Florida Panthers
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.
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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
Okay George, so obviously the million dollar question, what do they do to get cap compliant once at Ekblad comes back? Just sitting down Kiersted and Mahora definitely won’t get us there. What are their options?
I am not good enough at math to know exactly how much to the penny the team is going to have to clear.
But, since we are only a month into the season, it appears to me — appears – that four players have to go to make room. The three obvious ones, without anything else happening between now and then, are Carlsson, Kiersted and Heponiemi. Don’t know what they do for No. 4. Trade, LTIR, we’ll see.
Yeah you’re right, I forgot Marora was on a one-way deal, he gets paid regardless, so he can’t go. Going to be interesting. As always George thanks for the info man, you’re the best.
Hey George, has Hepo put on any weight.