On Thursday, the Florida Panthers held their first official practice following the 4 Nations Face-Off break, though several players, including all who were selected for the tournament, were not on the ice.
The five who were already done at 4 Nations – Finland’s Sasha Barkov, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola, and Sweden’s Gus Forsling – probably won’t be back on the ice Friday either.
Maurice said they are all healthy but the team is taking a cautious approach with all the 4 Nations guys in terms of easing them back into the swing of things.
“If they feel they need to be out there to be right for our game on Saturday, I'll allow that, but I would prefer that they didn't skate tomorrow,” Maurice said
Regarding the three players who were still in Boston – Matthew Tkahcuk for Team USA and Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart for Team Canada – the team will be making sure to keep their workloads limited in order to allow maximum recovery.
“We're going to build some rest for those players, all of the national team players, but certainly those three, over the next week,” Maurice said.
The NHL schedule resumes across the board on Saturday.
For Florida, that means hosting the Seattle Kraken at Amernat Bank Arena.
Whether you’re a team like Florida that had eight players at 4 Nations or Seattle, which had one (Kappo Kakko), there is a universal expectation that it’s going to take teams a little time to get back into the full swing of things.
“The first game back, I don't know that it tells anybody anything about where we're at,” said Maurice. “It's going to take three (games) for us, it's not just for us, it's the whole league to get to speed. So you had teams that had full team practices for four days, we had 11 guys on the ice, and we're going to do it again tomorrow. So in some ways, that's more like an NHL season, right? You don't have everybody on the ice. I think the first game back rules apply, simplicity as much as you can, and then go from there.”
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