Florida battles a surging Pittsburgh squad on home ice. Can the Panthers shake off their road woes against Crosby and the surprising Pens?
The Florida Panthers are looking to put a frustrating road trip in their rearview mirror.
After picking up three wins in their first three games of the season, all on home ice, Florida proceeded to hit the road for a five-game trip that saw them drop all but the final outing, Thursday’s 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins.
Now the Cats are back home for the next four, starting on Thursday night when they welcome Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins to South Florida.
While this is the first of three meetings between the Panthers and Penguins this season, it’s the only time they’ll face each other at Amerant Bank Arena.
Last season, all three matchups between the Cats and Pens required more than 60 minutes.
Florida won twice on home ice in a shootout (off winners by Sasha Barkov and Anton Lundell) and lost in overtime during their only visit to Pittsburgh.
This season, the Penguins arrive riding a strong start to their 2025-26 campaign.
They’ve won five of their seven games, including three of four on the road.
It’s not surprising to see Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby as the first and second leading scorers on the Penguins roster, respectively.
What is surprising is that Pittsburgh’s leading goal scorer this season has been free agent addition Justin Brazeau.
He’s got five goals and eight points through seven games and has earned time on the Pens second line with Malkin and their second power play unit.
Not bad for a guy that Pittsburgh signed for $3 million over two years.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Thursday’s party with the Penguins:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Brad Marchand
Mackie Samoskevich – Evan Rodrigues – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Luke Kunin – Jonah Gadjovich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis – Jeff Petry
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Photo caption: Oct 21, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Casey Mittelstadt (11) bends over after the Florida Panthers scored the winning goal din the last minute of the third period at TD Garden. (Winslow Townson-Imagn Images)