As training camp starts, Panthers want last season’s struggles to be a ‘one-off’

The Florida Panthers’ season last year ended on April 15. No fanfare. No playoffs. No pursuit of a third consecutive Stanley Cup.

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It’s a statement of truth that doesn’t sit well with Matthew Tkachuk.

“It sucks,” Tkachuk said. “You’re watching the playoffs. We’re watching the Finals in June, and we want to be that team playing in June. So you don’t really get over the season until maybe the Stanley Cup’s handed out. You get a month to maybe get over it, but I got back on the ice midway through summer, and I’ve had the itch ever since.”

“There’s some envy there for sure,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “Obviously you want to be in that position. Before we had won, there was a ton of jealousy, and it’s kind of remained. Still hungry. Still want more. So, yeah, would like to get back in that situation and do it again.”

After a long offseason — the first long offseason the Panthers have had in Tkachuk’s tenure with the club — the time to rectify it has arrived. Florida opens training camp on Thursday, an abbreviated two-week stretch of practices before the season begins in earnest on Sept. 29 at the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.

“Nothing’s given to you,” Tkachuk said. “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done last year or two years ago or five years ago. Everything’s back to zero this year. Carolina’s the team that won it. They’re the team to beat this year. We were that team the two years prior. We want to come into this year and show that last year is just a one-off. That cannot happen again.”

Florida had a lot go wrong last season. Captain Aleksander Barkov missed the entire campaign after sustaining a major right knee injury a half hour into his first training camp session. Nearly a dozen players total were sidelined at various points of the year, causing coach Paul Maurice to get creative with his lineups and at times simply play whoever was healthy enough to take the ice.

The end result: A 40-38-4 record that was seventh in the eight-team Atlantic Division following a run of three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final, including winning it all in both 2024 and 2025.

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To Maurice, that just might be a blessing in disguise.

“I think the worst thing that could have happened to our team is we actually squeak into the playoffs last year,” Maurice said. “You know, Barky comes back, we’ve only got six guys out. But then you spend all summer thinking ‘We’re right there.’ That’s dangerous. We feel we’re right there, but it’s been born over the last four years. That’s the reason. We’re not like an up-and-coming team where you delude the idea of yourself into thinking, ‘Hey, we’re right there,’ because we were humbled a lot of nights. It would be very difficult to make the playoffs. We had I think 544 [games missed due to injury] last year. But I don’t want the idea to be ‘Yeah, we ran out of gas, and we had 544 [missed games]. That’s the reason.’ It’s not the reason.

“Those are the cards we got,” Maurice added. “I couldn’t figure out a way to play anything to win the hand. It’s a factor, not an excuse. We didn’t make the playoffs. I’m not angry about it. Training camp will not be punitive because we missed the playoffs last year. It’s going to be focused and sharp to build our team.”

A condensed schedule almost mandates that approach. Florida only has three days on the ice before its first preseason game on Sunday. It only has four preseason games before things count for real.

That’s not a lot of time for the host of new players — namely forwards Brady Tkachuk, Garnett Hathaway and Lars Eller; defenseman Radko Gudas; and goaltenders Jacob Markstrom and Akira Schmid — to get acclimated to Maurice’s system. Maurice, as a result, will be more direct with his efforts over these two weeks to make sure the team is best-positioned to succeed when the season begins.

“This is the shortest camp I’ve ever been a part of,” said Maurice, who his entering his 29th season as an NHL head coach and fifth with the Panthers. “The fewest number of exhibition games, mandates on the number of games veterans can play, so we have to learn real fast.”

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