Welcome to the 2023-24 2nd annual Florida Cup Ice Hockey Showcase. This event is designed to create a playoff atmosphere in the early part of the season for the local Florida teams: The Florida Eels, the Jr Blades, the Tampa Bay Juniors and the Palm Beach Typhoon. Whereas the Atlanta Mad Hatters Jacksonville and Columbia will square ff in what is known this season as the Military Cup.
The Florida Cup is a 2 day event consisting of Saturday and Sunday games. The seedings are based on conclusion last year’s Regular Season final standings. The 1st place team will Face-Off against the lowest seed. The 2nd seed will square off against the 3rd seed. Last season the both Eels teams were the winners of both the Elite and Premier Florida Cups. The Premier being the Gold and the Elite the Silver. So the Eels are the defending Champions.
In this year’s contest, both Eels teams finished at the top of the standings as Regular Season Champs. The Jr Blades finished the lowest seed amongst the 4 organizations participating so they will square off against the Eels this upcoming weekend. The Tampa Juniors will Face-off against the Palm Beach Typhoon on the initial day of games. On Sunday, the winners of each set of games will then compete for the Florida Cups on Sunday.
The spirit of these games is what throttles the competition. The games do count in the standings as part of their 44 regular season games. Each team plays the Florida teams 8 times -4 home and 4 away, for 24 games, they play the Mad Hatters in 6 games – 3 home and 3 away, for a subtotal of 30 games, then they compete in 3 showcases, 2 in Florida and 1 in the Southeast, for a subtotal of 12 showcase games for a subtotal of 42 games, and then they compete in the Florida Cup in 2 games, totaling a 44 game season.
No doubt the Florida Cup establishes preliminary bragging rights for the teams. They are well scouted on Flohockey and part of the regular recruiting process. Hope to see you there live at the Fort Myers Skatium or join us on Flohockey. For a schedule, please look at the website for complete details. Saturday’s games are set but Sunday the times and opponents of course are TBD.
