The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that Jay Feaster and the Lightning hadn’t even wanted to play in Sunrise yesterday and had been trying to have the game canceled or re-scheduled (with the help of other Southeast division opponents who were willing to help by re-scheduling themselves). Alas, the Panthers were not plannign to accomodate the Lightning at any rate:
“As far as I’m concerned this is the last time we’ll play here,” general manager Jay Feaster said.When Sunday’s game was scheduled over the summer, the Lightning was under the impression the regular season would open Saturday. Instead, the regular season begins Wednesday. Feaster said he never would have scheduled a preseason game four days before the season opener.
In the NHL, teams – not the league – schedule preseason games.
Feaster asked the Panthers and general manager Mike Keenan to either move the game or cancel it, but the Panthers refused.
“We moved heaven, earth, mountains and major bodies of water to try to find any way to not have to play (Sunday),” Feaster said, “and there was no cooperation whatsoever by their general manager.”
Iron Mike Keenan strikes again…
Eight more meetings this year — two in the next week for that matter which may mean that you will see fireworks during the October 7th and 8th matchups between the two squads.
