Revamped Florida Panthers begin a new era with equal measures of excitement and curiosity

Patric Hornqvist slid off the ice, strode into the visitors’ locker room at UBS Arena and shouted out, to no one in particular, “Here we go!”

After one of the wildest offseasons in franchise history, opening day was here for the Florida Panthers and all the anticipation, philosophical questions and, frankly, curiosity about how these new-look Panthers might fare were ready to start fading away.

“Opening night is always exciting,” star center Aleksander Barkov said, “and especially right now.”

This new era for Florida — and there were enough big changes to qualify this as one — begins Thursday on the road against the New York Islanders and a new beginning brought with it equal levels of excitement and intrigue.

It’s the first game for new coach Paul Maurice and the first for All-Star right wing Matthew Tkachuk. It’s also the first game since 2011 without All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau as part of the organization and the first since 2014 without star defenseman MacKenzie Weegar.

The Panthers fully expect to once again be Stanley Cup contenders — teams don’t just win the Presidents’ Trophy, then drop out of the Stanley Cup playoffs the next year — and yet even Maurice admitted he’s still curious about just how this will all look. After injuries limited Florida throughout the preseason, the Panthers’ season-opening meeting with the Islanders in Elmont, New York, is one of the first real chances for the 55-year-old Canadian to see his new group whole.

“Yesterday’s practice was probably the first one where everybody was on the ice, so there is a lot of newness here,” said Maurice, who has coached the seventh most games in NHL history. “Whether we’re great tonight or not, that’s not our endpoint. It’s the start and we want to build off each game.

“It’s really exciting, but you’re right: Exhibition hockey is not the real deal, so I’m excited.”

As Maurice tries to bring a new style and philosophy, Tkachuk is also sure to affect games in a vastly different manner than Huberdeau.

When he traded Huberdeau and Weegar to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Tkachuk in July, Bill Zito was looking to make Florida younger and better, but also tougher.

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The general manager’s entire offseason plan focused on trying to make the Panthers better suited for the Cup playoffs, leaving regular-season goals mostly behind. Maurice, who guided the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002, is supposed to be an upgrade on former interim coach Andrew Brunette because of his experience. Tkachuk is supposed to be an upgrade on Huberdeau — at least come playoff time — because the 24-year-old winger possesses the physicality traditional thinking suggests is more valuable than finesse in the playoffs.

“He’s a special person and special player, and you’ll see that tonight,” said Hornqvist, whom Zito made his first acquisition in South Florida back in 2020 for similar reasons. “He’s got a little more grit than a lot of other guys have in this league, so it’s always nice to have those guys on your side.”

The high prioritization of postseason preparedness also adds to the uncertainty.

All throughout the preseason, Maurice quietly cautioned and hinted the Panthers’ regular season won’t be quite as thrilling this year as it was in the 2021-22 NHL season.

Last year, Florida scored more goals than anyone had in more than 25 years, finished with the league’s best record and rewrote the franchise record book. The end result, however, was a second-round sweep at the hands of the rival Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs. Brunette admitted in then, Maurice talks about it now and Zito indicated he agreed through his moves in the offseason: The old Panthers’ high-flying, wide-open style, they all think, won’t work in the playoffs.

The Islanders provide a good initial benchmark because they’ve allowed the second fewest goals per game in the NHL across the last four years.

New York will try to make Florida play an ugly game, but, for the first time in years and for good or for ill, a low-scoring affair on Long Island might not be an outlier for the Panthers.

“This is a game we’ve got to get good at,” Maurice said. “We have a certain style I think we excel at — we’ve got lots of speed through the neutral zone; certainly, some playmakers and skill — but this is a game more akin to what you do see in the playoffs. And the best teams are highly skilled, but they can also play this game.”