The Florida Panthers are searching for a bit of an offensive spark when they visit the Utah Hockey Club on Wednesday in Salt Lake City.
One of the NHL’s more potent scoring attacks has been quiet as of late, as Florida has scored only 10 goals over its last six games. Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov, the Panthers’ points leaders, have combined for two goals and two assists over that span.
Unsurprisingly, this scoring slump has led to a 2-4-0 record for the Panthers in those six contests. Florida’s last outing saw the team come up short in a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.
The lack of offense was the only flaw in an otherwise strong performance for Florida against a red-hot Avalanche team on an eight-game (7-0-1) points streak. Carter Verhaeghe’s first-period goal put the Panthers ahead until Colorado collected three unanswered goals within the final 22 minutes of play.
“We’re comfortable playing in these (close) games,” Verhaeghe said. “Usually we pull it out but unfortunately we couldn’t … It was what we want to do on the road, unfortunately we didn’t get the win.”
The Panthers have a solid 12-7-1 away record this season, while the Utah Hockey Club have a league-low 14 home points from their 5-7-4 record in Salt Lake City. Utah will need to reverse these struggles quickly, as Monday’s contest kicks off a seven-game homestand.
Consistency of any kind would be welcome for the Utah Hockey Club. An eight-game points streak (6-0-2) in December overlapped with Utah’s current stretch of just one win in its last seven games (1-4-2).
Utah’s last game was a 3-2 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday. Matias Maccelli scored both of Utah’s goals, as the forward looked to be more aggressive in the offensive zone in order to end his 12-game points drought.
“When you don’t score for a while you start thinking, ‘What can I do different, what can I do better?'” Maccelli said. He also credited new linemates Kevin Stenlund and Alex Kerfoot as “two really smart players, so it’s kind of easy to play with them.”
Clayton Keller leads the Utah Hockey Club in points (39) and assists (25). Dylan Guenther is the team leader with 16 goals.
Karel Vejmelka is likely to start in net for Utah on Wednesday. Vejmelka has been sharp overall this season but has a 1-3-1 record and a 3.03 goals-against average in his last five starts.
Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to start for the Panthers, and the veteran goalie may again be dealing with a depleted blue line. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad (undisclosed injury) missed Monday’s game, while Niko Mikkola (upper-body injury) has missed Florida’s last five games.
Utah’s opponents are only 4-for-41 on power plays against its penalty-kill unit over the last 14 games.
Wednesday marks the Panthers’ first-ever game in Salt Lake City, and their first meeting with the Utah Hockey Club. Dating back to March 2017, the Panthers are 10-2-1 in 13 games against the Arizona Coyotes, the previous incarnation of the Utah franchise.
–Field Level Media
