George Richards, FHN Publisher
The timeframe for the FHN Florida Panthers Mailbag was a little shorter this time around what with Christmas and such.
But what a response!
There is a lot going on with the Panthers right now, and there are quite a few questions surrounding them.
We had more than a couple of questions about the injury situation — including whether Matthew Tkachuk could be in the lineup a week from now when the Panthers play host to the Rangers at the Miami Winter Classic.
Lot of good stuff. Thanks for the entries.
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and you are enjoying your holiday season.
Hockey is back on Saturday.
But first, on to the latest edition of the FHN Florida Panthers Mailbag:
Did anyone really know that Marchand was THIS good before we got him? Is this the year the league finally acknowledges Maurice and gives him the Jack Adams? — Cats and Oilers
They knew he was good, his entire body of work in the NHL has shown that.
But this?
No. I do not think anyone with the Panthers expected 20 goals before the midway point of the season.
Remember, last season he was banged up quite a bit to the point Boston — a team he grew up with and captained — apparently did not think he was worthy of a long-term deal.
Perhaps the Panthers did not either going into the thing. We know what happened during the playoffs and the Panthers gave him the six-year contract.
Marchand has certainly rewarded that kind of commitment thus far.
The Panthers knew his value to this team. But what a season he has had.
As for Paul Maurice, I don’t see a Jack Adams coming any time soon. The Panthers, even with all of their injuries, are still the two-time defending champs. Jon Cooper has never won it and I think he is OK with that. The Jack Adams usually goes to a coach who helps turn around a team or absolutely dominates a season.
George it’s Christmas Day and me and my family are about to drive down to sunny S Florida to watch the Winter Classic game next week. Will Tkachuk be playing in that game you think? Also any idea on when the Panthers might be practicing on the outdoor sheet as if so will fans be able to watch? Any help with date and times would be helpful. — Rat King
Rat it’s Christmas Night and I am going to give you my best guess for Tkachuk playing in a week: Maybe?
I am still leaning toward no since he has not even begun practice; he said on his podcast the other day that he needs to get hit in a practice, and that is certainly true.
But when will that be? The Panthers will not have a practice day until Sunday (maybe) with games on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is off, Thursday is the skate around at the ballpark — which is closed to the public as far as I can tell. Friday is the game.
There is very little time for this to all come together but stranger things have happened. I just think they are running out of time to try and get him into a game that, despite the cool backdrop, is just 1 of 82.
I have learned over the years to never say never and, if the Panthers like the way he looks next week, perhaps they put him in against Washington or Montreal. I think he would have to play in one of those to play on Friday.
Merry Christmas, George. Any chance the league will switch to the 3-2-1 point system and what’s your opinion on it? Thanks. — The XRayDave
Merry Christmas, XRay. I know a lot of people would love to see the 3 (for regulation wins), 2 (OT/SO wins), 1 (OT/SO loss) be put in place to sort of separate teams and really reward teams for winning in regulation.
And that’s why I don’t see the NHL doing it.
They love the parity of having all the teams locked together. It makes for a lot of excitement for a lot of teams and a lot of markets.
There isn’t a team in the Eastern Conference that is out of it right now. Only a couple seem washed in the west.
Happy Holidays, G-Man! This isn’t a question as much as a crazy idea my wife and I had the other night during the Panthers’ OT-shootout comeback against Carolina.
Remember how, years ago, the NHL was trying to figure out what to do with overtime before it settled on 3-on-3 followed by a shootout if necessary? Our idea was, what if overtime were 5-on-5 with TWO pucks on the ice? It would be chaotic, messy, speedier and, we think, completely unpredictable and exciting.
Maybe there’s a question here after all: Have you ever heard of anything like this being done? — Harry
Happy Holidays, Har!
Two pucks? That would be exciting. But I wouldn’t bet on it ever being tried except maybe in a practice.
One reason why many do not like the shootout is they do not consider that hockey but a skills competition. Playing with two pucks would be more of the same. It would be anarchy!
But I kind of like it.
George, Merry Christmas! What is the gift you would give to the NHL? — Ed
Ed, Merry Christmas! I do not know that the NHL wants anything from me.
Perhaps some killer TV ratings for the Winter Classic. They would gladly accept those.
George – Barkov status? I assume if he is healthy, he comes back for playoffs. If he isn’t, they have to have a deadline in which they end his season. If they do, who do you see us going after? Mulkin? How does a move like that affect us for the coming years? — Kevin
Kevin – Bill Zito said the other day that the timeline for Barkov has not changed from the original 7-9 months.
Again, he had surgery on both his MCL and ACL; this is not a pain tolerance issue but a structural one on his knee. They have to be extremely careful with this. He may feel great and be doing more than they thought he would be, but that still may only be the difference of a week or two.
I know it is killing Sasha that he cannot play and he is working out, literally, day and night to get back. I feel confident in saying he will be better than even when he returns in some aspects of his game but the knee is going to take some time especially in the heavy style that he plays.
As far as a deadline goes for putting him on full LTIR and foregoing the rest of the season (including the playoffs) would be after the Olympics. Or, before the Olympics if they are looking to make a trade.
By leaving Barkov on regular LTIR, they save about $4 million on the salary cap; if they go full LTIR, they get relief of his $10 million salary.
