The Stanley Cup is still touring South Florida after the championship win. It visited the Miami Heat’s basketball court this week and has more events planned. The celebration of the NHL title continues in some ways.
However, at the Florida Panthers’ practice facility, the champions are getting back to work.
Training camp starts on Thursday, and coach Paul Maurice is clear: it’s time to prepare for the next championship run instead of dwelling on the past victory from June.
“There are going to be, and rightfully so, some backward-looking things. We’ll deal with the banner raisings, ring ceremonies, all those good things you get to enjoy,” Maurice said Wednesday during the team’s media day. “But we’ll be very sure that our day is completely focused on what we’re doing, not living in the past.”
It seems the players are already getting this message.
Most of the players have been back in South Florida for a few weeks. Maurice noted that the returning Panthers came back in better shape compared to last season, as shown by the pre-camp conditioning tests.
The real challenge will begin on Thursday with the first practices, which are known to be tough.
“The hangover concept, we won’t believe in it,” Maurice said. “It’s certainly not a physical issue with us. We’re stronger than we were last year at this time and that’s a credit to them because they certainly couldn’t have made improvements without spending the time to do it.”
Florida has all its top eight scorers from last season—Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Evan Rodrigues, Gustav Forsling, and Anton Lundell—returning this year.
Verhaeghe and Reinhart scored the goals in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, helping Florida beat Edmonton 2-1 to secure their first title.
This victory also prevented a significant collapse after winning the first three games of the series. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is back for his sixth year as the Panthers’ main goalie.
While there are some open spots on the roster, most of the team from the championship run is returning. Even though they have won the Cup, which was a lifelong goal for Maurice and the players, there is still plenty of motivation to try for another victory.
“At the end of the day, I love what I do,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s a blessing for me to be here today and I’m excited to compete for the dream again. And yet, you know, it doesn’t really matter what happened in the past.
I only care about the moment in my hands right now, and that’s this moment.”
Things will start moving quickly. Practices begin on Thursday, and Florida has its first two preseason games on Sunday against Nashville, where most of the 50 or so players in camp will get some game time.
The championship banner will be raised on Oct. 8 when Florida faces Boston to kick off the regular season. After that, the 82-game season will begin. However, Maurice emphasizes that he’s focused on taking it one step at a time and isn’t thinking about opening night yet.
“I’m not ready for anything but Day 1. I don’t want to think about Day 2,” Maurice said. “You can’t win the Stanley Cup on September 19th, the first day of practice. But you can start the process by giving yourself a chance.
This will be what Day 1 on the ice is. You have to be respectful of exactly how hard it was and do the work and pay the price just to give yourself a chance.”
