Florida Panthers Know They Are the Hunted This Season

It’s simpler to be the hunters than the Hunted. The Florida Panthers’ motto this season remains to be #timetohunt, nonetheless, different groups will attempt to get their spots because the defending Stanley Cup Champions attempt to go back-to-back.

Are the Florida Panthers the Team to Beat This Season?

It isn’t going to be simple for the Florida Panthers, both. Florida misplaced a number of key gamers on its backend this season, together with Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brandon Montour. On offense, they misplaced Steven Lorentz, Kevin Stenlund, Ryan Lomberg, and Anthony Stolarz between the pipes.

Basic Supervisor Invoice Zito stored Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell on extensions to stay with the Panthers core of Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, and Sergei Bobrovsky. On evening one of many common season, Carter Verhaeghe obtained his new extension.

Even with this summer season’s additions and the season’s expectations, head coach Paul Maurice is aware of different groups will deliver their finest each evening, particularly given the Panthers’ laborious model.

So we’ve obtained, I might say, 5 groups in our division that we confronted within the playoffs during the last two years, and it’s on when the Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins get collectively, Maurice mentioned. Prefer it’s as laborious a sport as I’ve ever been behind the bench for. So now we’ve obtained 5 – 6 of these groups, however that additionally leaves three or 4 groups in our division that groups will get wired up virtually final 12 months for our model of sport. It’s going to be bodily, it’s going to be quick, after which now, I don’t assume anyone ever took us frivolously, not that we’re that good, however we do play fairly laborious.

We already noticed by means of groups that the Bruins and Panthers had been in a bodily sport. However as Maurice explains, there’s a historical past there, particularly the final two years within the playoffs. Then, in Ottawa, the Senators had been amped up of their house opener to play the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

Will the Florida Panthers Remain Competitive Enough to Repeat?

That’s going to be each evening, too, and the Florida Panthers must be up for the problem. This season, this membership has a unique mindset, being the defending Stanley Cup Champions as a substitute of attempting to win the last word prize.

Now we have seen totally different coaches attempt totally different methods. Most famously, Invoice Belichick took down the previous glory from the hallways after the New England Patriots received the Tremendous Bowl. Nonetheless, Paul Maurice took a unique method with the Florida Panthers.

We speak about it, we speak about it by means of day one, and we speak loads concerning the adversity that we’ll face that’s mandatory. And I believe that that’s poignant to our gamers during the last two years, Maurice mentioned. Any time, we had been in hassle, we had been eight or 9 factors out in January, and we had a extremely robust schedule in January wasn’t trying good, however the classes of adversity and the acceptance of adversity, that it’s so laborious to win a Cup, to make the playoffs on this league, it’s a problem, so that you just sort of settle for it earlier than it occurs, settle for how laborious it’s going to be earlier than it occurs. So if you get on the market and it’s laborious. It doesn’t shock you.

Properly, the Panthers will probably be coping with some adversity early on within the season, with Aleksander Barkov out of the lineup after struggling an harm in Florida’s second sport late within the third interval. Barkov suffered a lower-body harm and couldn’t get off the ice alone. Fortunately, he’ll solely be out for 2 to a few weeks..

Who is the Biggest Threat to Florida Panthers in the East?

The Panthers will lean on the adversity and classes realized from coping with essential gamers’ accidents. Bear in mind final 12 months, Brandon Montour (now in Seattle), Aaron Ekblad, and Mathew Tkachuk all handled accidents coming into the season. They lastly obtained wholesome and located their sport.

However Maurice is aware of that he has to maintain his workforce on stage floor and never let their egos get too large, particularly after successful the Stanley Cup.

The problem is to not really feel particular due to what you probably did, that someway it will get barely simpler, as a result of it received’t, not even the littlest quantity, Maurice mentioned. So so long as you settle for that when it will get laborious on the market, and we’re down to 1 in the midst of the sport, it’s not the top of the world. That’s precisely the place we in all probability had been final 12 months at the moment, we figured a solution to grind one out.

Don’t anticipate the Florida Panthers to take an evening off; in the event that they do, anticipate their coach to offer it to them. Nonetheless, as NHLRumors.com has documented, the Panthers are nonetheless the category of the Atlantic Division.