The Florida coach, who won the Stanley Cup three times with the Chicago Blackhawks, joined the NHL @TheRink podcast on Friday and told co-hosts Dan Rosen and Shawn P. Roarke he believes people around the NHL are sleeping on the Panthers.
"I think we're under the radar," Quenneville said. "I think we look at our team and I think that we're maybe a little underappreciated. I don't complain about that. But at the same time I think we're a little bit deeper than we were last year. We're more competitive throughout the lineup. I think our back end should be improved. I think our goaltending is going to be better.
"So I think all aspects, we should be improving. I just think there is more pace to our game. I look forward to having that consistency that we didn't see quite enough last year. If we have that show up regularly for our team, we're going to surprise some people."
Quenneville also spoke about the future of defenseman Keith Yandle, who is expected not to play in the Panthers' season opener against the Blackhawks at BB&T Center on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, TVAS, FS-F, NBCSCH, NHL.TV). Yandle has played in 866 consecutive games, the longest active streak by an NHL player and the fourth-longest in NHL history.
Another topic was the expectations for goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who will not play Sunday.
Bobrovsky skated for the first time in training camp Monday. Quenneville said he could start against the Blackhawks at BB&T Center on Tuesday and likes what he has seen so far from the two-time Vezina Trophy winner, who is entering the second season of a seven-year contract.
"The way Bobrovsky] has always been viewed, we're looking forward to seeing that type of play," Quenneville said. "He couldn't have been coming into it on a better frame of mind here over the last two months."
In addition, Mike Zeisberger, NHL.com's Toronto-based staff writer, joined the podcast to talk about several storylines swirling around the Scotia North Division and participate in a debate with Rosen and Roarke about who should be considered the best player in the NHL today.
The podcast is free and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms. It is also available on
[NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts
and the NHL app.
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Listen: New episode of NHL @TheRink
