Florida Panthers Dress Down for Success During Winning Streak

SUNRISE — If you happened to be driving west on 595 Thursday and noticed a young man in a fancy ride wearing a blue bathrobe, it was probably just one of the Florida Panthers.

This being South Florida and all, really, who knows?

But, the odds are pretty good the guy behind the wheel in that terrycloth number was one of the Panthers heading to work.

For the third straight game, the Florida Panthers wore the custom bathrobes made for them to use during their trips to the sauna trips in Finland.

Of course, the first two games were in Finland and, the commute was much shorter.

After all, their hotel was attached to the arena, so, walking down a short hallway to their locker room adorned in just a robe was not as risky as doing so doing 80 down the highway from points east to the Amerant Bank Arena.

As Crash Davis told Annie Savoy in the classic Bull Durham, “a player on a streak has to respect the streak.”

So, if the Panthers have to keep wearing those blue bathrobes to games — whether they are in Tampere, Finland, or Sunrise, Florida — so be it.

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“You have to be, some kind of superstitious at some point, right?,” captain Sasha Barkov said after the Panthers won their sixth straight game on Thursday, this one a 6-2 victory over the Nashville Predators.

“I mean, as long as it keeps working for us, we’ll keep going with that. We’ll see later.’’

Barkov, apparently, sent out a text message to his teammates imploring them to wear the sauna robes for the third straight game.

The origins of these robes was not initially clear.

When the Panthers wore them last Friday before beating the Dallas Stars in Tampere, Barkov credited Matthew Tkachuk for the idea.

Coach Paul Maurice then said they were the brainchild of GM Bill Zito — only he said that goalie coach Robb Tallas’ wife Lucy came up with the idea of giving each player a blue, terrycloth robe with their number and the team’s palm tree/hockey stick logo embroidered onto them.

Regardless, the Panthers are 3-0 when arriving at their game rocking the bathrobe look.

So, it’ll probably continue.

Perhaps this is the next ‘Spacey In Space,’ sweatshirt phenomenon, only one which the team won’t have to pretend ever happened.

The Panthers, you may have heard, won the Stanley Cup last season.

After a 1-2 start to their season, Florida has been on a real heater.

The Panthers have not only won six straight, but nine of the past 11 — with at least a point in 10 of 11.

Thursday, the Panthers were back in Sunrise following a 5-0 roadtrip including the two wins over the Stars in Barkov’s hometown of Tampere.

If the Panthers had any ill effects from the long flight back from Finland, they did not show it against the struggling Stars.

Florida got two goals from Carter Verhaeghe, three assists from Barkov, and another blowout win.

The Panthers have outscored their opponents 30-14 during this six-game winning streak with the Flyers here on Saturday night.

Once again, although the Florida players have been coming to their place of work wearing the robes, coach Paul Maurice said he has no plans to do so.

“Nobody — nobody — needs to see that,” Maurice said. “These fine people pay too much money to be subjected to these nightmares.”

Maurice does seem to be a fan of what has turned into an organic ritual for his team.

“Those are the best, things that have nothing to do but anything from the players,’’ Maurice said.

“Those are the best things that happen. Good on ‘em. It took some courage to walk into an NHL rink in robes, and I think it got them to start on time.’’

ON DECK: GAME 15

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Saturday, 6 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/FTM)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Season Series — At Panthers: Saturday. At Flyers: Dec. 5, Jan. 13.
• Last Season: Flyers Won 2-1
• All-time Regular Season Series: Philadelphia leads 58-38-6, 7 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Tuesday vs. New Jersey Devils, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN+/Hulu)