SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Panthers often show up to work in suits. Until further notice, they're wearing robes.
Let's explain: The Stanley Cup champion Panthers got personalized bathrobes for their two-game trip to Finland last week, a gift from the team. They showed up for the two games there wearing the robes. They won both games.
And since hockey streaks are never messed with, the robes are still in style. Every Panthers player showed up at the arena Thursday wearing their robes — which remain unbeaten. Florida beat Nashville 6-2.
“I think we're just going to ride it out until our luck runs out,” Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said.
So, the robes will be worn again when the Panthers return to the ice Saturday?
“There's a very good chance,” Tkachuk said.
It was a spur-of-the-moment idea by the Panthers to wear the robes — a nod to Finland's sauna culture — to the games in Tampere last week. The defending Stanley Cup champions decided at their morning skate Thursday to keep the new tradition alive, with captain Aleksander Barkov sending a message to the team group chat saying to wear the robes to work.
“You've got to be some kind of superstitious at some point, right?" Barkov said. "While it’s working for us, we'll keep going with that.”
Evidently, some were skeptical and thinking they were getting pranked. Aaron Ekblad was only convinced after Tkachuk snapped a photo of himself wearing his robe in his car on the way to the arena.
“Everybody thought there was a prank being played on them,” Tkachuk said. “I tell you what, it's the most comfortable thing ever. It's nice and we're having fun with it. We're a very professional team when it comes to work. We come to the rink and we work. But it's such a long year. You've got to have fun.”
Panthers general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito said the robe idea actually started with Lucy Tallas, the wife of Florida goaltending coach Robb Tallas.
“We have to give the true credit — it was Lucy's idea," Zito said earlier this week.
Florida coach Paul Maurice loves anything that brings a team closer together, and the robe-wearing era for the Panthers seems to be something they're all enjoying.
“Those are the best that have nothing to do with anything but the players,” Maurice said. “Those are the best things that happen. It took some courage to walk into an NHL rink in a robe and I think it got them to start on time.”
Maurice got a robe in Finland as well. But he will arrive for work on Saturday in a suit, just as he did Thursday.
“Nobody — nobody — needs to see that,” Maurice said. “These fine people pay way too much money to be subjected to those nightmares.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, center top, looks on during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)
Florida Panthers left wing Tomas Nosek, left, celebrates with left wing A.J. Greer, right, after scoring a goal during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant officially stepped down Friday in a ceremony that replaced him with Israel Katz, the former foreign minister, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Gallant earlier this week.
Israel has been rocked by Gallant’s dismissal, with the news setting off mass protests across the country. Many in Israel view Gallant as the sole moderate voice in a far-right government, and see his removal as a sign that the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu has lost interest in returning hostages still held in Gaza.
Israel Katz, his replacement, currently serves as foreign minister and is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.
Also Friday, the Israeli military body handling aid to Gaza, COGAT, said it is preparing to open a new aid crossing into Gaza as the deadline for a U.S. deadline to increase desperately-needed aid into the war-ravaged territory approaches. But the body did not say when the crossing will open nor if aid will be delivered to north of Gaza, where the UN and aid groups say the humanitarian situation is most dire.
The United Nations humanitarian office says Israel's monthlong offensive in northern Gaza is preventing the estimated 75,000 to 95,000 Palestinians in the north from receiving essential items for their survival.
On Thursday, the Israeli military says it will allow 300 truckloads of humanitarian aid supplied by the United Arab Emirates to enter the Gaza Strip in the coming days. That’s less than the 350 trucks per day that the United States said it wants to see enter the war-ravaged territory.
The Israel-Hamas war began after militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,100 people have been killed and some 13,800 wounded in Lebanon, the health ministry reported.
Here’s the latest:
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday he was appointing Yechiel Leiter as Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S.
U.S.-born Leiter will replace ambassador Michael Herzog, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
Leiter has been a close aide to Netanyahu and was formerly the deputy director general of Israel’s education ministry and chief of staff to the minister of finance. His son was killed while fighting in Gaza in November.
