The Latest Breaking News from Aaron Ekblad

The Florida Panthers, they’re not afraid to admit, needed a break — badly.

SUNRISE, Fla. — When puck dropped Saturday at FLA Live Arena, the expectation was the Florida Panthers would need to contain the Edmonton Oilers’ one-two punch of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The two, after all, entered Saturday as the NHL’s top point scorers — McDavid with 31 (15 goals,…

WASHINGTON — Carter Verhaeghe wheeled his arm into a fist pump and, suddenly, two and a half decades of frustration for the Florida Panthers were over.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Carter Verhaeghe is the same 26 years old as Aleksander Barkov, but made his minor-league debut seven years ago when Barkov was on his third stellar season with the Florida Panthers.

The Florida Panthers were all but doomed. There were less three minutes separating them from a near-insurmountable series deficit and, with no goaltender in their net and an extra skater on the ice, they were one shot away from overtime or one away from an almost-certain Game 4 loss to…

SUNRISE, Fla. — If the Florida Panthers couldn’t see an awful end approaching, the desperate fans packed inside FLA Live Arena on Thursday certainly could, groaning at every misplayed puck and blown power-play chance for more than 15 minutes in the first period until, finally, there was relief. Later, there…

Andrew Brunette did not know what was going to come next. It was a feeling he had before: When he retired from the NHL after 1,110 games and 268 goals in 2013, he thought about coaching, going to work in a front office or maybe even getting on television —…

Tuesday turned out to be a great day for the Florida Panthers.

Bill Zito, at least as far as he can recall, had not made a game-time trip into the Florida Panthers’ dressing room all season, but he had a headache right before the puck dropped on the Panthers’ game against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, so he happened to make his…