Despite Storm, Florida Panthers Game vs. Hurricanes Appears On

Although Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to develop into a hurricane and potentially make landfall on the east coast of Florida, the Florida Panthers are “moving forward” with their game against Carolina scheduled for Wednesday night.

Per FlightAware.com, the Hurricanes’ charter flight left Raleigh after 5 p.m. on Tuesday and landed at 6:43.

The flight was originally scheduled to leave around 2 p.m. but the league delayed the team’s takeoff to continue monitoring the storm.

Broward County, where the team’s FLA Live Arena is located, has been under a Hurricane Watch since Monday and Broward Schools announced they would close on Wednesday.

As far as the storm goes, Broward and Miami-Dade counties are out of the cone of concern although coastal Palm Beach County is under a Hurricane Warning.

Broward County is under a flood watch due to the storm.

For Daily Coverage of the Florida Panthers All Year Long, Get a Subscription to Florida Hockey Now!

According to the Miami Herald, Nicole could bring heavy rain, dangerous storm surge and strong winds to the east coast of Florida.

Forecast models show the storm crossing over the Bahamas and west toward Florida with potential landfall sometime Wednesday night or early Thursday.

If the game is played as scheduled, Matthew Tkachuk will wrap up his two-game suspension and return to the lineup Saturday against Edmonton.

The Panthers may get Aaron Ekblad back Saturday as well with coach Paul Maurice saying the team is targeting that date for his return.

Update: We are moving forward with tomorrow’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes as scheduled with doors set to open at 6pm.

Please stay tuned to our social channels for any further updates.

— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) November 8, 2022

Ekblad missed his 10th game since going on LTIR on Sunday against Anaheim; he will hit the 24 day mark later this week.

He practiced with the team on Tuesday.

PANTHERS ON DECK

CAROLINA HURRICANES AT FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
• Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida; ESPN+
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• Last season: Florida won 3-0
  
• All-time regular season series: Carolina leads 69-45-10, 11 ties