from Alain Poupart at the NHL's website,

"We just have a plan now of what we're going to do the next few days here before we travel," defenseman Marc Staal said. "So everyone knows what we've got the next few days and we'll prepare as best we can and go from there. So, it just gets a little more structured if we know what we're doing and prepare that way."

It will be 10 days between games for the Panthers. They completed a four-game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday with a 4-3 victory at FLA Live Arena.

While concern about staying sharp might be valid, Panthers coach Paul Maurice said he preferred the idea of his players getting additional time to recover from the wear and tear of the Carolina series, which featured four games decided by one goal, starting with the quadruple-overtime victory in Game 1.

"None of the things that you would normally have wanted to have happen has happened to us and they all turned out good, so be careful what you wish for," Maurice said. "So we've just decided not to wish for anything, just take what it is. The positive for us is we do have players that are healing.

"That quadruple-overtime game, there was a cost to it for both teams and I don't think that you get to recover from that until the series is over. … It's a big block of time off and how do you stay sharp, but I would take the rest over worrying about how sharp we're going to be in Game 1."

read on