Vitek Vanecek earns ‘Van-ny!’ chants from Florida fans in strong Panthers debut

By Canadian Press on March 8, 2025.

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Vitek Vanecek was traded to the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. By Saturday night, Panthers fans were already chanting his name.

Fans at Amerant Bank arena screamed “Van-ny! Van-ny!” during a strong debut by the 29-year-old goaltender, who stopped all 21 shots he faced to help the Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-0 and extend their win streak to six straight games.

“I heard it, probably twice,” Vanecek said of the chants. “That’s really beautiful. The fans are great here. I mean, it’s my first game, but I played a couple times (here) on different teams. I know they’ve always been great.”

The former San Jose Sharks goalie recorded his first shutout of the season and the ninth of his career on Saturday in a dominant Panthers effort. Vanecek became just the third Florida goaltender to have a shutout in his debut, joining Chris Driedger (vs. Nashville on Nov. 30, 2019) and Jose Theodore (vs. New York Islanders on Oct. 8, 2011).

“He had to make saves tonight,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, “and tough saves. That team, they’ve got some offense, and they’re dangerous. And he earned that shutout.”

Vanecek was one of several acquisitions Florida made ahead of Friday’s NHL trade deadline, as the defending Standley Cup champions gear up for a run at another cup title.

Veteran stars Brad Marchand and Seth Jones were among Florida’s splashy new additions. But Vanecek — added for depth after Florida sent away goalie Spencer Knight in the trade for Jones — showed Saturday how he can be a boost behind two-time Vezina Trophy-winning starter Sergei Bobrovsky.

“He’s very efficient, very square like Sergei,” Maurice said. “I always found them to be fairly similar … efficient, square and calm, and then fight. Fight for pucks and in the scrums and battle, so there’s good compete in the net.”

Vanecek denied Buffalo’s Peyton Krebs on a breakaway in the first, then made a huge sliding save against Sabres Ryan McLeod in the second. That’s when Panthers fans gave him an ovation and a rowdy applause.

“Confidence builder right away for him,” said Vanecek’s former Sharks teammate Nico Sturm, who joined the Panthers in a separate trade this week. “You get your first win, your first game under your belt. And then it’s just all routine from here on out.”

The Sharks (17-38-9) are eighth in the Pacific Division and in a completely different situation than Florida (40-21-3) which is first in the Atlantic.

Sturm, who also made his debut on Saturday and got some action on special teams, said it felt nice to play meaningful hockey for the first time in a while.

“I haven’t won a lot of games in the last couple of years, unfortunately,” Sturm said. “And so I think for the role that I play, it means something — like it has an impact on the game. If you kill penalties and you still give up five goals in the game, it feels like your role’s a little bit irrelevant.

“But today, even though I’m not on the scoresheet, we kill big penalties, get a big block, the team wins. That’s your reward. It feels good.”

Florida has recorded three shutouts in its past four games. The Panthers have only allowed one goal during that stretch — the first team to do that since the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020-21 en route to their second consecutive Stanley Cup title.

And they’ve done it without one of their best players, star forward Matthew Tkachuk, who hasn’t played since the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament last month because of a lower-body injury and isn’t expected to be back for at least a few weeks.

Maurice credited this impressive stretch to the Panthers’ top-end veterans who have put in a lot of work with the team, but he noted those key acquisitions at the trade deadline made a big impact.

“All of the teams that are in that top three in their divisions, they all just got better,” Maurice said. “And and we did, too. For us it was specific to our needs. So we got very, very good players that came in, in the holes that we needed filled. It makes a big difference.”

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Alanis Thames, The Associated Press