As the NHL season gets underway, the Florida Panthers watch, practice and wait
Alex Wennberg could feel the excitement as the Florida Panthers practice finished Wednesday. The 2021 NHL season was a few hours away from starting, the league’s 56-game slate set to get underway.
But as five games started and finished Wednesday and another 10 took place on Thursday, the Panthers watched on as spectators.
The Panthers’ first two games of the season against the Dallas Stars, originally scheduled for Thursday and Friday, were postponed following a COVID-19 outbreak inside the Stars organization that resulted in 17 players testing positive.
So while the Panthers are taking advantage of the extra practice time, the anticipation for the season to finally get underway continues.
“Obviously it’s a little bit different now because you have to wait but for sure you notice and you feel that it’s coming closer and closer,” said Wennberg, one of eight new forwards on the Panthers’ roster. “I mean, obviously, camp’s good but you’re excited for the games.”
The games will start on Sunday for the Panthers when they host the Chicago Blackhawks at the BB&T Center. Florida and Chicago play again on Tuesday before the Panthers embark on a six-game road trip.
“It’s a little bit different, but there’s no excuses,” Wennberg, who spent his first six seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets, said of the unusual circumstances of this season. “This is the scenario right here. It means you get a chance to show off in practices. Obviously, there’s shorter time to get into the systems, but you’ve got to listen more, get ready.”
Wennberg has shown enough throughout camp to land as the team’s second-line center. His wingers are Jonathan Huberdeau and Patric Hornqvist, creating a forward line that has accounted for a combined 1,118 career points (426 goals, 692 assists) over their careers.
Wennberg, at 26 years old and heading into his seventh season, is the youngest and least experienced of the three. But he still has a knack for setting up plays, with 161 career assists.
He’d like to showcase his skills for his new team in a live game, one that counts toward the standings, but he and the Panthers will take advantage of the extra practice time in the interim.
“That’s the only way you can look at it,” Wennberg said. “Right now, we’ve got a couple of extra days here where you work on special teams or work on some coverage or whatever it is, but I feel like you’ve got a little bit extra time to break down those little details and I feel like that could be something that could benefit us as well.”
Early scouting
With the Panthers not playing until Sunday, Panthers coach Joel Quenneville is getting the chance to do some early scout work by watching.
And this season, Quenneville and his coaching staff have less teams to prioritize.
Teams will only play against divisional oppenents during the regular season.
The Panthers are in the eight-team “Central” division, which also includes the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes, Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Stars, Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators.
“I love watching hockey games, especially right off the bat,” Quenneville said. “The first day is big games, important games as well.
“Divisional games will be the priority,” Quenneville added. “We still like to flip channels if there’s two or three games going on at once. It’s almost like there’s no commercials allowed.”
