SUNRISE, Fla. – Help get the four kids started. Drive to the rink. Practice and prepare. Return home and be a dad. Repeat it the next day and the next week and the next six months of another hockey season. It was Kyle Okposo’s routine – his established normal – while playing for the Buffalo Sabres.
The normal was turned upside down on March 8 when he was traded to the Florida Panthers, a club with Stanley Cup aspirations that was looking for an experienced depth forward with a championship goal before he retires.
His home is now a hotel room in south Florida. He had to text old/new teammate Sam Reinhart about where to sit on the bus and plane. He needed to learn a new style of play on the fly. And he had to adapt to not playing in every game.
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“You do feel like a rookie – it’s wild,” he said, adding that his 1,048 regular-season games are the most on the Florida roster. “You know everybody in the building, you know everybody’s name, you know what makes people tick, the dynamics of the team and coaching staff and you can be a little bit comfortable. That first week here, I didn’t have any of that. I was kind of like, ‘All right, let’s go back to my default,’ which is listen, observe and work as hard as I can. It’s been a great transition so far.”
Okposo’s new team, which is battling for an Atlantic Division title, faces his former team on April 13. He turns 36 three days later, so it could be the last time he plays the Sabres, the club he served so well for eight years and 516 games, including the final season-plus as captain.
During an expansive conversation with The Buffalo News on Tuesday, Okposo covered many topics, including the Sabres’ season, how he is adjusting to life with the Panthers and how he spends time away from the rink.
Okposo has fit in seamlessly with the Panthers. He is reunited with Reinhart (one of his best friends) and former Sabres defenseman Brandon Montour. He’s also wearing No. 8 for the first time since playing juniors for the Des Moines Buccaneers in 2005-06 (Panthers teammate Nick Cousins offered him No. 21 after the trade).
“Great guy,” Panthers winger/team heartbeat Matthew Tkachuk said. “He’s great for us on and off the ice. He provides so much leadership and experience, and is such a hard worker and is just very enthusiastic about coming to a team that is a contending team.”
And the Panthers are certainly that. They qualified as the eighth seed last year and marched to the Eastern Conference title before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in a five-game Stanley Cup Final. Through Thursday’s games, their 97 points are two behind Boston in the Atlantic Division.
Okposo hasn’t played in a postseason game since May 8, 2016, when his New York Islanders were eliminated by the Tampa Bay Lightning, the last of his 24 career playoff games. His long wait is just about over.
“I know what’s on the horizon and I know what’s coming and it’s been a long time for me,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to that feeling.”
‘Unfortunate’ Sabres season
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, said Okposo in a red Panthers sweatshirt with No. 8 on the sleeve, talking about playing for the Sabres in the past tense. Their jump forward in 2022-23, playing meaningful hockey until game No. 81 and just missing the playoffs, was supposed to set the table for postseason games in downtown Buffalo next month.
From the jump, though, things went off script. A 5-1 opening-night loss to the New York Rangers. A 15-19-4 record on Dec. 31. And a 29-30-5 mark the night before the trade deadline. Try as they might, the Sabres couldn’t recapture the mojo.
“Definitely, 100%, we should have been better,” Okposo said. “It’s unfortunate. The expectations weren’t met and I’m sure they’re going to talk about it and try and rectify it.”
Okposo wanted to be a part of the solution, wanted to be the Sabres’ captain that helped lead the franchise back to the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
Okposo played 136 games as the Sabres’ captain, a role he cherished in the present and will cherish in the future.
I mentioned that his name will forever be listed under the heading of “All-Time Sabres Captains.” How meaningful was wearing the “C” to him?
Okposo paused and looked to the carpeted floor. What followed was an answer full of passion, insight … and a tinge of regret.
“It meant a lot to me because I look that responsibility extremely seriously,” he said. “I wanted to create an environment in which I felt like it would give us the best opportunity to succeed. I tried my best to help everybody along their career path, whether it was another player, a coach, a (general) manager, a chef, a security guard – anybody. I tried to represent the team and the organization in a way that I thought was appropriate and was respectful.
“As far as the hockey side, I wanted everybody to feel their best and wanted everybody to be in the best place mentally to be able to perform at their peak. That first season (2022-23) when I was the captain was a lot of fun. It was special. But nothing really changed (in leading) other than I felt like I had the leeway to do that all the time and mold the group.
“There is one reason why being a captain in the National Hockey League is special in my opinion: When you win the Stanley Cup, the Stanley Cup gets handed to you (first). And that is the biggest regret I have – I wasn’t able to do that in Buffalo because it is one of the most special traditions in the game.”
Upon arriving in Florida, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice wanted Okposo to be liberated.
“We’re not the oldest team in the league, but we have a bunch of men and a bunch of veterans in there and he fits in really well,” Maurice said. “He’s a ‘fit’ guy and he gets to come in and just play now. When you’re the captain of an NHL team, especially a young team (like the Sabres), there is a whole lot you do other than play and we’re hopeful and we’ve talked about him coming in and just enjoying the experience.”
