The hope and hype are sky-high as Florida Panthers open camp. It’s time to finally deliver | Opinion
There was none of this feeling in 1995. I was around. I know. The Florida Panthers were a third-year NHL expansion team with a new coach and a rag-tag roster of young prospects and others teams’ discards. As training camp opened there was zero expectation that this team, this team, might make it into the 1996 Stanley Cup Final with a shower of plastic and rubber rats for confetti.
Fast-forward a quarter of a century and now the expectations are on this team. Big and heavy. Entering the franchise’s 28th season, and for the first time, Florida opened training camp Thursday with playoffs a must, a deep run in them expected, and the club’s first league championship a plausible dream.
It was Cinderella on skates back in 1996, and midnight struck with the Cats swept in four games in the Final. It did not, to say the least, instigate a run of sustained winning.
Now, well, this is not less than the most anticipated season in Panthers history.
The expectation is not to be competitive. It’s to be great.
And it is a rather audacious expectation of a club that has, astoundingly, not won a single playoff series since that magical run in ‘96.
The Panthers are coming off consecutive playoff seasons, and off the best single year in club history — a franchise-record 70.5 percent of possible standings points won. It was a season shortened by the pandemic and with an altered playoff format that — with diabolical bad luck — had Florida opening the playoffs versus rival Tampa Bay, which would go on to win its second straight Stanley Cup.
That series went to six games, an ouster valiant not meek.
And it announced the Panthers as a team poised to finally have its moment.
The heart and core of this roster — left wing Jonathan Huberdeau, center Aleksander Barkov and defenseman Aaron Ekblad —- are entering their 10th, ninth and eighth season in Sunrise, respectively — incredible considering they all are still in their 20s. In their prime.
Camp opened Thursday with the first on-ice work. The preseason opens on Sunday with a split-squad doubleheader vs. Nashville. The regular season begins October 14.
The core-three have seen and been part of the gradual rise to relevance.
Now it is time for the next, last step. Not next year or soon. Now. No excuses.
“We can feel the buzz,” said Ekblad. “We understand the personnel we have and the expectations with the core of us being here six, eight, 10 years. We view it as motivation. But our internal expectations exceeds all. Nothing short of a playoff run is expected.”
Ekblad, now fully recovered from last season’s gruesome fractured leg (well, “99.9 percent,” he said), is a big reason for the palpable feel-good around this team. But there are so many others.
The Cats return nearly intact a team that was among NHL leaders in goals scored, with a deep, four-line attack. Veteran goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and rising star Spencer Knight, 20, are a solid backwall tandem. They have the second-winningest coach of all time in Joel Quenneville. They have rising stars at their peak such as Carter Verhaeghe and MacKenzie Weegar.
And now they have Joe Thornton, too. The future Hall of Famer is 42, a wise old head for the dressing room. His lumberjack beard makes Ryan Fitzpatrick seem clean-shaven. He could have signed anywhere, but he was chasing a Stanley Cup one last time. He saw the chance here.
“I like their compete level,” Thornton says. “Barky’s an unbelievable player. Bob’s a great goalie. The depth on this team! I think it’s going to be a special year. They are a really balanced, deep team ready for the next big step.”
Said Barkov of Thornton: “One of those legends. Just like when [Jaromir] Jagr came in a few years ago.”
This iteration of the Panthers has the chance to give the franchise a national prominence it has never had.
“Nice to see some love around the league for us,” said Weegar of the growing hype. ”About time. We deserved it. This year there’s definitely some high expectations. All the media hype. Puts our mentality in the back of our head that it’s big year for us. The more media, they better we’ll play.”
This is the team, and the time, in South Florida sports.
Brutal weekend home losses suggest it isn’t time yet for the Dolphins or Hurricanes. The Marlins have disappointed this season. Inter Miami is making a late playoff chase and the Heat always are viable -- but none of our big teams including the Heat appears closer to championship-level right now than the Panthers.
Now all they have to do is live up to the highest bar they’ve ever chased.
This story was originally published September 22, 2021 at 12:29 PM.
