Cats & Coffee: Ekblad off to hot start at World Cup, Name Springfield’s Mascot

Good morning and welcome to “Cats & Coffee,” a weekly segment presented by Community Coffee in which we get you caffeinated with an exciting look at the week ahead for the Florida Panthers.

It might only be the pre-tournament round, but at least one Florida Panthers player is already making a big name for himself on the international stage at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Aaron Ekblad, who signed an eight-year contract extension with the Panthers this offseason, scored twice to help North America beat Europe 7-4 on Sunday night in his second of three exhibition games. Ekblad, who is also serving as one of North America’s alternate captains, is currently ranked second among defenseman with three points (2-1—3) through the first two games of the pre-tournament round.

“There’s a time to work and there’s a time to rest. Right now is a time to work,” Ekblad said in his official World Cup blog. “During the tournament, we can have rest days and recuperate after we learn the systems, after we’ve nailed down the details and created space for ourselves. So that’s what (the coaches) kind of pushing onto us.”

From Sept. 17 to Oct. 1, 2016, Ekblad, Vincent Trocheck, Aleksander Barkov and Jussi Jokinen will be representing the Panthers during this exciting best-on-best international hockey championship. Trocheck is playing alongside Ekblad on North America, while Barkov and Jokinen are both competing for Finland, with Jokinen serving as one of the team’s alternate captains.

Panthers head coach Gerard Gallant, who was an All-Star and finalist for the Jack Adams trophy last season, is also serving as an assistant coach for North America.

The World Cup of Hockey continues this week with the final games of the pre-tournament round on Tuesday and Wednesday. Things will get serious later in the week, however, as the preliminary round is slated to begin on Saturday.

Make sure to check back on Thursday for our full World Cup preview, which will include schedules, statistics and other useful bits of information.

This week’s schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, Sept. 13 
 Team Finland vs. Team USA – Verizon Center; Washington, DC
7 p.m. ET – ESPN, SN1, TVA Sports

Wednesday, Sept.14 
 Team Czech Republic vs. Team North America – CONSOL Energy Center; Pittsburgh
3:30 p.m. ET – ESPN3, SN, SN1, TVA Sports

Team Canada …

continue reading in source panthers.nhl.com