JOE THORNTON

Nearly a month has passed since the Florida Panthers season ended in a very abrupt and shocking manner.

The two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning face the best in the West Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final beginning Wednesday in Denver.

Joe Thornton’s career may be over.

There will be a Presidents’ Trophy banner hanging over the Florida Panthers’ home ice next season.

The pressure is squarely on the Florida Panthers, New York Rangers and Calgary Flames down two games to one in their respective first-round series.

Aleksander Barkov scored his 38th goal of the season and the Florida Panthers tied a franchise record with their 12th straight win, beating the Detroit Red Wings 5-2.

Tuesday marked the return of Joe Thornton to the franchise that he was the face of for parts of three decades.

The Panthers are on the road for their west coast trip and Local 10 News is along for the ride.

Officially, Barkov is week-to-week with a lower-body injury.

This year’s offseason moves have put the Panthers in prime position to take the next step in working towards championship hopes. “I think that the players are proud to be Panthers,” Zito said of the team’s new culture going into the new year. Despite the strides the Panthers made in the regular season, Zito is adamant about performing in the sport’s biggest stage. The Panthers officially signed Knight to the roster with a three-year entry-level contract towards the end of last season. However, the burning question that dominated the offseason was the extension status for the Panthers’ superstar forward and captain, Aleksander Barkov.

Lundell joined the Panthers during a team practice at the Ice Den in Coral Springs on Monday, skating on a line with Joe Thornton and Maxim Mamin, both of whom were also returning from minor injuries.

Losing to Tampa Bay was bad enough for the Florida Panthers in last season’s playoffs. Watching the Lightning go on to win the Stanley Cup, oddly enough, didn’t make things worse.

The Florida Panthers held a virtual media day ahead of the team's 2021-22 season.

The former first overall pick and veteran of over 1,600 NHL games said it was "an easy decision" to sign with Florida.

Joe Thornton’s pursuit of the elusive Stanley Cup is bringing him to the Florida Panthers.

The NHL says it has not told players virus protocols would be relaxed when a team reaches a certain threshold of vaccination.

Zdeno Chara is no longer in Boston after the Bruins captain signed with Washington. And the Sabres made an even bigger splash in free agency by landing 2018 NHL MVP Taylor Hall in October. Hall, for example, signed a one-year, $8 million deal with Buffalo by realizing the free-agent market was going to be tight. Oilers general manager Ken Holland chalked it up to the new economic realities facing the NHL. “It’s salary-cap related, which is related to the pandemic, which has given us a hard, flat cap for the foreseeable future,” Holland said.