FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Stanley Cup is still making its championship tour of South Florida. It was on a basketball court with the Miami Heat and there’s a few more appearances to make after that. So, in some respects, the party that comes with winning the NHL title is still going strong.
That is, except at the Florida Panthers’ practice facility. The champs are back to work.
Florida opens training camp on Thursday and coach Paul Maurice is making this much clear: It’s time to start building for the next title run, not time to keep reveling in the title run that was completed in 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 as the team gathered for its annual media day. “But we’ll be very sure that our day is completely focused on what we’re doing, not living in the past.”
Evidently, that message is already getting through.
Players have been back in South Florida for at least a couple weeks, for the most part. And Maurice said the returning Panthers all came back in better shape than they were at this time last season, as proven by the pre-camp conditioning tests. The real test comes with the first practices, and Maurice’s training-camp sessions are notoriously 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 its top eight scorers — Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Evan Rodrigues, Gustav Forsling and Anton Lundell — all back from last season. Verhaeghe and Reinhart had the goals in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final when Florida held off Edmonton 2-1 to win its first title and avoid what would have been an epic collapse after winning the first three games of that series, and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky returns to begin his sixth year as the Panthers’ go-to guy in net.
There are some roster spots up for grabs, but the core from the title run returns largely intact. And even though the Cup has now been won, capping a lifelong quest for Maurice and the players, there’s a slew of motivation to try to win it again.
“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 for 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 happening quickly. Practices start Thursday and Florida plays its first two preseason games Sunday — the annual doubleheader against Nashville, where most if not all the 50 or so available players in camp will get some game action.
The Cup banner goes up on Oct. 8 when Florida plays host to Boston and opens the regular season. And with that, the 82-game grind will be off and running. But Maurice insists that he’s not skipping any steps, not even thinking about opening night yet or anything between now and then.
“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 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.”