George Richards, FHN Publisher
Mackie Samoskevich had been looking forward to this Florida Panthers road trip.
He has never been to Finland, so, that’s cool.
Only he was really excited to get to New York.
The Panthers were going to play at Madison Square Garden, a place he had only been on the ice once before.
Samoskevich, who grew up about 80 miles away from New York City in Newtown, Conn., was on a mites team that got to play on the MSG ice during an intermission.
“I was playing goal,’’ Samoskevich said with a laugh. “Got lit up.’’
Thursday night, in front of a large gathering of friends and family, Samoskevich was able to skate out onto the ice at the ‘World’s Most Famous Arena’ for the first time as a big leaguer.
He wisely left the goaltending to Sergei Bobrovsky.
Saturday night, Samoskevich got a second game in the New York area — this one out on Long Island.
If his first NHL game at Madison Square Garden was memorable, well, he had something bigger in store against the Islanders.
In his 17th game with the Florida Panthers, Mackie Samoskevich got his first NHL goal.
It was a thing of beauty.
And it came with a busload of friends and family — including his parents Patty and Fred — who traveled down for the game.
That made a monumental moment in Samoskevich’s young career so much sweeter.
“It means the world,’’ Samoskevich said. “They sacrificed so much for me. You remember so much, have so many memories of them driving me to the rink and stuff, and it all leads up to this. It feels a lot better that they’re in the building. It was like I was saving it up for this.’’
That first NHL goal certainly was a long time in the making.
Samoskevich did not record a point in any of the seven games he played with the Panthers last year, and it took him until the 10th game of this season to get that elusive goal.
Although he had been close to scoring numerous times — he came into Saturday with 11 shots on goal — he had not put one home.
Saturday night, Spencer Knight — whom Samoskevich said he grew up playing against in their younger days in Connecticut — got the whole thing rolling by pushing the puck up to Dmitry Kulikov.
Samoskevich drove the puck all the way into the Islanders zone, showing that trademark speed which impressed the Florida Panthers so much they made him their first-round pick in 2021.
While holding onto the puck with Semyon Varlamov coming out to play it, Samoskevich swooped around the net and banged the puck in off of the goalie’s skate for the wraparound goal to make it a 3-3 game.
The Panthers ended up winning 6-3 — and Samoskevich was the talk of the postgame.
“It was incredible to see,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “I don’t think we will forget that one — one of the nicest first goals I’ve ever seen. Way nicer than mine. I’m very happy for him. He’s been so close and to see him put that one in with style was incredible. Talking with him, he had a lot of family, cousins and friends here, so that just makes it super special.”
Before the Panthers left for their trip, and not having scored his goal as of yet, Samoskevich talked about his first real season with the Panthers — one that really has not gone to plan.
Florida had planned on Samoskevich to play with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen on their third line.
Those plans were changed after two games when Sasha Barkov was hurt in Ottawa.
Samoskevich has been playing with a couple of his former Charlotte teammates from last year on a new-look fourth line.
After the game, he took a picture with Patrick Giles and Uvis Balinskis holding his special puck. He has also been playing with Evan Rodrigues and Jesper Boqvist.
This experience playing on a defensive-minded line out of necessity may end up helping Samoskevich in the long run with coach Paul Maurice stressing that he needs to get a real taste of how the Panthers play.
He has been getting that lately.
When the Panthers play tonight in Buffalo, it appears he will remain on the fourth line with Boqvist and A.J. Greer with Barkov likely to return.
Sam Reinhart appears to be returning to play with Barkov along with Rodrigues.
“I feel like it has been good and I have been having so much fun,’’ Samoskevich said. “Living the dream, right? The guys have been so good to me, love being around them. Funny guys. I enjoy coming to the rink every day.’’
ON DECK: GAME 11
FLORIDA PANTHERS AT BUFFALO SABRES