Panthers chase road wins in Minnesota as Florida continues getting healthier while battling for playoff positioning.
The Florida Panthers have found some success when playing away from home lately.
Florida arrives in chilly Minnesota having won four of five on the road. They’ll look to build on that on when they kick off a weekend back-to-back set on Saturday night against the Minnesota Wild.
In their last game, the Panthers put down the clamps defensively against the Winnipeg Jets, skating to a 2-1 shootout win on Thursday.
The Cats have come up with strong defensive efforts during recent visits to the Twin Cities, winning two of their past three trips while holding the Wild to a total of four goals in the three games.
One of the big questions for Florida will be whether they welcome Brad Marchand back into the lineup at some point over the weekend.
Marchand has missed seven straight games with an undisclosed injury, though he has participated in the past several Panthers practices, recently shedding his non-contact jersey.
Fellow elite forward Matthew Tkachuk made his season debut last week after missing much of the season recovering from offseason adductor and sports hernia surgery.
He’s picked up an assist, four shots and four penalty minutes in his two games while averaging just under 20 minutes of ice time.
Entering play Saturday, Florida sits five points back of Boston for the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference and eight points behind Montreal for third place in the Atlantic Division.
Florida holds two games in hand on both, for what it’s worth.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s battle with the Blackhawks:
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Mackie Samoskevich – Evan Rodrigues – A.J. Greer
Sandis Vilmanis – Luke Kunin – Jesper Boqvist
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Uvis Balinskis
Tobias Bjornfot – Jeff Petry
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Photo caption: Dec 18, 2024; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad (5) defends Minnesota Wild left wing Kirill Kaprizov (97) in the second period at Xcel Energy Center. (Brad Rempel-Imagn Images)