Florida Panthers 2013-14 schedule announced, team will open on road – Florida Panthers
The Panthers’ first of four away games will be at Dallas. Florida will open at home against Pittsburgh on Oct. 11.
Florida Panthers goaltender Jacob Markstrom stops a shot by Lars Eller(81) of the Montreal Canadiens at the BB&T Center in Sunrise on March 10, 2013. The Canadiens defeated the Panthers, 5-2.
Florida Panthers goaltender Jacob Markstrom stops a shot by Lars Eller(81) of the Montreal Canadiens at the BB&T Center in Sunrise on March 10, 2013. The Canadiens defeated the Panthers, 5-2.
Joel Auerbach / Getty Images
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Florida Panthers 2013-14 season schedule
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By George Richards
grichards@MiamiHerald.com
The Florida Panthers will begin celebrating their 20th anniversary season Oct. 3 when Florida kicks off a four-game road trip in Dallas.
Florida will then visit St. Louis, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay before playing their home opener against Pittsburgh on Oct. 11.
The Panthers plan on having a “throwback night” in their home opener as the Penguins, who were Florida’s first opponent at Miami Arena on Oct. 12, 1993. Florida could also have a retro game against Anaheim — which entered the league with the Panthers in 1993.
“I’m happy with the way things played out,” coach Kevin Dineen said. “I love the idea of starting the season on the road. I think it’s a good thing for our team. … There’s a good break between our last preseason game [Sept. 28] and our first regular-season game. Then we get on the road for some quality time together.”
The new schedule features four divisions instead of six with each team in the league playing each other at least twice — once home and once away.
For the Panthers, the Southeast Division is now a memory. Florida and the cross-state rival Lightning remain together in a new Atlantic Division made up of mostly northeastern teams.
Florida and Tampa Bay will compete against Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Boston — with 30 of its 82 games this season coming within the division. The Panthers and Lightning were part of the old Atlantic Division when both teams began play.
The Panthers will play other Eastern Conference teams — which now includes Columbus — at least twice this season. Detroit, which the Panthers will play five times, also moves over from the Western Conference.
Florida will play Boston five times, twice at home, with four games against the other five teams within the division.
“We’re positioned with a lot of quality hockey teams,” Dineen said. “I love the idea of playing in Canada. This is our situation, the division we’re in. There will be some real challenges with our travel. But we have some pretty juicy stretches at home we can take advantage of as well.”
This year’s schedule also includes an almost three-week-long break as the NHL shuts down so its players can compete in the Sochi Olympic Games in Russia. Florida visits Carolina on Feb. 7 before resuming Feb. 27 against Washington.
Because of the midseason break, there will be no All-Star weekend. Columbus, which was supposed to hold the All-Star Game last January before it got canceled because of the lockout, is expected to host the event in 2015.
The lengthy travel break will cause teams to have to play a few more back-to-back games. The Panthers will play 14 sets of such games — with only one set coming on consecutive home nights.
A whopping 18 of Florida’s back-to-back games (22 percent of the schedule) will be exclusively road games.
“I come from the American Hockey League where there are a lot of three [games] in three [nights],” Dineen said. “I understand the challenges of back-to-back games.”
Here are some other highlights of Florida’s 2013-14 schedule:
• The longest homestand of the season is six games with Boston, Minnesota, Chicago, Buffalo, Tampa Bay and St. Louis coming to Sunrise from Oct. 17-Nov. 1.
via Florida Panthers 2013-14 schedule announced, team will open on road – Florida Panthers