So, you’re the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, fresh off a thrilling Finals victory over the Edmonton Oilers, after which you left your fans singing in the rain following your victory parade. Now what? Defending the title is a hard climb in the NHL, considering no team has successfully repeated as champion since the Lightning of Tampa Bay did it three years ago; but that run included a COVID-affected title in 2020, so an asterisk sits by the achievement. Before that? Gotta go back to 1997 and 1998, when Detroit did it, featuring Stevie Yzerman and his pals. In fact, only nine teams in the history of the league have ever done it.
Yes, the Panthers return most of their core unit, featuring goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and high-flying forwards Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett; defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling patrol the area in front of Bobrovsky. Head coach Paul Maurice is an experienced hand, and knows what it takes to get back to the promised land. In fact, all championship coaches know the formula. It’s a strange brew of luck, health and opportunity.
All must tilt in your favor for the hockey gods to smile on you a second time. And so far, so good. As of this writing, the Panthers sit in first place in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Yet the health monkey has already bitten them: star forward Barkov is out for a minimum of four weeks, following a nasty spill into the boards resulting in a lower body injury. He should return by the time many of you read this article. As for the rest of the team, who knows? Check this space in March, and we’ll have a better idea.
Over at Heat Central, the expectations are quite different. For the first time in a generation, the men in shorts are not among the teams favored to challenge for the Eastern Conference and dethrone the champion Boston Celtics. Heat head honcho Pat Riley, who I’ve lauded in this space previously, now faces the task of overcoming that trait he hates most: irrelevancy. See, in the NBA, it’s better to be terrible than average. Terrible teams draft high, and have the chance of landing a generational talent (see San Antonio and Victor Wembanyama); but average teams never draft high, almost never land lottery picks, and are dispatched in the first round of playoffs. And if there’s anything Patrick James Riley hates, it’s irrelevancy. Yet because of salary cap constraints, the team was unable to sign or trade for a big-name talent this offseason.
Which means the core of Jimmy Butler (age 35), Tyler Herro (injury prone), Terry Rozier (see Herro) and Bam Adebayo (solid, but not special) will have to find a way to make the magic happen. Can they, along with head coach Erik Spoelstra, do it? I don’t know. But a lot of people have gone broke predicting the demise of the Heat and Pat Riley, and I’m not about to bet against them. Like their winter brothers, check back with me in March, and we’ll know better.
Until then, it’s tip-off or puck-dropping time, so let’s go!