Panthers to hold only practice ahead of Opening Night with threat of Hurricane Milton looming
Florida is scheduled to host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at Amerant Bank Arena
As if raising a Stanley Cup banner on Opening Night isn’t enough of a spectacle, the Florida Panthers and their fans are now dealing with the looming threat of a strong hurricane.
Late Sunday night, the Panthers announced they had cancelled their planned Stanley Cup ring ceremony that was set for Monday night at Amerant Bank Arena.
As of Sunday, Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall on the west coast of Florida sometime Wednesday evening, with the forecast cone stretching from southwest Florida to the big bend.
When the Panthers cancelled the ring ceremony, the team said plans for Opening Night were still on, and that they would be monitoring the storm.
After traveling back to South Florida from Quebec City on Sunday, the Panthers will be on the ice for a full team practice on Monday at the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale.
That skate will likely give us a glimpse into Head Coach Paul Maurice’s plans for Florida’s Opening Night roster.
Here’s THN Florida’s first guess at how the lines could look:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Mackie Samoskevich
A.J. Greer – Jesper Boqvist – Patrick Giles
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt – Adam Boqvist
Extras: Jonah Gadjovich, MacKenzie Entwistle, Uvis Balinskis
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