Although the Florida Panthers weren’t able to string more than two wins together in the month of January, head coach Paul Maurice seems confident the defending Stanley Cup champions are headed in the right direction.
The Panthers will try to continue making incremental strides toward another long playoff run when they host the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday afternoon in Sunrise, Fla.
Florida opened its three-game homestand with a 3-0 win against the struggling Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves for his second shutout of the season and 13th with the Panthers, tying John Vanbiesbrouck for the third most in franchise history.
The Panthers also received a goal and two assists from Matthew Tkachuk for his second three-point performance in the past three games.
Maurice said he’s not only happy to see his star player producing, but he’s pleased with how the entire team is developing.
“We’re getting to the net better and there is less from the perimeter,” Maurice said. “We have been working on that for a month and we’re starting to get there, get there more consistently.”
Tkachuk was especially pleased with Florida’s effort against the Kings, who had dropped the first two games of their road trip and were desperate for a win.
“At this point in the year, it may not make sense to everyone, but you need a game like this,” Tkachuk said. “To come to the rink and just give it absolutely everything you can.”
Florida lost to the Blackhawks 3-1 on Nov. 21, part of a season-long four-game losing streak for the Panthers, who haven’t lost more than two in a row since then.
Chicago received goals from Teuvo Teravainen, Craig Smith and an empty netter from captain Nick Foligno in that victory, but the Blackhawks have continued to lose much more than they’ve won this season.
Chicago particularly has been porous since just before Christmas, posting a 4-11-3 record over its past 18 games. The wins came against a good group of teams consisting of the Montreal Canadiens, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lightning, but the Blackhawks haven’t been able to back up any of those successes with a second straight victory.
Chicago opened its current three-game trip with a solid 4-1 win at Tampa Bay on Tuesday. The Blackhawks, however, couldn’t repackage that performance against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday and dropped a 3-2 decision.
“We did a lot of good things except that spurt of a couple minutes there in the second that hurt us, obviously,” Chicago coach Anders Sorensen said. “We battled really hard in the third, created some opportunities. The result wasn’t there, but there were definitely some positive things.”
Chicago second-year center Connor Bedard scored against the Lightning to extend his point streak to four games (two goals, two assists) and give him points in 16 of his past 18 games.
After being limited to single digits in October and November, Bedard reached double digits in points in each of the past two months.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft had six goals and 10 assists in 14 games in December, and five goals and seven assists in 13 games in January.
–Field Level Media
