"It's fun to have a bunch of people watching practice," Panthers center Vincent Trocheck said. "It was fun to go out there and have some fun and get the kids into it. It's good for us and good for them to come out and see us. I could hear them 30 minutes before we even got out there."
As part of the NHL and NHLPA's Future Goals program, students learned about the sport prior to their visit by participating in Everfi's Hockey Scholar course, which utilizes 12 hockey-themed learning modules to teach STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) concepts.
Since its launch in 2014, Future Goals has benefitted more than 375,000 students.
"I wish they had that when I was a kid," Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle said of the program. "That's a cool thing. The NHL does so many things to help out in communities with everything from school to afterschool programs… It's something that really helps out everyone."
Throughout the practice, Yandle kept the kids on their feet.
In between drills, the fun-loving defenseman was waving to crowd, raising his arms up and down to elicit some booming cheers and even flipped a few souvenir pucks into the stands.
"It was awesome," Yandle said. "I remember doing that as a kid. I went to a NHL practice and it was the same type of thing. I remember watching the practice and just being like, 'Ah, man, this is unbelievable.' To be able to do it now is great. They were into it, too. They were having fun."
At the end of practice, players put on a show for the students with a shootout competition.
"[The kids] were loud and having some fun at practice," Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said, flashing a big smile. "I thought we had good pace in practice. The guys had some fun with the shootout afterwards, but I thought everybody enjoyed it. It was a good day."
The Panthers will return to action on Thursday when they host the New York Islanders.
