1 – COMIN’ HOME: It’s been a busy week for the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers since their home-opening 6-4 victory over the Boston Bruins 6-4, a game in which they raised their championship banner at Amerant Bank Arena. The Cats then promptly headed out on the road for four games in six nights. They opened with a 3-1 loss at Ottawa on Thursday, followed up with a 5-2 loss at Buffalo on Saturday, rebounded with a 4-3 Columbus Day victory at Boston, and finished with a 4-3 triumph at Columbus on Tuesday. The Panthers are back on home ice on Thursday when they welcome the Vancouver Canucks to Amerant Bank Arena in a 7:00 pm start.
2 – BARKING: Something’s been making my blood boil ever since Thursday’s game in Ottawa! Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov suffered a lower body injury and is out week-to-week after tumbling heavily into the end boards trying to prevent an empty net goal. Some Panthers “fans” labelled Barkov as a “bandaid” (a hockey term for a player who’s often injured). Excuse me? The 29-year old from Tampere, Finland appeared in 73 games last season, plus 24 more in the playoffs. Barkov also leads the Panthers in these all-important career categories entering this season: Games Played (737), Goals (266), Assists (445), Powerplay Goals (75), Powerplay Points (215), Game-Winning Goals (48), Shots On Goal (1948), Playoff Games Played (71), Playoff Assists (40) and Playoff Points (59). Newsflash: You can’t be a bandaid and put up numbers like that. Plus, when you play fearless like Barkov does, you’re going to get injured from time-to-time.
3 – KNIGHT TIME?: If you’ve been reading this column regularly, you know we’ve been meticulously following the crease battle between veterans Spencer Knight and Chris Driedger to be the #2 man behind Sergei Bobrovsky. Well Knight (pictured) clearly won the battle but drew criticism for allowing four goals on 26 shots in his first start of the season Saturday in Buffalo. However the entire Panthers team was bad against the Sabres, prompting TV analyst Ed Jovanovski to observe, “The Panthers just didn’t have it tonight” on the Scripps broadcast. Knight rebounded with a tidy 35-save effort in Tuesday’s win at Columbus.
4 – GO BOLTS: Hurricane Milton not only wreaked havoc on areas of Florida, but also with the Tampa Bay Lightning’s schedule over the past week. The Bolts cancelled their final home preseason game last Monday against Nashville, plus their home-opener on Saturday night against Carolina. The team got away to North Carolina early last week, avoiding the storm, and opened their season with a 4-1 victory over the Hurricanes in Raleigh. Lightning star Nikita Kucherov notched a third period hattrick to propel them to victory. “We’ve seen (their power play) for years and we got Kucherov’d tonight,” offered Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour afterwards. “We were not good and I thought they played a great game.” On Tuesday night the Lightning whalloped the visiting Vancouver Canucks 4-1 to improve to 2-0. The Bolts host Vegas on Thursday before heading out on a three-game road trip with stops in Ottawa, Toronto and New Jersey.
5 – THAT’S SILLY: Keep an eye on Columbus Blue Jackets 21-year old forward Cole Sillinger. The left-winger notched his first goal of the season in Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to the Panthers. Sillinger is the youngest son of former Florida Panther Mike Sillinger (2000-2001). Another of Mike’s sons is Arizona State forward Lukas Sillinger, the leading active scorer in NCAA Division 1 hockey with 130 career points with the Sun Devils entering this season.
6 – GET YOUR TICKETS!: According to ticketing technology company Logitix, the Florida Panthers have an overall increase of 51% in ticket demand from this time last season. The Cats also have the largest price increase in the NHL with average ticket cost going up from $87 to $132, which is understandable given their status as Stanley Cup champs.7 – CATS ON TV: I see a lot of grumbling and bellyaching on social media from people experiencing problems finding the Florida Panthers television broadcasts so far this season. Not sure what I’m doing wrong – or right – but I’ve been able to catch every game just fine from our home in Boca Raton and even on a weekend excursion to the Keys where they carry WSFL-TV. What gives? The Panthers do a nice job of announcing on their social media accounts where the games can be enjoyed locally.
8 – CHYCH & RIM: I’ve gotta admit that I miss seeing Jeff Chychrun on Florida Panthers TV broadcasts. The former NHL defenceman spent five seasons analyzing Panthers games on Bally Sports Florida, but wasn’t brought over in the Scripps deal. However we’re happy to report that “Chych” will be a regular contributor on our Cats N Bolts Podcast throughout the season! (https://www.youtube.com/@CatsNBoltsPodcast) On this week’s show we’ll be joined by original Florida Panthers TV Voice Jeff Rimer, who’s enjoying his first season in retirement.
9 – DOWN ON THE FARM: We’ll keep an eye on Lightning and Panthers prospects as this column moves along in the years ahead. Tampa Bay may have found the heir apparent to goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy in Medicine Hat Tigers netminder Harrison Meneghin. The 6’4″, South Surrey, BC product is the Western Hockey League Goaltender of the Week after collecting his fifth career shutout and posting a 0.50 Goals Against Average in two appearances last week. He was acquired from the Lethbridge Hurricanes on October 5, and the Tigers are considered the top Junior Hockey team in Canada.
10 – AROUND THE NHL: Former Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato is currently working as an analyst on NHL Radio and described the opening week of the 2024-25 NHL season as “chaos”. Indeed it was with Calgary, Utah, Winnipeg and Vegas jumping out to 3-0 starts while heavyweights Edmonton and Colorado started 0-3. … Utah Hockey Club right-wing Dylan Guenther, Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel were named the NHL’s three stars of the week on Monday.
See you at the rink!
(Veteran hockey writer and broadcaster Rod Pedersen covers the NHL for the South Florida Tribune. He also hosts the award-winning weekly Cats N Bolts Podcast, and the daily The Rod Pedersen Show on Game+TV, WQEE Radio and YouTube)