Adjustments galore
About 50 feet away, Okposo’s Panthers teammates were going through pregame warmups before Tuesday’s game against the Boston Bruins. As a healthy scratch, he was available to visit in the team meeting room. That was part of Maurice’s plan to mix and match his fourth line before the playoffs, keeping guys sharp but also finding out which guys deserve a jersey for Game 1 of Round 1 in a few weeks.
Maurice and General Manager Bill Zito presented the vision to Okposo. The Panthers reached last year’s final round but attrition caved in their chances against Vegas. Only 12 skaters played all 21 postseason games and 22 skaters played at least one game. To win the Cup, it really does take everybody. The key is having players who can play well after not seeing game action for two, four, eight, 10 days.
“I knew what I was coming to, for sure, and I had no problem with it,” Okposo said. “I’ve never been one to be scared of work, so I’m going to work as hard as I can and I know I have something to offer this team.”
Through Thursday, Okposo had played in three of a possible nine games, logging ice times of 10:34, 12:55 and 9:57; he averaged around 13:30 in 61 games for the Sabres.
“Been OK – haven’t played bad, haven’t played good,” he said. “Just finding my footing. You’re trying not to think as much out there when you’re playing hockey and you just want to have your instincts take over.”
Finding his footing, Part 1: Learning the Panthers’ systems.
“They’re different,” Okposo said with a laugh. “Drastically different styles in how we’re trying to win a game. (Sabres head coach Don Granato’s) philosophy is going to be different than Paul’s. They’re different people and have different views on how to play the game. You have to adjust accordingly.”
Finding his footing, Part 2: He’s not playing in every game.
Okposo said he would watch the Bruins-Panthers game on a television monitor and work out between periods. After the Panthers’ 4-3 loss, he was in his jacket and tie and walking out of the arena as the media waited to interview players. Practices and morning skates have become his wheelhouse to stay sharp.
“That was one of the things I spoke to Paul about,” he said. “I wanted to make sure my intensity in practice was high and I wanted to make sure I was going as hard as I can to try and get to the pace that they play here, so I’ve been trying to use those practice days and morning skates to do that. (Not playing regularly) would have affected me a lot more when I was younger. The time off now doesn’t bother me as much anymore – I know how to get myself ready to play a game.”
Tkachuk has been impressed with Okposo.
“I can’t say enough about what he’s provided in his short stint here,” Tkachuk said. “He’s a guy we can rely on for anything and he goes out there and plays the perfect style.”
Ready to contribute
An ideal scenario for Okposo’s first game against the Sabres would be Florida at Buffalo and a chance for fans to salute their former captain, a video tribute to be played, both teams to rise and bang their sticks on the ice or boards and his family present to embrace the scene. Instead, the Panthers will be playing for postseason seeding and the Sabres will be playing out the string.
Will it be weird or fun for Okposo?
“A little bit of both,” he said. “I was with the (New York) Islanders for nine years and then I went to Buffalo and that first game was super weird and very odd. This is going to be a strange one, that’s for sure.”
Also strange is being on the longest kind of road trip. Okposo’s wife and four kids were scheduled to arrive in South Florida last Wednesday to see each other for the first time since the trade.
“A lot of FaceTime,” he said. “It’s not easy. I’m at a different stage of my life where I really enjoy time with my family and enjoy that, when I leave the rink, I have something to focus on and I’m a dad, I’m a husband and I can coach (son Odin’s) hockey, I can go to dance competitions, go to soccer, play knee hockey – whatever it is. To get thrust back into this world of when I was essentially 24 years old, that’s been a pretty big adjustment.”
Okposo spent recent nights reading “The Bald Truth,” a book by David Falk, Michael Jordan’s longtime agent.
“I’ve always been interested in the business side of the game and (Falk was) obviously a cutting-edge agent for a long time so I’m trying to get some different perspectives and Michael Jordan is my favorite athlete of all time,” Okposo said.
Are the Sabres in his future in an off-ice role?
“We’ll see,” Okposo said. “Obviously, I really enjoyed my time there and have a lot of close connections with players, management and the coaching staff. I want to see what’s best for my family. My wife has made a lot of sacrifices for me to do what I do and I’m going to sit down with her and we’re going to try and map out our life and see what the next phase looks like. If that involves working for a team, of course I would entertain it.”
Okposo has some other business to handle first: helping the Panthers win their first Stanley Cup.
“I like that we play playoff hockey every night,” he said. “We’re going to be pretty well-suited to go. Our game is solid, it’s tight, it’s demanding and I think we’re mean. We play hard and I don’t think teams particularly like playing against us and that bodes well in the playoffs. Obviously, everybody will ratchet (their games) up, but we have some horses and we’ve got some dogs. I do think I have something to offer from my experience and hopefully I can be a presence in the locker room and get my game to where I feel like I’m making an impact.”
That is also the Panthers’ expectation.
“We got into five and almost six lines last year in the playoffs, so he will become a really important part for us,” Maurice said. “If we have any success, he’ll be a big piece of it.”