'We know who we are': Panthers ready for challenges ahead in bid for three-peat

MIAMI — Go ahead and doubt the Florida Panthers if you wish.

They know that the tough road ahead of them has gotten even tougher.

They don’t have Aleksander Barkov, their captain and arguably the NHL’s best two-way center, for at minimum the regular season and most likely beyond as he recovers from surgery to repair the ACL and MCL in his right knee from an injury sustained in training camp.

They don’t have Matthew Tkachuk, their star winger and one of the brash voices, for an extended period to start the season as he too recovers from surgery.

It makes their already lofty desire to win a third consecutive Stanley Cup, a feat that hasn’t been done in more than four decades, that much harder.

But when the puck drops at 5 p.m. Tuesday as the Panthers begin the season against the Chicago Blackhawks and begin their quest for the elusive three-peat, they will remain steadfast in what they want to accomplish.

“I don’t think this group needs fuel,” said veteran winger Brad Marchand, who the Panthers acquired at the trade deadline last season, became instrumental in Florida’s repeat championship effort and signed a six-year contract extension in the offseason to help continue building the dynasty. “We know who we are. We know what our goals are and what we’re looking at doing this year.”

And if any team has the potential to weather such massive losses, it’s probably the Panthers.

Now, no individual player can replace what Barkov or Tkachuk do for the Panthers. Barkov is a three-time Selke Trophy winner as the league’s best defensive forward and the heartbeat of the team. Tkachuk has been the spark that has ignited Florida to three consecutive Cup Final runs with his emotional intelligence and clutch performance when the stakes rise.

“We are in kind of full playoff mode with that idea right from the start,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “You understand that it’s gonna be a real challenge in the grind. But there’s also a potential awesomeness to it. Can you win without your best players? And if you can, then you become a little bit more bulletproof than you were before.”

That said, the Panthers’ roster still has some pretty elite players who will be on the ice. The team has been so meticulously constructed by president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito that another extended playoff run shouldn’t be out of the picture.

They have experience. The Panthers brought back everyone but defenseman Nate Schmidt and backup goaltender Vitek Vanecek from the roster on the ice for the Cup-clinching Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final against Edmonton, although Barkov, Tkachuk and fellow forward Tomas Nosek are sidelined. They 11 players signed long-term, with Zito working his magic to re-sign all three key free agents in Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett and Marchand in the offseason and Niko Mikkola re-upping last week to join that group of nearly a dozen mainstays.

Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell will be Florida’s top centers, each shifting up a forward line in Barkov’s absence. Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart each have 40-plus goal potential every season. Marchand adds a veteran presence that can work anywhere in the top nine. Same with Evan Rodrigues, who is set to center Florida’s third line after being a winger who moved up and down the lineup as Maurice needed the past two years.

Six of Florida’s seven primary defensemen are back, with Schmidt replaced by Jeff Petry, who is closing in on 1,000 career games.

And Sergei Bobrovsky, who has been stellar since the start of Florida’s first extended postseason run in 2023, remains in net.

“Collectively, as a group, you all just try to pick up a little piece of that,” Marchand said. “Try a little bit harder, try to fill in where you can. Hopefully as a group you can kind of come together.”

They have leadership. Yes, Barkov wears the “C” on his sweater, but a quick glance around Florida’s dressing room shows there’s no lack of players who can take charge when needed. Marchand was a captain in Boston. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad has been an alternate captain for years. The likes of Reinhart and Bennett know when they need to speak as well.

“We all absorb it, for sure,” Ekblad said. “There is no replacing [Barkov], and we know that, but there’s a sense of community in that room, and we’re all gonna chip away at it together.”

Even with all of that, the Panthers are still projected to be a playoff team and are consistently ranked among the top six or seven teams in betting odds to win it all. The only other teams from the Eastern Conference also at the top being the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning.

“It’s just going to be different, and we’re going to have to figure out ways for all of us to be better, myself included,” Zito said. “It’s going to be a fight. It’s going to be a battle. We’re gonna have to scratch and claw.”

The Panthers are prepared to do just that.

They have learned to live with heightened expectations. That comes with the territory of three consecutive Cup Final appearances.

They have learned to pace themselves over long seasons. Florida has played 314 games, regular season and playoffs, over the past three seasons. The focus on the regular season is to stay as healthy as possible and crack the playoff field.

At that point, anything can happen.

And there’s no doubt Panthers are preparing for everything because this year they have to be ready for anything.

“Usually you’ve got to get into the season before you find your adversity and find what will define you,” Maurice said. “We have that right in front of us from the start.”

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