Panthers, Lightning Media Day Highlights

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Paul Maurice spent his summer on a Canadian lake. Its location would be best described as in the middle of nowhere. He typically would have morning coffee with his wife, either on the dock or inside the screened-in porch depending on how bad the black flies were that day. Sometimes it lasted 30 minutes. Sometimes it lasted for hours.

And he loved the quiet.

“It was just peaceful,” he said.

Put simply, the coach of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers — who spent 30 years chasing hockey’s biggest prize — needed a break. A long break. He needed to get away from practices and game plans, microphones and recorders. So, he packed up the car not long after the Panthers’ championship parade (one where he stole the show with an emotional, sometimes profane speech) and made the three-day drive to Canada, seeking solitude and quiet and a place to reflect and unwind.

He’s back home now, rested and ready. His third season with the Panthers starts Thursday when training camp formally opens — with his eyes not looking back at what Florida just won, but instead looking forward at how the team can try to win the Cup again.

Meanwhile the Stanley Cup is still making its championship tour of South Florida. It was on a basketball court with the Miami Heat this week, is going somewhere else on Thursday and there’s a few more appearances to make after that. So, in some respects, the party that comes with winning the NHL title is still going strong.

That is, except at the Florida Panthers’ practice facility. The champs are back to work.

Florida opens training camp on Thursday and coach Paul Maurice is making this much clear: It’s time to start building for the next title run, not time to keep reveling in the title run that was completed in June.

“There are going to be, and rightfully so, some backward-looking things. We’ll deal with the banner raisings, ring ceremonies, all those good things you get to enjoy,” Maurice said Wednesday as the team gathered for its annual media day. “But we’ll be very sure that our day is completely focused on what we’re doing, not living in the past.”

Evidently, that message is already getting through.

Players have been back in South Florida for at least a couple weeks, for the most part. And Maurice said the returning Panthers all came back in better shape than they were at this time last season, as proven by the pre-camp conditioning tests. The real test comes Thursday with the first practices, and Maurice’s training-camp sessions are notoriously tough.

“The hangover concept, we won’t believe in it,” Maurice said. “It’s certainly not a physical issue with us. We’re stronger than we were last year at this time and that’s a credit to them because they certainly couldn’t have made improvements without spending the time to do it.”

Florida has its top eight scorers — Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Evan Rodrigues, Gustav Forsling and Anton Lundell — all back from last season. Verhaeghe and Reinhart had the goals in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final when Florida held off Edmonton 2-1 to win its first title and avoid what would have been an epic collapse after winning the first three games of that series, and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky returns to begin his sixth year as the Panthers’ go-to guy in net.

There are some roster spots up for grabs, but the core from the title run returns largely intact. And even though the Cup has now been won, capping a lifelong quest for Maurice and the players, there’s a slew of motivation to try to win it again.

“At the end of the day, I love what I do,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s a blessing for me to be here today and I’m excited for compete for the dream again. And yet, you know, it doesn’t really matter what happened in the past. I only care about the moment in my hands right now, and that’s this moment.”

Things will start happening quickly. Practices start Thursday and Florida plays its first two preseason games Sunday — the annual doubleheader against Nashville, where most if not all the 50 or so available players in camp will get some game action.

The Cup banner goes up on Oct. 8 when Florida plays host to Boston and opens the regular season. And with that, the 82-game grind will be off and running. But Maurice insists that he’s not skipping any steps, not even thinking about opening night yet or anything between now and then.

“I’m not ready for anything but Day 1. I don’t want to think about Day 2,” Maurice said. “You can’t win the Stanley Cup on September 19th, the first day of practice. But you can start the process giving yourself a chance. This will be what Day 1 on the ice is. You have to be respectful of exactly how hard it was and do the work and pay the price just to give yourself a chance.”

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk estimated that he tells a story about Johnny Gaudreau’s exploits, both the on-ice and off-ice variety, to somebody at least once a week.

And he’s not going to stop, either.

Tkachuk spoke Wednesday about the death of his longtime friend and former teammate, calling Gaudreau “the most offensively talented player I’ve ever seen.” Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, were killed on Aug. 29 when police said they were struck by a suspected drunken driver while they were riding bicycles on a rural road in New Jersey.

“It was such an honor to play with him,” Tkachuk said at Florida’s media day, the first formal event of the new season for the Panthers as they prepare to open defense of the Stanley Cup. “And you guys all saw what he did on the ice. I was the lucky one out of everybody in this room to have a great relationship with him off. So those are the memories I will take. But it’s been terrible. It really has.”

Gaudreau and Tkachuk were teammates in Calgary for six seasons. Tkachuk was traded to Florida in the summer of 2022, the offseason in which Gaudreau left the Flames to play for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Gaudreau and his younger brother were killed near their childhood home in South Jersey the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding. The driver who police say struck them is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle.

“It’s been terrible,” Tkachuk said. “It really has.”

The tributes for Gaudreau and his brother have been constant since their deaths and won’t end anytime soon. Tkachuk and the Panthers will be the opponent in Columbus on Oct. 15 when the Blue Jackets play their first regular-season home game since Gaudreau was killed, a game certain to be incredibly emotional.

“Johnny is one of my favorite teammates that I’ve ever played with. Such a great friend,” Tkachuk said. “It doesn’t matter if you knew them or played against them or even if you just have a sibling, everybody can relate to this. And it’s been terrible. I’m always going to carry something around where he’s always with me.”

Tkachuk was one of many in the hockey world who attended the services for the Gaudreau brothers earlier this month. He said he constantly has been thinking about Johnny Gaudreau’s wife, Meredith, their children who lost their father and the parents who lost their sons.

“I think everybody has an amazing job of telling stories and keeping him present, because that’s exactly what he would want is for us to smile about him and tell the fun stories about what a great player and teammate he was — and a better guy,” Tkachuk said. “My memory of him will go on forever.”

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning selected Victor Hedman as the team captain on Wednesday as training camp opened, making the big defenseman the successor to Steven Stamkos.

Hedman, who is going into his 16th season with Tampa Bay, was considered the obvious choice to get the “C” after the Lightning did not re-sign Stamkos and their longtime captain left to join Nashville.

“It means the world, obviously. For me to lead this team is a great honor. It’s a big privilege and a big responsibility, but I’ve learned from a lot of great leaders, (especially) my good friend ‘Stammer,’ who’s been my captain for the last 10-11 years,” Hedman said.

“I’m not going to change the way I am and the way I approach my game,” the 33-year-old from Sweden added. “There’s a lot more responsibility wearing that ‘C,’ but to do it for the team that I’ve played with for 15 years means the world to me.”

General manager Julien BriseBois called Hedman “a cornerstone player that is extremely well respected by his teammates, coaches and peers across the NHL.”

“Over the past 15 seasons, he has been a world-class representative for our organization both on and off the ice. Victor embodies what it means to be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning and is more than ready for this exciting opportunity,” the GM added. “We are looking forward to watching him flourish in his new role as we continue to work towards our goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”

Hedman was a key contributor in the Lightning hoisting the Cup back to back in 2020 and ’21, including playoff MVP honors on the first of those championship runs. Hedman also took home the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2018 and finished in the top three in voting five other seasons.

Ryan McDonagh, who was reacquired early in the offseason in a trade with the Predators, and MVP finalist Nikita Kucherov will serve as alternate captains with the Lightning moving on to the post-Stamkos era.

(Associated Press)