South Florida Tribune: 10 NHL Things
Reposted with permission from the South Florida Tribune:
By: Rod Pedersen
1 – TAKING IT OUTSIDE: If the rumors are true, we should be hearing an announcement this week, or next, from the National Hockey League regarding both the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning hosting the league’s first-ever outdoor games in the State of Florida next season. News initially broke last month at the NHL’s Board of Governors meetings when Sportsnet NHL Insider Elliott Friedman reported the Panthers are “closing in” on hosting an outdoor game during the 2025-26 campaign. Then, during the New Year’s Eve Winter Classic at Wrigley Field – won 6-2 by the St. Louis Blues over the Chicago Blackhawks – Commissioner Gary Bettman teased an announcement on the TNT broadcast. “It’s going to be a little unusual,” winked Bettman. “It’s going to be a little more unique. Some people think we’ve lost our minds, but we’re not ready to announce it. We will soon, and it’s going to be good.”
2 – FIRSTS: While an NHL outdoor game in Florida will be the first of its kind – and the Panthers are one of three teams to have never appeared in one – two members of the Panthers have some experience playing outside. At the 2019 NHL Heritage Classic at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan, Paul Maurice’s Winnipeg Jets defeated Matthew Tkachuk’s Calgary Flames 2-1 in overtime (pictured above). Tkachuk recently recalled that game, describing it as “freezing” and he’s not wrong. It was 28 degrees Fahrenheit and I can confirm, since I was among the 33,518 in attendance. Recent reports suggest next season’s South Florida outdoor game will be played at loanDepot Park, home of the MLB’s Marlins, while the Tampa Bay Lightning are said to be preparing to host a game as well, at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Buccaneers. So now … we wait.
3 – NHL VOTES: You can help famous Florida hockey fan Robert Veglia win this year’s NHL Most Valuable Fan Contest! Veglia – known as Panthers Muscle Fan – is a season ticket holder who can regularly be seen in a padded “muscle” suit at Cats home games. Having won the local contest as Panthers’ top fan, he now sits #2 in voting league-wide and the deadline is this week! Please vote here: https://web.witcontests.com/upperdeck/sweepstakes/vote/ultimate-mvp-241223
4 – PANTHERS WEEK THAT WAS: It’s been an up and down week for the Cats. Since our last column, Florida closed out a five-game homestand with a 3-1 loss to Carolina and a 3-2 shootout win over Pittsburgh. They’ve now headed out for a mini two-game western swing which opened Monday with a 3-1 loss at Colorado and will conclude Wednesday at Utah in the Panthers’ first-ever visit to Salt Lake City (the Utah Hockey Club relocated from Arizona over the summer, where they were known as the Coyotes since 1996). The Panthers are back home on Saturday against the Boston Bruins in a 1:00 pm faceoff at Amerant Bank Arena. At the time of this writing, the Panthers have a record of 24-15-2, good enough for second-place in the Atlantic Division, four points behind Toronto.
5 – THE RING IS THE THING: Only one member of the 2023-24 Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers has yet to get his championship ring; Utah forward Kevin Stenlund. During road trips this season, the Panthers have dropped off rings in-person to former players in Toronto (Oliver Ekman-Larson, Anthony Stolarz and Stephen Lorentz), Seattle (Brandon Montour and Josh Mahura) and Calgary (Ryan Lomberg). Panthers senior reporter Jameson Olive of FloridaPanthers.com tells me only one player remains, and that’s Stenlund, whom the Panthers will visit on Wednesday.
6 – LIGHTNING WEEK THAT WAS: Tampa Bay’s visit to California turned out to be a tour through Death Valley. As part of the club’s current four-game losing streak, the Bolts lost 2-1 at San Jose, 2-1 at Los Angeles and 4-1 at Anaheim. At the time of this writing the Lightning sit at 20-15-2 and hold down the first wildcard playoff spot, three points behind Boston and two up on Ottawa. The Bolts have home games this week against Carolina (Tuesday) and Boston (Thursday) before visiting the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.
7 – 25 YEARS WENT BY FAST!: At Friday’s home game against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Panthers celebrated “90s Night” and unveiled their All-Quarter Century Teams. The First Team consisted of: Roberto Luongo, Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Matthew Tkachuk. The Second Team was made up of Sergei Bobrovsky, Jay Bouwmeester, Robert Svehla, Pavel Bure, Olli Jokinen and Sam Reinhart. It’ll be interesting to see who the Tampa Bay Lightning announce!
8 – 700 CLUB: Panthers defenceman Nate Schmidt skated in his 700th career NHL game on Monday, a 3-1 loss at Colorado. The 33-year old product of St. Cloud, MN is a key part of a retooled Panthers blueline this season, and has skated with the Capitals, Golden Knights, Canucks and Jets over his career before signing in Sunrise this summer. This season in 39 games, the sturdy blueliner has notched three goals and eight points to go along with a minus-4 rating.
9 – TOP 5/BOTTOM FIVE: As most teams officially hit the midway point of the 2024-25 season this week, here are our weekly rankings of the top, and bottom, clubs in the NHL: 1) Vegas, 2) Winnipeg, 3) Minnesota, 4) Washington and 5) Los Angeles. At the bottom are: 28) NY Rangers 29) Buffalo, 30) San Jose, 31) Nashville, 32) Chicago
10 – STAR-GAZING: Minnesota centre Marco Rossi, Anaheim right-winger Troy Terry and Los Angeles goaltender Darcy Kuemper were named the NHL’s three stars of the week on Monday. Rossi had a league-leading eight points (three goals, five assists) in three games to power the Wild to a perfect week and lock up first-star honours. Terry had four goals and two assists as the Ducks won three of four games. Kuemper stopped 66 of the 67 shots he faced over two victories to help the Kings extend their winning streak to four games.
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)
