1 – TALES FROM THE ROAD: Following the Florida Panthers over the past couple of seasons has rarely been boring! The Cats are currently on their longest road trip of the season and the results have been up and down: 2-1 Shootout Win at Seattle, 4-0 Loss at Vancouver, 3-0 Loss at Calgary, then a 6-5 Victory at Edmonton in a rematch of last year’s Stanley Cup Final. They’re winding the trip up Wednesday at Minnesota before coming home for some Holiday games in Florida.
2 – CAT SCRATCHES: It’s fun to, briefly, read the fans’ reactions on social media following games. Basically when Florida wins the fans feel they’re the best team in the world yet when they lose, everybody sucks and changes need to be made. It’s entertaining until it becomes exhausting. However the Panthers sit tied with Toronto atop the Atlantic Division standings and are a Top 10 team in the NHL approaching Christmas. Anybody should be happy with that.
3 – ANALYZING: There was plenty of pearl-clutching and hand-wringing going on when the Panthers were shutout in back-to-back games at Vancouver and Calgary on the weekend. But not by the coaching staff. Florida gave the puck away a staggering 19 times against the Canucks and as coach Paul Maurice aptly pointed out, you can’t score when you don’t have the puck. “Nothing’s ever easy to fix in the NHL. It’s the hallmark of our defensive game. It’s very difficult to defend off a turnover.” Their problems were 100% mental, and not personnel-related. Once they focused, the Panthers scored three times as many goals Monday in Edmonton than the prior three games combined!
4 – GO BOLTS: You know what? After some early season shakiness, the cross-state Tampa Bay Lightning seem to be stabilizing. With Tuesday’s 5-3 home victory over Columbus, the Bolts have won five of their past six games and have a pretty firm grip on a wildcard playoff spot. … Lightning newcomer Jake Guentzel scored against the Blue Jackets, giving him a career-best seven game goal-scoring streak which is one off a Tampa Bay record. … Meanwhile goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy appeared in his 500th career game and his teammates wore commemorative “BIG CAT 500” jerseys in warmup.
5 – AHEAD: Those same fans we were talking about have been looking at the schedule and eagerly awaiting this weekend’s home-and-home series between the Cats and Bolts. The Sunshine State rivals meet Sunday at Tampa Bay’s Amalie Arena in a 5:00 pm faceoff, then again Monday at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise at 7:00 pm. They’re asking for a prediction so here goes: it’ll end in a split with the home teams winning!
6 – AROUND THE NHL: The Buffalo Sabres haven’t hit rock bottom of the NHL standings yet, but they’re getting close. Tuesday’s 6-1 loss at Montreal was the Sabres’ 11th consecutive loss and they’re fading fast. On Monday, veteran Buffalo players met with team owner Terry Pegula and the two sides agreed the answers to their problems are within. Then they got bombed by the Habs. Franchise great Lindy Ruff was brought in save the day but his assessment wasn’t positive. “It’s on me to solve this,” Ruff said after Sunday’s loss at Toronto. “This is the toughest solve I’ve ever been around.”
7 – PEACH CITY: In last week’s column we discussed news coming out of the NHL’s Board of Governors meetings that the Panthers are “closing in” on hosting an Outdoor Game at loanDepot Park next season. Nothing’s been said since. However the next day it was learned the prospective Atlanta ownership group made their pitch to the NHL B.O.G. about expansion, and becoming the NHL’s 33rd team. I’m certainly alllll for it but in a poll on our daily RP Show program, 82% of respondents voted that they are against the NHL returning to Atlanta. Why? Because two prior franchises have failed there (Flames & Thrashers) and Atlanta has proven to be a poor hockey market. I say the third time is the charm.
8 – MORE AROUND THE NHL: The Coyotes may be gone, but there’s still hockey in Arizona. Arizona State University announced this week that it will serve as the host institution for the men’s 2025 Ice Breaker Tournament. Notre Dame, Quinnipiac and Alaska will also compete in the event, scheduled for Oct. 10-11, 2025, at ASU’s Mullett Arena in Tempe. … Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz will undergo knee surgery and miss four to six weeks, general manager Brad Treliving said Tuesday. Stolarz, a Stanley Cup champ with Florida last season, left Toronto’s game versus Anaheim on Thursday with a lower-body injury. … The Winnipeg Jets signed Kevin He to an entry-level deal Tuesday, making him the first China-born player to sign an NHL contract. Winnipeg picked the 18-year-old forward in the fourth round of the 2024 draft, becoming the second player from China selected after Andong Song by the New York Islanders in 2015. Song, a sixth-rounder, never signed with the team. He was born in Beijing and moved to Canada with his family when he was 6
9 – STAR-GAZING: Edmonton centre Leon Draisaitl, Colorado centre Nathan MacKinnon and Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark have been named the NHL’s three stars of the week.
Draisaitl had nine points (three goals, six assists) as the Oilers went 3-0. MacKinnon factored on nine of Colorado’s 12 total goals (four goals, five assists) in three games last week. The reigning league MVP led the NHL with 50 points heading into Monday. Ullmark stopped 88 of the 91 shots he faced, going 3-0-0 with a 0.99 goals-against average for the Bruins.
10 – TOP FIVE/BOTTOM FIVE: Here’s our weekly rankings of the Top, and Bottom, teams in the National Hockey League: 1) Winnipeg 2) Vegas 3) Washington 4) Minnesota 5) New Jersey, and 28) Anaheim 29) San Jose 30) Nashville 31) Chicago 32) Buffalo.
See you at the rink!
(Rod Pedersen covers the NHL for the South Florida Tribune. He also hosts the award-winning Cats N Bolts Podcast and the daily Rod Pedersen Show on Game+TV, YouTube Live & Podcast)
