What to expect — and what the Panthers expect — for Florida’s exhibition game in Toronto
By all accounts, the Florida Panthers felt their postseason training camp in Coral Springs went well. They think they’re ready to square off against the New York Islanders on Saturday in Toronto, and they think they’re back up speed after going more than four months without playing a real, competitive game because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
They will get a little bit of a better idea as to whether they’re right Wednesday.
“We’ve been practicing the last month, but nothing’s really like a game situation and power, penalty kill playing different guys,” center Noel Acciari said Monday.
After one practice in Ontario on Monday, the Panthers took Tuesday off ahead of one of the most important exhibition games they will ever play. On Wednesday at noon, Florida will square off against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Scotiabank Arena. After spending the past month skating by themselves and practicing against teammates, the Panthers will finally get an opportunity to see some fresh faces Wednesday inside the NHL’s postseason bubble.
It will be the lone opportunity for Florida to get prepared before it immediately jumps into a best-of-five series against the Islanders on Saturday in the qualifying round for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Although they will have two more practices in Ontario on Thursday and Friday, the Wednesday exhibition is best chance the Panthers will have to get ready to play some of the most important games in franchise history.
“The exhibition’s going to be good to get our legs going,” All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau said Monday, “and after we’ve got to focus on Game 1 and win this one.”
The scrimmage won’t look like a typical preseason exhibition, both because of the visual presentation of the game and the actual contents of the competition. On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins played the first of the exhibitions ahead of the expanded postseason in Canada, providing a glimpse of what the setup will be for Florida’s exhibition Wednesday.
On one side of the arena, the league is setting up a series of light-emitting diode screens to display videos and photos, both provided by the team and submitted by fans. The team-submitted content includes pump-up videos and goal songs to simulate a home-ice feel, while the fan videos consists of cheers and chants. The arenas are also outfitted with 25 to 35 cameras, up from 12 on a typical broadcast.
The new camera angles were in use and typical arena audio was still played, but the video boards were not up yet.
“I would say the difference between what we’re going to do from Tuesday through Thursday and what we’re going to do on Saturday is about 190 percent,” NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer told NHL.com on Monday. “Of all we could do, it’s probably 5 percent of what we could do.”
On the ice, Florida will have to cram a full preseason’s worth of preparation into 60 minutes, which means a concerted effort to see all of its lines in action, including power play and penalty kill. The Panthers will do their best to simulate real-game situations and relish the opportunity to respond to another team’s pace after spending weeks playing strictly at their own.
“It’s a game where you can work on either special teams or the pace of the game and it’s not the same flow that you’ve been out there against every day for the last couple of weeks,” coach Joel Quenneville said Monday, “so we’ll be looking at that as well.”
Florida, however, won’t quite be at full strength. Aaron Ekblad, a top-line defenseman, will not play after he missed three practices last week. The 24-year-old Canadian did return to practice Monday, though, and expects to play Saturday against New York. Ekblad’s absence could mean slightly reshuffled lines as fourth-line right wing Mark Pysyk shifted back to first-line defense last week at training camp while Ekblad was sidelined.
Ekblad’s absence is a reminder of what is actually most important for the Panthers. After four and a half months without playing a real game, Florida doesn’t want the rapid return to action to get anyone injured.
“I think it’s going to help us get our legs under us a little better,” Acciari said, “and kind of just get back in that game mentality.”