Netanyahu said Leiter was a “highly talented diplomat, an eloquent speaker,” with a “deep understanding of American culture and politics.”
Leiter has been a senior fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative Jerusalem think tank. He lives in the settlement of Eli in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
JERUSALEM — Israel says it is preparing to open a new aid crossing into Gaza as the deadline for a U.S. deadline to increase desperately-needed aid into the war-ravaged territory approaches.
The Israeli military body handling aid to Gaza, COGAT, said it has built inspection facilities and paved roads around the Kissufim crossing, located near the center of the Gaza. It says food, aid, and fuel will soon be able to be delivered through the crossing, but did not say when it will open nor if aid will be delivered to north of Gaza, where the UN and aid groups say the humanitarian situation is most dire.
Since Israeli forces unleashed a fierce offensive on north Gaza in early October, no aid has made it to the northernmost reaches of the territory, where the UN says roughly 70,000 Palestinians still remain.
The opening of the crossing likely reflects an Israeli desire to ramp up aid ahead of a US-imposed deadline. In an Oct. 13 letter sent to Israeli officials, US officials said Israel had 30 days to increase the daily number of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip to 350 or risk the US reconsidering arms shipments to Israel -- which have been key to Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Israel has so far fallen far short of this benchmark, with COGAT figures showing an average of 57 trucks a day entering Gaza. In the first seven days of November, the average has been 81.
JERUSALEM — Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant officially stepped down Friday in a ceremony that replaced him with Israel Katz, the former Foreign Minister, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Gallant earlier this week.
Israel has been rocked by Gallant’s firing, with the news setting off mass protests across the country. Many in Israel view Gallant as the sole moderate voice in a far-right government, and see his dismissal as a sign that the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu has lost interest in returning hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas militants.
Gallant thanked the military and warned that the war’s “mission is not yet complete; we must meet our moral and traditional obligation, and the war’s objective is to bring home the remaining 101 hostages who haven’t yet seen their families and homes.”
Israel Katz, his replacement, currently serves as foreign minister and is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister. Katz thanked Gallant and said the war’s objectives were to “stop Iranian aggression and deny its capabilities, continue dismantling Hamas as a governing and military force, and defeat Hezbollah.” He added that returning the hostages was a top “moral priority.”
“Yoav, we were friends and will remain friends because we believe in the same things that will secure Israel’s security and future, the Jewish state,” he said. “I promise that the entire State of Israel will emerge from this war and from the pain to much higher places.”
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he hopes US President-Elect Donald Trump will fulfil promises to end the conflict in the Middle East and tell Israel to “stop” its aggression.
Speaking to a group of journalists on a return flight from Hungary, Erdogan also said that cutting off U.S. arms support to Israel “would be a good start” toward ending the conflict in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
“We want that promise to be fulfilled and for Israel to be told to ‘stop,’” Hurriyet newspaper and other media quoted Erdogan as saying on Friday.
Erdogan also called on Trump to abandon what he said were the Biden administration’s “erroneous policies.”
“We expect my dear friend Trump to abandon the erroneous policies of the former administration during his second term as president,” Erdogan said in a televised address. “We sincerely believed that the president will do his part to end the wars.”
Turkey has become one of Israel’s most vocal critics, accusing the country of committing genocide in Gaza and strongly criticizing Western nations for backing Israel.
For more Middle East news: https://apnews.com/hub/middle-east
People protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day after he dismissed his defence minister Yoav Gallant, near the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke and fire rise from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
In this handout photo, Lebanese army soldiers stand guard next to a damaged bus of the Malaysian U.N. peacekeepers at the site of an Israeli strike hit a car, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo)
In this handout photo, civil defense workers and paramedics stand next to a charred car in an Israeli airstrike at the entrance of the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo)
A woman mourns during the funeral procession of people who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday night, in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Smoke rises from buildings hit in Israeli airstrikes in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
