During their climb up the Eastern Conference standings, the Florida Panthers had to become road warriors.
The Panthers have won six of their last seven away contests heading into their visit to the depleted St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.
This will be Florida’s 10th road game in a 12-game span. After losing six of their first eight away games this season, the Panthers have gone 12-4-0 outside of Sunrise, Fla.
They have persevered through their tough travel, a condensed schedule and limited practice time heading toward the Olympic break.
“I’m not going to complain about it,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We have so many miles on these guys, they’re used to not practicing. Execution is a problem sometimes, but rest is the fair bigger problem than our lack of practice time.”
The Panthers suffered a 4-3 loss to the Utah Mammoth, and former Panthers goaltender Vitek Vanecek, at home Tuesday night.
“We had lots of good chances,” Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “Vitek played an awesome game against us. It’s tough. We need the points, but we’re right back at it with a lot of games in a short amount of time.
“Hopefully we can bounce back quick.”
Panthers center Anton Lundell (upper-body injury) and defenseman Aaron Ekblad (lower-body injury) exited Tuesday’s game early. Maurice said he didn’t believe Lundell’s issue was serious and Ekblad told reporters that he suffered only soreness after blocking a shot.
The Blues lost key forwards Jordan Kyrou and Jake Neighbours to injuries during their 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars at home Tuesday. Neither practiced Wednesday and neither is likely to play against the Panthers.
But neither should be sidelined long-term.
“Good news on both,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “Day-to-day. How quickly they’re players again, I don’t know if they’re players tomorrow. I would say doubtful for tomorrow, but it’s good news. It’s not going to be week-to-week.”
Injured forwards Oskar Sundqvist and Pius Suter have been progressing toward a return, but Montgomery doesn’t expect them back for this game. Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway remained sidelined by longer-term injuries.
Although the Blues saw their winless streak extend to five games (0-4-1) with the last-minute loss to Dallas, they impressed Montgomery with their third-period rally.
“Our effort, falling behind 3-0 and not quitting, having the perseverance to keep going,” Montgomery said. ‘We had lost two forwards. We were down to 10 forwards. It was nice to see that scrappy, never-say-die attitude that we had.”
Blues captain Brayden Schenn said his team can’t become discouraged after losing consecutive games to the Stars on late tiebreaking goals.
“Again, same team, same result, losing in the last minute,” Schenn said. “It’s not fun losing, but got to keep on pushing our foot down and trying to get better. We’re finding ways to lose hockey games and we have to learn how to win them.”
–Field Level Media
