been referred to as “the soul of the team” by owner Vincent Viola but reported efforts to sign the pending unrestricted free agent have been fruitless. The 28-year old regularly appears in the Panthers’ top two lines and it would be very hard to picture Florida dealing him away prior to the March 7 NHL Trade Deadline. In fact, with the salary cap reportedly set to go up substantially next season, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the two sides reach a deal.

9 – SUNSHINE STARS: Florida’s NHL teams were represented in this week’s Three Stars, announced Monday. Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel was named #1 Star, leading all NHL’ers with four goals in four assists over the past week. Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko was awarded the #2 star after stopping 64 of 65 shots in two victories and recording a 0.46 Goals Against Average. Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk was named the #3 Star after notching four goals and three assists in three games. The 27-year old from St. Louis carries a six-game goal scoring streak into the break.

10 – RANKINGS: Now’s a good time to take the foot off the gas and examine the standings for our weekly rankings! The Top 5 in the NHL are: 1) Winnipeg, 2) Washington, 3) Edmonton, 4) Dallas and 5) Florida. The Bottom 5 are: 28) Anaheim, 29) Nashville, 30) Buffalo, 31) Chicago and 32) San Jose.

See you at the rink!

(Rod Pedersen covers the NHL for the South Florida Tribune. He also hosts the award-winning Cats N Bolts Podcast and the daily Rod Pedersen Show on Game+TV, YouTube Live & Podcast)