The Florida Panthers will be on the ice for the second day of training camp in Ft. Lauderdale today with Group 1 getting to work at 1 p.m. and Group 2 going at 3:30 p.m.
ESPN’s burning preseason question for the Cats was: Are the Panthers built for a three-peat?
Listen, what Florida GM Bill Zito pulled off this offseason was quite impressive. While the Panthers were basking in a second straight Stanley Cup victory, Zito managed to re-sign Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand, while also acquiring an intriguing backup goalie in Daniil Tarasov.
All good … right? Florida can’t be concerned about their depth when they’ve kept so many key players in the fold … correct?
It’s at least worth wondering whether the Panthers might run into issues there, given all they’ve invested salary-cap-wise in their top skaters. There’s an excellent chance that growth from within — from top young players like Mackie Samoskevich — will give Florida quite an edge in their bottom six. But there’s also the fact Matthew Tkachuk’s health status is in doubt — that torn adductor and sports hernia issue suffered at the 4 Nations Face-Off has been a problem for Tkachuk ever since, and may hold him out to start the season — and there’s no telling what shape Tkachuk will be in when he can return.
Then, of course, there’s fatigue. Of course, we’ve wondered about that in regards to Florida before and they’ve shown serious mettle in reaching three straight Cup Finals (winning the last two). Do the Panthers have it in them to do it all over again?
Euro Cats
Linus Eriksson registered a shot on goal and two hits while logging 13:51 of ice time in Timra IK’s 2-1 win over Vaxjo Lakers in action from the Swedish Hockey League. Eriksson also took eight draws, winning five of them.
Simon Zether played 9:14 and lost a faceoff in Rogle BK’s 2-1 victory over Lulea in action from the Swedish Hockey League.
Albert Wikman played just 2:34 and took a holding minor in Farjestad’s 5-2 win over Skelleftea in action from the Swedish Hockey League.