{"id":447754,"date":"2026-02-05T21:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/447754\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T21:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:34:22","slug":"tkachuk-bennett-lead-large-panthers-contingent-to-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/447754\/","title":{"rendered":"Tkachuk, Bennett lead large Panthers contingent to Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 Sam Bennett kept his disappointment to himself when he did not make the cut for the Canadian Olympic hockey team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very, very disappointed,\u201d Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. \u201cI\u2019m just almost projecting because he didn\u2019t say that to me. He must have been hurt. But he handled it very professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

That disappointment disappeared Tuesday when Bennett was named to the team as a late replacement,<\/a> filling in for Tampa Bay\u2019s injured forward Anthony Cirelli. Despite the last-second addition and change of plans, Bennett said he was thrilled to go to Italy to represent Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an amazing day (Tuesday),\u201d Bennett said. \u201cObviously, you go from being super disappointed and just thinking about what more I could have done or what else I could have done differently and just trying to play the rest of the year and not think about it too much. And to get that call yesterday \u2014 it\u2019s really something I\u2019ve dreamt about as a kid and thought about every day since last year, putting on that jersey. So, yeah, to say it meant a lot to me is a huge understatement because it really meant the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett is the latest of nine Panthers players<\/a> who will head to Italy to play in the Winter Olympics. Matthew Tkachuk is the lone Panther on the American team. Bennett, Sam Reinhart and Brad Marchand will play for the Canadian team. Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola are playing for Finland. Gustav Forsling is playing for Sweden, and Uvis Balinskis is playing for Latvia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible that the guys get to go back and have this opportunity,\u201d Marchand said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s so excited about it. Just such a buzz around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers would have had more players on the rosters if the team was completely healthy. Captain Aleksander Barkov, who played in the 2014 Olympics when he was 18, is out as he recovers from a knee injury. Defenseman Seth Jones made the American team but will miss the Olympics after suffering an injury last month.<\/a><\/p>\n

None of the Panthers who are playing in this year\u2019s games have played in the Olympics; NHL players did not participate in the last two Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think regardless if we went every four years, every 12 years, you\u2019re just so excited for that moment,\u201d Marchand said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that is very rare. \u2026 You play a long time in the NHL; It doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re given that opportunity. And it really is the only best-on-best tournament that you get to see every kind of country on display. \u2026 Even just everything else:\u00a0 the history behind it, everything else that surrounds it, all the other sports. There\u2019s so much that goes into it that makes it so unique and special. We\u2019re all so excited and thrilled to be part of it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tkachuk, now the lone American representative, became a face of American hockey during the Four Nations Face Off last year. The USA made it to the final but lost to Canada. America has not won Olympic gold in men\u2019s ice hockey since 1980 and has not medaled since 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really exciting time to be an American hockey player,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cJust to be able to go represent our country again and hopefully, do what our country hasn\u2019t done in 40-plus years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond playing, Tkachuk said he is looking forward to meeting other Olympians and potentially watching other events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speed skating will be really cool to watch, especially coming from a not-fast skater,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see how quick they are out there. I\u2019m really just excited for the camaraderie with the other U.S. Olympians or Olympians in general. I\u2019m excited to eat meals with people that I\u2019ve never met before or talk about their sports or how they got into it. Just really looking forward to meeting all of them, especially the U.S. Olympians. It\u2019s crazy. You could be a speed skater, a snowboarder, a biathlon (athlete) \u2014 I don\u2019t even know what that is \u2014 but if you\u2019re representing the United States, you\u2019re on the same team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE \u2014 Sam Bennett kept his disappointment to himself when he did not make the cut for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,1180,4,63,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-447754","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-latest-headlines","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-panthers","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116020176847783232","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447754","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=447754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}