When the Panthers host the New York Rangers at loanDepot park in Miami on Jan. 2 (8 p.m. ET; HBO Max, truTV, TNT, SNW, SNO, SNE, TVAS), they will play outdoors for the first time in team history. The NHL will stage an outdoor game for the first time in the Sunshine State.
But the 29-year-old defenseman looks at it as just another game.
The Panthers are trying to become the first team to win the Stanley Cup three years in a row since the New York Islanders won four straight championships from 1980-83. They’re in a tight race, tied with the Rangers for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
That’s what matters to him.
This isn’t like when Ekblad played for Barrie of the Ontario Hockey League from 2011-14. Back then, his billet family lived on Lake Simcoe. He and his teammates would shovel off the ice and play on the lake, or they’d go to another billet family’s house that had an outdoor rink with boards and benches.
He has memories of horsing around with teammates like Anthony Camara, Brendan Lemieux and Mark Scheifele. Even though they spent so much time at the rink indoors, they loved skating outdoors. They were carefree.
“I think when you’re that age, [hockey’s] kind of all you got,” Ekblad said. “No family, no wife, no kids, no nothing. You’re just going out and having fun, hanging out. If we didn’t have school, if we didn’t have a morning skate, we would go shoot some pucks on the ice.”
The Panthers selected Ekblad with the No. 1 pick of the 2014 NHL Draft, and he won the Calder Trophy in 2014-15, when he was voted the NHL rookie of the year. He has spent years helping them build.
In four of his first five seasons, they didn’t make the playoffs. They didn’t win a series until his eighth season. In his ninth season, they made the Stanley Cup Final. In his 10th and 11th, they won the Cup.
Ekblad signed an eight-year, $48.8 million contract July 1 to remain with Florida, saying it meant the world to him.
Only center Aleksander Barkov has played more games (804) in Panthers history, and the captain won’t be able to play in the Winter Classic due to a knee injury. Ekblad is the all-time leader in games (767), goals (119), assists (274) and points (393) among Panthers defensemen.
“If you could say that there’s a soul to our team, he owns some of it,” general manager Bill Zito said. “[Barkov] owns some of it, and everybody in their own way owns a little bit of it. But those guys who have been here, who lived through different times, who were willing to adapt to changes that needed to be made … it’s inspiring. He’s a guy that always wanted to stay. It was no secret. He said, ‘I want to stay. Let’s figure out a way.’”
