SFT: 10 NHL Things

Reprinted with permission from the South Florida Tribune:

1 – If you like goals, you’ll like this 2024 Florida Panthers preseason. Consider for a minute the Cats’ games from the past week: An 8-7 loss to Tampa Bay in Orlando on Wednesday, an 8-2 defeat in Carolina on Friday, and a 5-4 home overtime victory on Saturday over Carolina. And then of course there’s the exception to the rule, a 3-1 home loss to Tampa Bay on Monday evening; Florida’s first home loss of the exhibition schedule.

2 – The Cats’ gruelling preseason continues on Wednesday when they’ll visit the Tampa Bay Lightning before winding up their exhibition schedule on Saturday, October 5 versus the Los Angeles Kings in Quebec City. That last game is the second of a pair of games the Kings will host at the VideoTron Centre in Quebec’s Capital City. “I know how passionate Quebec City fans are about the game,” Kings president and Hockey Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille said. “We will be very proud to play here. Fans will be able to see our stars and watch young players compete for a spot in our 2024-25 line-up.”

3 – If you feel the Florida Panthers’ eight-game preseason is hefty, you’re not alone. Head coach Paul Maurice admitted they’ve kept an expanded roster throughout September because of the amount of games they’ll play. It’s odd and a little disjointed – for instance the Vancouver Canucks will only play six exhibition games this Fall – and the length of the preseason is something which will be discussed by the NHL lords in the months ahead. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told NHL Radio on Monday that teams are “all over the map” when it comes to how they’d like the preseason to look in the future.

4 – Perhaps the top story coming out of the NHL preseason is the high number of injuries veteran players have sustained in games. Montreal’s Patrik Laine, Toronto’s William Nylander, Florida’s Tomas Nosek and Edmonton’s Calvin Pickard have all been injured. It’s the tough balancing act coaches face this time of year; getting their star players into game-shape versus evaluating young players and prospects. They also want the games to be as entertaining as possible and for the most part, they have been.

5 – As far as Florida’s roster goes, it seems to be a given that the team will carry three goaltenders in the regular season. However, it also appears to be a question mark as to who will be #2 behind All Star and Vezina Trophy finalist Sergei Bobrovsky? It’s clear that the Panthers think highly of Spencer Knight – the “Next One” if you will – but he was torched for six goals on 20 shots in Friday’s lopsided loss at Carolina. On Monday versus Tampa Bay, Knight played the final 30 minutes after Bobrovsky, allowing one goal on 14 shots. The third goalie is Chris Driedger, no stranger to Cats fans, who played the entire game in Saturday’s OT victory over Carolina, stopping 27 of 31 shots.

6 – The Lightning dressed a veteran lineup on Monday at Amerant Bank Arena and served notice they’ll continue to be a force to be reckoned with, skating off with the 3-1 victory. Last year’s #1 powerplay in the NHL featured Sergei Kucherov, Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel, Victor Hedman and Cam Atkinson against the Panthers however they clearly missed trigger man Steven Stamkos as they went 0/4 on the man advantage. Incumbent #1 goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy got the night off as Jonas Johansson stopped 26 of 27 shots in getting the win.

7 – You can be in attendance when the Florida Panthers are awarded their 2024 Stanley Cup championship rings! The Panthers are inviting fans to join them at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday, October 7 at 6:30 pm. Tickets are just $20 with free parking.

8 – The Panthers TV crew has three broadcasts under their belt with Scripps Broadcasting after moving over from Bally Sports Florida this summer. Their maiden voyage was Friday’s 8-2 loss at Carolina and the highlight of the game truly was the broadcast! There were no visible kinks (even a few would’ve been understandable being it was their first game) and a cool new wrinkle was adding Ed Jovanovski as the third voice in a 3-man broadcast booth. Jovo’s commentary was seamless, and he worked smoothly alongside fellow analyst Randy Moller.

9 – The interview with the NHL’s Bill Daly on NHL Radio was a fruitful one on Monday. The topic of further NHL expansion has been bantied about in September with the League possibly growing to 34 or even 36 teams in the coming years (there are currently 32). The markets of Atlanta, Houston, Kansas City and even Quebec City have been mentioned and while Daly admitted there has been interest, “there currently is no active plan” for expansion.

10 – Hope you enjoyed it! There will be no NHL All Star Game in 2025, coming off the heels of a successful event in Toronto last year and wildly popular All-Star Festivities in South Florida in 2023. The week-long extravaganza across Sunrise, Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs back then really kickstarted Panthers Fever around here; a precursor to back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances by the Cats. My favorite event of them all was barely publicized, an NHL Alumni game at the Panthers Den featuring players like Patrick Marleau, Peter Worrell, Roberto Luongo and Darius Kaspairitis. However, taking the place of All Star Week this February will be the NHL’s Four Nations Faceoff featuring the best NHLers from the USA, Canada, Finland and Sweden February 12-20 in host cities Montreal and Boston. The Panthers and Lightning will be well-represented!

See you at the rink …

(Veteran hockey writer and broadcaster Rod Pedersen covers the NHL for the South Florida Tribune. He also hosts the award-winning weekly Cats N Bolts Podcast and the daily Rod Pedersen Show on Game+TV and WQEE Radio)