Daily Archives: January 10, 2013

The NHL Lockout officially ended this past Sunday, and by Monday January 14th, teams will begin holding their first official training camps. Just a few short days later on Saturday January 19th, the NHL will open their (abbreviated) season.  The Florida Panthers have been holding informal workouts at the Glacier Ice Arena in Pompano Beach, and yesterday switched to the friendly confines of the Saveology Ice Plex in Coral Springs.

Since the new CBA agreement hasn’t been ratified by the players yet, the Cats will continue to hold informal workouts in Coral Springs, and the first official practice with coaches will be Monday after taking their physicals Sunday.  My guess is that as usual, these workouts will be open to the public, so I expect to see you there. 

Moving ahead the Panthers as you know will be inviting some non roster players to try out for the team.  Marek Svatos, Alexei Kovalev and Andrei Kostitsyn all have invites and are expected to be given an opportunity to make the squad.  Hampered by injuries, and needing scoring, any one of these three veteran players can help, provided that they are in game shape, and ready to produce.  Don’t expect great things from them, but if any or all of them can play well consistenlty, it will be a breathe of fresh air.  The most intriguing addition could be Kovalev, who is an extremely gifted player even at 39 years old.  He can be helpful on both the power play as well as in shootouts.

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