The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers head West for a four-game road trip that includes a pair of back-to-backs, with their journey set to begin against the host Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.
It’s the back half of a home-and-home with the Ducks. Florida, second in the Atlantic Division, blanked Anaheim 3-0 on Saturday in Sunrise, Fla., as goaltender Spencer Knight made 34 saves for his second shutout of the season and also picked up an assist on Gustav Forsling’s game-clinching empty-net goal.
The Panthers bring a nine-game point streak against the Ducks (8-0-1) into Tuesday’s meeting. Florida faces the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday and, following a two-day break, ends its trip with games against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday and the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
“I’ve done this for a long time, and I’ve never seen it before,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of playing bookend road back-to-backs with a two-day break. “I’ve never seen a four-game road trip with double back-to-backs and two days off in between. I don’t ever remember it.”
Should the Panthers, who are 14-8-1 on the road this season, find a way to win all four games on the trip, Maurice would hit the 900-win mark for his coaching career.
The good news for Florida is that after this West Coast trip, the Panthers — who in November made a trip to Finland to play in the Global Series — won’t play another game in the Pacific or Mountain time zones for the rest of the regular season.
“It’s good to get those trips out of the way,” Florida forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “It definitely takes a toll on your body going out West and playing all those games with a lot of travel. For the second half (of the season), it’ll be nice going down the stretch here.”
The Panthers will be facing an Anaheim team that just returned from a 1-4-1 road trip, where the Ducks scored a grand total of just eight goals and got shut out three times.
Anaheim ranks last in the NHL in goals scored (109) with an average of 2.37 per game. The lone win on the recent road trip came in overtime against the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2.
“I like the way we’re playing, we played hard, but we’re just coming up empty in some of these games we’re playing,” Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. “I think we’re playing well enough to get a point or two, but the puck is just not going in.”
On the trip, the Ducks were blanked by Logan Thompson and the Washington Capitals, 3-0, then lost 4-3 in a shootout against the Tampa Bay Lightning before ending the trip with another shutout loss, this time to the Panthers.
The Ducks could get an offensive boost for Tuesday’s contest. Center Trevor Zegras, who has missed six-plus weeks due to a torn meniscus, took part in practice on Monday and skated on a line with Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn.
–Field Level Media
