MIAMI \u2014 To hear future Hall of Fame goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky tell it, Friday night\u2019s Winter Classic won\u2019t really be that much different than any other regular season game, at least not for someone in his position.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what it is, all of us are in the same conditions,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s still the same hockey game. The puck is going to be the same, the ice is going to be slippery.\u201d<\/p>\n
With all due respect to the 446-game winner and two-time Stanley Cup champion, it\u2019ll likely be a little bit more complex than that when the puck finally drops at loanDepot Park at the league\u2019s annual outdoor showcase.<\/p>\n
And yes, the roof is expected to be open for the game itself, although it remained closed for Thursday\u2019s practice sessions.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s somewhat unthinkable that both teams are out of a playoff position in what seemed like a marquee matchup on paper when it was set long ago; Florida is just one point out of the final wild card berth in the East, and the Rangers are two points behind them.<\/p>\n
Both Bobrovsky\u2019s Florida Panthers and the New York Rangers spent the day getting acclimated to their new surroundings \u2014 the Panthers were in the Miami Marlins home clubhouse and stationed in the third base dugout, while it was the opposite for the Blueshirts \u2014 as the focus will inevitably shift to them battling for a crucial two points in the standings on Friday night.<\/p>\n
With that said, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice knows that while there\u2019s a lot of soaking it all in to be had for both sides given the unique environment, things will pivot to ultimately needing to remain on the task at hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can feel it, we tried to make this with our team as much fun as we could take it,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the wives are here, the kids are here, moms and dads are here, and it makes it a really great event\u2026we really want to enjoy that\u2026it gets serious at five o\u2019clock tomorrow, but prior to that, you get the experience with your family, your teammates, the trainers.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Rangers side of things, their cramped quarters were missing several key players; captain J.T. Miller skated in a red non-contact jersey during the practice and will not play on Friday per head coach Mike Sullivan, while veteran forward Conor Sheary was spotted on crutches after suffering a lower-body injury on Wednesday afternoon. Combine that with rookie Noah Laba now also out due to an upper-body injury that occurred in the same game, and reinforcements were needed.<\/p>\n
Brett Berard, Anton Blidh and Justin Dowling were all recalled from AHL Hartford \u2014 struggling former first-rounder Brennan Othmann was sent down to make the cap gymnastics work \u2014 and it seems likely that Berard and Dowling will both play on Friday.<\/p>\n
For Berard, an electric, speedy forward who has seen multiple trips between Manhattan and Hartford this year after being unable to produce at the NHL level this season, this isn\u2019t necessarily a last chance, but it may be his best to finally cement his place at the game\u2019s highest level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every time you come up here, it\u2019s an opportunity to prove yourself and earn a spot in the lineup,\u201d said the 23-year-old former fifth-round pick out of Providence College.<\/p>\n
\u201cTreat every call-up the same, and even this one too, treat it the same and try to play my game and try to establish a role, bring as much as I can\u2026I think for me, I kind of slipped away from my game the last couple games, trying to do too much or not being as smart as I was in the first few games. I think just come up here, play simple and play the role we have to play, we\u2019ll be in good shape\u2026I think I was pressing a little too much, maybe trying to make too many plays that just weren\u2019t there, putting too much pressure on myself to score or contribute, which forced me to get away from my game and get away from the forecheck and what I know I can bring. Going back down, getting that part of my game back and then coming back up here to do that is good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 To hear future Hall of Fame goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky tell it, Friday night\u2019s Winter Classic won\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,4,63,43,5366],"class_list":{"0":"post-385580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-floridapanthers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-panthers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-trt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115822323709233235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}