from George Richards of Florida Hockey Now,

The Florida Panthers have not been a team that draws attention in a positive way for much of the past 20 years, but times have changed.

The Panthers came into the weekend with the best record in the entire National Hockey League and are looked it — both internally and externally — as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

Their coach would like them to start acting like it a little bit when they go on the road.

“We were flat again and it was a disappointing start,’’ coach Andrew Brunette said following Florida’s 5-3 loss at the hands of the expansion Seattle Kraken on Sunday night.

“It’s the price of being a good team in this league; teams are going to be ready for you, they’re going to come at you hard. We haven’t really, in each of our road games so far, figured that out yet.”

It’s a learning process, going from the hunter to the hunted and the Panthers are going to have to get used to the fact that for teams like the Kraken, beating a team like Florida is a big deal.

It did not used to be this way, obviously.

It is now.

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