With no preseason games, Panthers aim to make 1st scrimmage as ‘game-like as possible’
The Florida Panthers have a host of new players, a slew of jobs up for grabs and their share of questions heading into the 2021 season. There’s a lot to be done in a condensed, 10-day training camp.
Their biggest challenge of them all: Figuring everything out without playing another team. The NHL is not holding preseason games this year, meaning all of a team’s training and preparation ahead of the season is being done in-house.
That makes Thursday night’s scrimmage all the more important. It’s the first time the team will play in a full, competitive setting and will give Joel Quenneville and his coaching staff likely their best opportunity to see how their drills look in a game atmosphere prior to their season opener on Jan. 14 against the Dallas Stars.
The format for Thursday, according to Quenneville, will be similar to what they expect in a normal game. Due to training camp numbers, each team will only have three forward lines instead of the usual four and five or six defensemen. Once the scrimmage ends, the Panthers will also have a five-minute, 3-on-3 overtime period along with a shootout. NHL officials will be on site at BB&T Center for the scrimmage.
“We’ll get exposure to both of those game situations,” Quenneville said. “We have no exhibition games to try those type of things with a real simulated pace of the game ... Trying to make it as game-like as possible for everybody.”
The scrimmage should also give better insight into Quenneville’s thought process when it comes to forward lines and defensive pairing he intends to use for the season.
“It’s very important to get something close to a real game,” forward Noel Acciari said. “There’s no preseason, and I think the teams that come out to the best start are going to have the best opportunity to make the playoffs. You can’t have a slow start, especially with this season. ... We have to make sure every guy is taking [the scrimmage] like it’s an actual NHL game.”
Power play shake-up
Meanwhile, the Panthers did their first day of special-teams practice on Wednesday.
One notable change from last year: Aaron Ekblad was getting reps with the top power-play unit over Keith Yandle, who has generally been the sole defenseman on that group the past two seasons.
“It’s a good opportunity to find out,” Quenneville said of Ekblad. “I think he’s capable of running it and doing the job.”
Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Anthony Duclair and Alex Wennberg seem to be the early favorites to be the four forwards on the top power-play unit. Duclair and Wennberg would replace Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov from last year’s group.
Fans at BB&T Center
The Panthers announced Wednesday they will be allowing up to 25 percent capacity at BB&T Center for home games to start the season. Since BB&T Center can fit about 20,000 fans for hockey games, that puts the maximum number of fans allowed in attendance at about 5,000 per game. The team also noted its policy will “remain flexible and in compliance with the NHL, and local and national governmental and health authorities so as to ensure the safety of fans, players, game-related personnel, and the local community” and thus capacity could increase or decrease throughout the season depending on directives and protocols.
“I’m incredibly proud of our exceptional staff’s tireless work and dedication to ensuring the safest possible environment for Panthers fans and the South Florida community, who are an integral part of our team,” Panthers president and CEO Matt Caldwell said in a news release. “Through our rigorous collective efforts, we have achieved the highest of health and safety standards for BB&T Center, and couldn’t be more excited or prepared to safely welcome back our fans at a limited, socially-distant capacity, and begin this next chapter of Panthers hockey with health and safety as our guiding priority.”
Season-ticket holders have priority access to seats. Single-game tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday and can be purchased at FloridaPanthers.com/tickets.
This and that
▪ Goaltenders Sergei Bobrovsky and Scott Darling, forwards Patric Hornqvist and Juho Lammikko, and defensemen Chase Priskie and Markus Nutivaara were unfit to play on Wednesday. Bobrovsky, Hornqvist, Lammikko and Nutivaara have not practiced at all during training camp since on-ice work began Monday.
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 2:36 PM.
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