PANTHERS NICK COUSINS: “I WANT TO WIN A STANLEY CUP”
By: Braedyn Wozniak, RP Show Intern
The NHL regular season is upon us, and last year’s Presidents Trophy winning Florida Panthers are looking for similar success with a different looking team.
Newly acquired forward Nick Cousins believes this Panthers team can win more than just the regular season.
“I want to win a Stanley Cup,” said the Belleville, ON product on the Rod Pedersen Show. “I feel like these guys fit the bill for that.”
Florida certainly has Stanley Cup aspirations. Last season, the Cats finished with 58 wins and 122 points before getting swept at the hands of the eventual Eastern Conference Champion and South Florida rival Tampa Bay Lightning.
Cousins pointed to the Lightning as a model for the Panthers, as Tampa Bay won the Presidents Trophy in 2019, but was swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round before winning back-to-back Stanley Cups.
“I think this team can kind of follow that path,” said the 29-year old veteran of 444 NHL games with Arizona, Montreal, Nashville, Philadelphia and Vegas. “Coming in, being a new guy, it looks like there’s that hunger and that drive, that these guys want to win.”
The state of Florida has become treated to some fantastic hockey in recent years, and has notably grown. Cousins said it was clear the fans were excellent, and part of the reason he signed with Florida.
“It’s a sneaky-good hockey town,” he said. “It’s just a different buzz when we got to playoffs. I think this town can get there … I’m just excited to be a part of it.”
Seeing their Florida Rival just over 3 hours down the road has brought a sense of urgency to the historically less-fortunate Panthers.
“When you put a winning team on the ice, it’s going to make fans come out,” said Cousins. “Talking with the guy’s last year, they said the crowd was into it in the playoffs.”
Panthers management made changes this off-season in an attempt to improve their post-season success, trading leading scorer Jonathan Huberdeau and top-pairing defenceman Mackenzie Weegar to the Flames for Matthew Tkachuk.
Managing the salary cap while icing a contending team is no easy task, and it led to departures of forwards Mason Marchment, Claude Giroux and Noel Acciari, as well defenceman Ben Chiarot, Markus Nutivaara and Robert Hagg.
Also joining Pedersen Tuesday was former NHLer and current Panther’s broadcaster Randy Moller, who felt changes were necessary to take the next step.
“You haven’t been able to get past Tampa Bay for two straight years. Something’s got to change,” Moller offered. “You take a chance, you’ve got to change the make-up of the team.”
Moller said about 13 players from last season’s playoff roster are gone to begin this year.
To fill the gaps, the team brought in defenceman Marc Staal and Micheal Del Zotto along with forwards Chris Tierney, Colin White, Rudolfs Balcers and Cousins.
Not to mention the addition of bench boss Paul Maurice, their third acting head coach in the past two years since Joel Quenneville stepped down.
Cousins says the team is adapting well to the coaching change.
“Every day, every practice guys are kind of getting a little more comfortable with where he wants us on the ice and what he’s expecting from us,” he said.
“It might take a few games to get it down, but I think once we get rolling here and we start playing every other day like the schedule sets up for us, it’ll be a little bit less thinking and more so just reading and reacting.”
The new guys are joining a strong remaining core that includes Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Aaron Ekblad, Sergei Bobrovsky, which Cousins and Moller are excited to see the puzzle pieces come together.
“I’m excited (to see) how they’re going to gel,” said Moller. “And although they’ve made the changes, they still have the core.”
Hopefully it doesn’t take too long for the Panthers to get rolling, because Cousins stressed the importance of having a good start to the season.
“You can’t get behind in this league, it’s too hard,” he said. “Especially when the schedule gets into March and April, and then when you’re playing 14-15 games a month, it really is tough to play catch up.”
Florida kicks off their season Oct. 13 against the New York Islanders at 7:30 EST.
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV and WQEE 99.1 FM Metro Atlanta. Call you cable provider to subscribe. You can also watch on YouTube Live or listen 24/7 at RodPedersen.com/ListenLive)
