1 – PLAY BALL!: Florida Panthers fans are celebrating and high-fiving following Tuesday’s report by Elliot Friedman that the Panthers are “closing in on hosting an outdoor game as soon as next season.” The report from Sportsnet’s top NHL insider comes as a tidbit from the League’s annual Board of Governors meetings in Florida. According to Friedman, the game will be played at loanDepot Park, home of the Marlins. It’s something we have long dreamt about and discussed, but appears is finally becoming a reality! You really have to wonder when the good news will stop coming with this team.
2 – LIGHTNING HALL OF FAME: Congratulations to Brian Bradley and Rick Peckham. This week the pair of Bolts greats was named as the 2025 induction class into the Tampa Bay Lightning Hall of Fame, joining Phil Esposito, Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards in the three-year old hall. Bradley was an original Lightning, appearing in 328 games and netting 300 points. Peckham was the TV Voice of the Lightning for 24 seasons.
3 – PANTHERS HALL OF FAME?: There isn’t one yet, but you can bet there’s one being talked about. In the inaugural class you can pencil in the names you currently see in the Amerant Bank Arena rafters – Huizenga, Torrey and Luongo. After that, the debate is on and it’s raucous. BTW, former Cats currently in the Hockey Hall of Fame include Torre, Luongo, Pavel Bure, Ed Belfour, Roger Neilson, Igor Larionov, Joe Nieuwendyk, Dino Ciccarelli and Bobby Clarke. However whomever gets into the FPHOF will have done so for contributions to this franchise, and not the NHL overall. Debate away…
4 – STAR-GAZING: Florida winger Matthew Tkachuk, Tampa Bay centre Brayden Point and Vegas goaltender Adin Hill have been named the NHL’s three stars of the week. Tkachuk led the league with five goals and 11 points and tied for first with six assists last week. Point had back-to-back four-point games, including a two-goal, two-assist outing in the Lightning’s 4-2 win at Vancouver on Sunday. Hill turned aside 66 of the 68 shots he faced, going 2-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average, .971 save percentage and a shutout.
5 – PANTHERS STREAKING: After a mild scraping of the knees a few weeks back, this is another week where the Florida Panthers come in holding down first place in the Atlantic Division at 17-9-2 (at the time of this writing). We’ll remind you again that the team’s recent four-game losing streak was nothing more than a mild blip, and that the Panthers are a serious Stanley Cup contender. *We’ll always remind you when we’re right and rarely remind you when we’re wrong. 😉 Following a home 3-1 victory over San Jose on Saturday, the Cats have now gone on the road for their longest trip of the year. They’ll visit Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Minnesota before returning home December 20 to host the St. Louis Blues.
6 – FAMILIAR FACES: Nine players from the 2023-24 Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers signed elsewhere over the summer including two very popular players in D Brandon Montour (Seattle) and FRyan Lomberg (Calgary). The Cats will see them both on this trip, and likely even deliver their Stanley Cup rings in person. There’s been an outpouring of emotion from Panthers fans over these players leading up to these games but once you realize pro sports is a cold, hard business, it’s easier to take. By winning a Cup, they’ll always be Panthers legends.
7 – LIGHTNING CLINGING: Tampa Bay enters the week holding down the first wild card spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference at a very respectable 14-9-2. After whalloping San Jose 8-1 last Thursday at Amalie Arena, the Bolts left on a four-game road trip which opened Sunday in Vancouver with a 4-2 victory over the Canucks. Also on this trip, they’ll visit Edmonton, Calgary and Seattle before returning home December 17 to face the Columbus Blue Jackets.
8 – FOUR NATIONS FACEOFF: There’s plenty of debate but hardly any surprises coming out of last week’s announcement of the rosters for February’s NHL Four Nations Faceoff featuring USA, Canada, Sweden & Finland in a tournament to be played in Boston and Montreal. The Panthers and Lightning led the way with the most players being named across the four teams. From Florida: Sam Bennett (Canada), Sam Reinhart (Canada), Matthew Tkachuk (USA), Aleksander Barkov (Finland), Eetu Luostarinen (Finland), Anton Lundell (Finland), Niko Mikkola (Finland), Gustav Forsling (Sweden). From Tampa Bay: Brayden Point (Canada), Anthony Cirelli (Canada), Brandon Hagel (Canada), Jake Guentzel (USA), Victor Hedman (Sweden). *Don’t forget Bolts coach Jon Cooper is the head coach for Team Canada which explains the heavy Lightning influence in their lineup.
9 – CAT SCRATCHES: For those scoring at home, Saturday’s 3-1 Florida home victory over San Jose was a big one for two key members of the franchise. It was the 408th career victory for netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, moving him past “Mr. Goalie” Glenn Hall into 11th all-time on the career wins list. Bob celebrated by signing autographs Sunday afternoon at the Wellington Mall. Meanwhile it was Paul Maurice’s 111th victory as Panthers head coach, moving him past Jacques Martin as the franchise all-time wins leader among coaches. Congrats men!
10 – YOU’RE FIRED!: I feel a little squeamish about tracking the coach firings as closely as we do – it’s a tad anti-Canadian but being fired goes with the territory and I’ve been fired a lot! – and they’ve been dropping like flies recently. Following Boston and St. Louis letting their coaches go, the last-place Chicago Blackhawks followed suit last week by firing Luke Richardson. The Ottawa product was in Year 3 on the job and was saddled with, by far, the NHL’s worst roster. Richardson was replaced by Swedish product Anders Sorenson. In the Hawks’ most recent game, they beat the Rangers 2-1 in New York. The Rangers are dumpster fire of their own, shipping out disguntled captain Jacob Trouba in a deal with Anaheim on the weekend. Could Peter Laviollette be next on the list??
See you at the rink!
(Veteran hockey broadcaster & writer Rod Pedersen covers the NHL for the South Florida Tribune. He also hosts the award-winning Cats N Bolts Podcast and daily Rod Pedersen Show on Game+TV, YouTube and Podcast)
