Great Opportunity for Panthers to Bank Points on Upcoming Road Trip

The Florida Panthers may only be nine games into their campaign, but it’s never too early to bank points to help you get through the 82-game grind that is the NHL season, especially as the team heads on an extended road trip.

Favorable Road Matchups Provide Great Opportunity for the Panthers

The Panthers’ current four-game swing presents a great opportunity for the Panthers to take advantage of some favorable matchups and give themselves a cushion in the ultra-competitive Eastern Conference.

On the docket are games against the Arizona Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, and LA Kings. And all but the Kings are at the bottom of the standings in the Western Conference.

Thanks to their 5-3-1 record, The Florida Panthers currently sit third in their division and sixth in the Eastern Conference with 11 points.

What’s wild is that the third seed in the East is separated from the 13th seed by only two points.

And though we will see more separation between the bottom teams and the playoff contenders as the season progresses, there looks to be more parity between teams in the Eastern Conference this season than last season.

Eastern Conference Playoff Race Poised to Remain Tight

The NHL offseason saw plenty of non-playoff teams bolster their rosters and as a result, we have a lot more teams in the mix in the early going.

It is still far too early to tell who will make the playoffs and who won’t, but what we do see is it looks to be a more competitive race to the finish line this season.

And as such, whenever you have an opportunity to go on a run and cash in some points, you have to take advantage.

The Panthers have a difficult home stand following this road trip. They get five straight games at FLA Live Arena but it’ll be against some of the NHL’s best. 

The Carolina Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers, Washington Capitals, Dallas Stars, and the one every Panther fan has circled on their calendar, the Calgary Flames, all sport records above .500 right now. 

Those will all be hard-fought matches. And should the Panthers stumble at home, they will be glad they took advantage of this road swing and banked themselves some extra points.

Let’s have a look at each game, in order, and how the Cats match up with their opponents.

Arizona Coyotes (2-5-1)

Before the California portion of this road trip, the Panthers make a quick stop in the desert to face the Coyotes at Mullet Arena.

The Coyotes are still a rebuilding team, and although they’ve shown some fight this year, this is still a team the Panthers should overpower.

The Panthers have back-to-back games registering over 50 shots and we should see that streak continue tonight.

Paul Maurice’s system is all about volume and the speed and skill of the Panthers will have the Coyotes pinned in their zone for most of this one. 

The Panthers took both games in the series between these two clubs last season by a combined score of 8-4.

San Jose Sharks (3-8-0)

The Sharks are another team that would be classified as rebuilding, and it shows.

They opened their season with five straight losses and were outclassed in all of them.

But the Sharks have rallied as of late by playing .500 hockey ever since. 

This includes an impressive 4-3 overtime win against the Toronto Maple Leafs last Thursday.

The Sharks, however, have struggled to generate much offense this season. Their 2.18 goals-for-per-game is dead last in the NHL.

They haven’t faired much better on the other side of the puck either. They have surrendered an average of 3.09 goals-against-per-game.

With the volume of high-quality chances the Panthers register each game, this one could get away from the Sharks quickly.

The Panthers won both meetings against the Sharks last season. Both in overtime, 5-4 and 3-2.

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Los Angeles Kings (6-5-0)

The Panthers’ date against the Kings looks to provide their stiffest test of the road trip.

It’s safe to say the Kings have transitioned from rebuilder to playoff team.

A breakout season for the Kings team as a whole last season saw them make the dance after missing out on the playoffs the previous three seasons.

They are still far from being a contender this year, but they boast two of the best two-way centers in the NHL. 

Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault were sixth and eighth respectively in Selke voting last season. 

They also made life miserable for the Edmonton Oilers’ stars in their first-round playoff matchup.

The Panthers will need to play smart hockey in this one because they won’t be able to afford many turnovers against this squad.

Luckily this is their third game of the road trip and the effects of the three-zone time change should be worn off by now. 

The Panthers lost both matchups to the Kings last season. A 3-2 shootout decision in LA and a 4-1 loss back at home in Florida.

Anaheim Ducks (2-6-1)

The Panthers will finish up their road trip against a hobbled-up Ducks team.

Offensive defencemen, and one of the Ducks’ best players, Jamie Drysdale, has been shelved for potentially the remainder of the season.

Drysdale suffered a torn labrum to his shoulder during a loss to Vegas last week.

With Drysdale out, the Ducks will be relying on John Klingberg to push the play for this young Ducks team.

Coach Dallas Eakins, who was part of Paul Maurice’s coaching staff during his time in Toronto, has a lot of offensive-minded players on his team. 

It’s likely Eakins will have a game plan designed to push the offense and try to get into a shoot-out with the Panthers. The Panthers will be starting to tire by the end of their road trip and the Ducks may have the legs to go goal-for-goal instead of using their depleted d-core to try and stop the Cats.

The Panthers won both of their games against the Ducks last season, shutting out the Ducks on the road, 3-0 and winning 3-2 in overtime back home.