The Panthers will have very little cap space when Tkachuk returns and will be over when/if Barkov is activated. So, I would expect them to make the decision in the coming weeks and months. We’re almost in January now.
Hi George, when everyone is back we’re clearly going to be over the cap. What’s the plan when that happens? What are you hearing? Thanks, and Merry Christmas! — Florida Johnny
Hi Johnny, good timing. Yes, the Panthers are in a salary cap pickle. They knew that going into the season but Barkov getting hurt in training camp allowed them to stay afloat cap-wise and add players to the roster.
Aside from Tkachuk and Barkov, the players who are out right now all make near the minimum. The team is going to have to make some decisions if players come back and the rest of the team stays healthy. Like, what happens when Dmitry Kulikov comes back after the Olympics? They will have to drop one of their defensemen. There just is not room.
Right now, the team has the makings of the plan, but nothing is in concrete simply because they do not know what can happen on a daily basis. More injuries could be coming. Or, not. They will deal with the cap when they have to. Tough decisions appear to be coming, decisions they almost had to make before the season started.
Hello wanted to know approximately dates of when injured players might come back? Kuli, Gadjo, Nosek and Barky — Ricky
Barkov is not expected back for the remainder of the regular season and I do not know if they are planning for him to play in the postseason or not. Kulikov and Gadjovich should be back after the Olympics sometime; Nosek I have not heard much about. He had knee surgery too and could be out until at least the end of the regular season.
Looks like a pretty tough January schedule…how do you think the Panthers will do? — Arthur
You aren’t kidding. The Panthers play the first two games of January at home (well, one is at Marlins Park) before going on a six-game road trip to Canada and other stops including Raleigh and Washington.
The entire month has just five home games — with one of them in a ballpark in Miami.
It’s not going to be easy. Of the 15 games, 10 are against teams that made the playoffs last year.
January could make or break the Panthers. They have handled December pretty well thus far.
We’ll see.
George…first appreciation for all your hard work! Thanks! Now ..Tomas Nosek, what actually was his injury and do you know if he comes back this season? — Phil
Any word on Tomas Nosek’s return timeframe? Haven’t really heard anything about him since training camp opened. — @ATwiss99
Phil…thank you very much! As for Nosek, I have not asked Maurice for an update on him in quite a while. Apologies. I will ask on Saturday and update this answer. So come back, eh! Of course, you may see it on Twitter first. But I will update here, too.
UPDATE: Maurice said Sunday that Nosek’s timeline is along the lines of Barkov. So, he may be done for the year.
Question if the temps are below 60 as expected next week will they open the roof earlier? – @1panthers
I think that even in the 60s, that is still not cold enough.
They talked a lot the other day about keeping the building ‘at temperature’ as long as possible, and that AC dissipates when the roof opens up but the lower temperatures (for us) and the lower humidity (for us) is certainly going to help. I don’t see it opening during the day because, you know, the sun. That will not help the ice.
Even opening the roof briefly would affect the temperature inside the park — it is quite spacious and gets warm fast.
Whatever happened to Doug Cifu? I know he was suspended, but it’s been over a year. Did he sell his part of the team? Is he back and keeping quiet? — @HardleyKurt
As you may recall, the NHL suspended him during the playoffs and we did not see him around for any of the games or on the ice after they won it. And, his name was left off the Stanley Cup this time around.
Doug retired from being the CEO of Virtu Financial in July with the company saying he would remain an advisor to Vinnie Viola.
He and Vinnie have been friends for years; I do not know whether Doug still has ownership in the team but he is no longer listed as part of it. Cifu has a place down here and may just be chilling with a low profile.
What’s the best Christmas gift you ever received? — @MrEd315
Pretty good question. Been a lot of nice things over the year but I don’t think anything ever beats getting a go kart when I was a little kid living in Miami back in the day. That was the coolest gift ever. We drove the tires off of that thing.
The defence in our own Zone is erratic. Clearing the puck has been more of a problem than in recent years. I think its more than just Kulikov being out. Is it missing Barkov on the first line against their first line that is causing this or is there a decline in our defence? Also my sense is that Forsling is not shooting as much from the point. — Paul P
Not having the defensive play of Barkov certainly has not helped although Anton Lundell has done a real nice job filling that role. Of course, that leaves someone else to replace Lundell.
I do not think there is much of a decline in the defense; Is it as strong as it was in the playoffs? No. But I think it is on par to what we saw during the regular season last year.
Niko Mikkola and Seth Jones have been terrific as a second pair; Aaron Ekblad and Gus Forsling may not be as dominant this season but I think that goes to some pretty tough puck luck on Forsling’s behalf. The third pairing has been a work in progress but we have seen decent play for good chunks of the season.
If Die Hard and Rocky IV are both Christmas movies, why is Rocky IV the better one? — Rachel
OK, I agree that Die Hard is a Christmas movie — the soundtrack alone makes it so, although why is Notre Dame playing USC on Christmas Eve?
I guess since Rocky battles Drago in Moscow on Christmas night makes that a Christmas movie as well although it isn’t very Christmasy (is that a word?)
Based on the premise that both are Christmas movies I still maintain that Die Hard is the better of the two. Yippee Ki Yay.