Panthers are shaking up defense pairings during training camp. There’s a reason for that

Watch a Florida Panthers training camp practice, and you’ll notice that Paul Maurice has put together some interesting defenseman pairings.

Gustav Forsling and Aaron Ekblad are not a tandem like they have been the past two seasons. Instead, Forsling has been with new signee Adam Boqvist and Ekblad has been with youngster Tobias Bjornfot.

Niko Mikkola has been working with 23-year-old Mikulas Hovorka. Dmitry Kulikov has been with 20-year-old Marek Alscher. And Nate Schmidt has been with Uvis Balinskis.

Now, Panthers coach Paul Maurice made it clear the pairings we see now almost assuredly won’t be the pairings he plans to use when the season begins Oct. 8 against the Boston Bruins.

But for now, he likes matching veterans with newcomers to the team or younger players.

Why is that?

“It’s a mentorship there with the young players,” Maurice said. “There’s a lot of things that I think, on the defensive side, that [assistant coach] Sylvain Lefebrve does differently. So, some of this stuff is new and we have maybe a different way of how we do rush defense than other teams. You can show video and talk them through it, but they need to be able to talk to somebody on the boards who has experience with it. Like ‘Should I have gone or not?’’ And if a coach can’t get to him, that’s a learning opportunity lost. So, we like to put those guys with veterans who can answer their questions.”

Maurice said the team will likely stick with these defensemen pairings through the early stages of the preseason, starting with Sunday’s doubleheader against the Nashville Predators, but will likely get closer to the pairings he wants for the season as Opening Night gets closer.

“I’m not saying there is not a long-term plan,” Maurice said, “but we’re not cemented to anything there for the long term. We’ll re-adjust those guys back to what we think their pairs would be.”

Fans turn out for Saturday practice

The Panthers’ opened their final practice of training camp on Saturday to fans, with about 3,000 showing up to the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale according to the Panthers.

It was the first time the Panthers were on the ice in front of their fans since their Game 7 Stanley Cup Final win over the Edmonton Oilers on June 24 at Amerant Bank Arena.

“Man, it’s just really good. The connection and the enjoyment,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after practice Saturday. “I like to have them in the building, especially today because Day 3 is no fun. Then we have the doubleheader against Nashville and they will have a day to recover after the game [Monday], so this is the hump day. The first three days are the hardest days of the whole year in some ways, so you needed a little push.

“It’s great for the fans, great for the players, lousy for the goalies, right?” Maurice added. “Because everybody’s shooting to score on the first rush. It’s nice.”

The players certainly felt their energy.

After practice ended, Panthers players gave the fans in attendance a salute. The fans responded with a round of applause.

“I can’t believe they were out there,” Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “They support us and we love having them out. It definitely gave us a little extra juice for the third day of camp.”

Mackie Samoskevich update

Forward Mackie Samoskevich (upper body) on Saturday did individual work in between group practice sessions for a second consecutive day and then joined the second group for a short period in a gold, non-contact sweater.

Maurice said the plan is for Samoskevich to be full go on Tuesday, the team’s first practice following Sunday’s doubleheader against Nashville.