George Richards, FHN Publisher
The shortest offseason in Florida Panthers history has alternately felt very long or it has gone by in the blink of an eye, depending on your outlook.
On one hand, many have been itching to get the new NHL season going not long after the Panthers celebration on Fort Lauderdale Beach came to its soggy close.
On the other, with all of the ongoing Stanley Cup parties which will continue, what would be the harm in pushing things back a bit?
Regardless, the NHL calendar runs on time and, alas, it is almost time to get back on the ice.
According to Evan Rodrigues, he and the rest of the Florida Panthers are ready to get after it once again.
Speaking before throwing out one of the ceremonial first pitches before Friday’s Marlins game, Rodrigues said the prevailing attitude among himself and his Florida teammates is that the offseason has been long enough.
It’s time to start playing hockey again.
We may not have leaves changing colors — or a change of seasons, really — but Home Depot is selling Halloween decor, and Wawa is selling pumpkin spice coffee.
So, it must be time for hockey.
Soon enough, anyway.
Players will officially report to training camp in nine days; the first on-ice practice will come on Sept. 19.
The Panthers are ready for it — whether they want to be or not.
“We are all ready to turn the page, get after it once again,’’ Rodrigues said on Friday. “We all have the same goal in mind; we all know what it takes. Now we have to have the drive to do it again — and I think everyone in that locker room has that. We want that feeling again.’’
Earlier this summer, Matthew Tkachuk said on The Jim Rome Show that he once felt that winning the Stanley Cup once in his career would be plenty good enough.
Since winning the Cup with the Florida Panthers, however, Tkachuk has changed his line of thinking.
When it comes to that silver mug, Tkachuk does not mind admitting he wants more of it.
“Throughout my whole career, I have said, ‘I just have to win one, and then you’re set’,’’ Tkachuk said.
“I talked about it with guys who had won it earlier in their careers, like, ‘you got one, you’re good. You’ve got it for the rest of your career.’ I could not have been more wrong with saying that.
“I am almost greedier, I want this feeling again.”
Rodrigues says he knows what Tkachuk means.
And he gets it.
“You go through your career, and you don’t win one,” Rodrigues said. “You are always chasing it, but you don’t really know what that feeling is. You think it is something you want, you go your whole life thinking, ‘oh, I want the Stanley Cup.’
“Then it gets there, and it is better than you ever could have imagined. You get goosebumps every time you see it … for me, it was nothing like I thought it would be. It is above and beyond. You want that feeling again. That’s the drive now. You want to go get it again.”
Things will not come easy to the Panthers this season.
Less than 24 hours after the Fort Lauderdale Beach celebration ended, and hours after the Panthers’ personal party finally broke up, free agency opened.
The Panthers were hit fairly hard.
Although Sam Reinhart was signed to an eight-year deal way under market value, and Dmitry Kulikov signed a four-year contract which should end his career right where it started, the Panthers lost some key pieces.
Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, two of Florida’s top defensemen, signed for big paydays elsewhere.
The Panthers lost most of its fourth/fifth line with Kevin Stenlund, Ryan Lomberg, Steven Lorentz, Nick Cousins, and Kyle Okposo moving on.
Vladimir Tarasenko, a great deadline acquisition, is now in Detroit.
Florida added pieces to replace them, but will they be able to?
Time will tell.
Last year, after losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Final, coach Paul Maurice vowed not to let up on his team when training camp started.
Toughness, he surmised, got the Panthers on the doorstep. It may just help them push through that door.
It certainly did not hurt.
The Panthers know what to expect when it comes to Maurice’s grueling early camp practices and, it sounds like, would not want it any other way.
“I know Mo is going to push us to get there,” Rodrigues said.