Panthers downplay their travel delay and late arrival in Edmonton during the Stanley Cup Final
The Panthers arrived in Edmonton less than 24 hours before Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final after storms in South Florida delayed their lengthy cross-continental flight
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The Florida Panthers' decision to spend more time at home and wait an extra day to travel from one corner of the continent to the other during the Stanley Cup Final became the talk of the series when their flight Wednesday got delayed by severe storms in and around Fort Lauderdale.
The plane eventually got off the ground, landed late in Edmonton and got the Panthers to their hotel less than 24 hours before facing the Oilers in Game 3. The travel woes were the buzz of their morning skate Thursday, with players and coach Paul Maurice downplaying them at every turn.
“Everybody else is making it a bigger deal than what it was,” Swedish defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “We got in three hours later than expected, but we got everything done that we wanted to do before bedtime. Sometimes you can’t really do anything about the weather. We can just control what we can control, and it just played out that way. I don’t think it was a big deal.”
The NHL built an extra travel day into the schedule, a good thing because this is the farthest apart two finalists have been in league history: 2,543 miles (4,092 kilometers) between their home arenas.
