WATCH: Florida Panthers Team Details Road Trip Poker GamesCards Out on Trip To Edmonton For NHL Stanley Cup Contenders |
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The Florida Panthers hit the road for game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals and had quite a long trip to face on the Edmonton Oilers. With so many hours on a plane, it’s a good bet some poker was played.
The team apparently had a regular poker game when jetting around during the regular season and playoffs. Several players detailed the team’s games this week in a video for Sportsnet, which includes left wing Nick Cousins, forward Sam Bennett, left wing Carter Verhaeghe, defenseman Gustav Forsling, defenseman Aaron Ekblad, defenseman Josh Mahura, right wing Matthew Tkachuk, and defenseman Brandon Montour.
“They get pretty intense,” Ekblad said of the games at a recent news conference. “We have a good time with it. It’s competitive like you’d expect.”
The group plays for about six hours and relaxing with some card playing appears to have served the team well. The Panthers cruised through the playoffs, including beating the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals, which had been the top team in the NHL’s regular season standings.
“The best one is (Forsling), he’s sneaky. Can’t read him,” Tkachuk says of his teammate in the video.
The Florida Panthers are all-in.
The Cats discuss who’s been cleaning up at the poker table on the team plane. pic.twitter.com/nrCH6M5hYp— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 11, 2024
Bennett called Cousins the worst player in the bunch. A flight delay on Wednesday’s trip to Canada left the group even more time to play.
The Panthers are up 2-0 on the Oilers after winning the first two games at home, but can expect a raucous full house in Edmonton on Thursday. The team is hoping to win Canada’s first Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.
Other pro athletes have been known to play some poker while on the road. In 2021, Golden State Warriors rookie center James Wiseman received some needling from teammates for forgetting the poker chips on a road trip that year. ’
Photo by @FlaPanthers on Twitter/X
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