Coming off strong November, Panthers open homestand against erratic Islanders
Florida will look to continue the momentum it built on the road against an Islanders team searching for steadiness
Back home after a successful three-game road trip, the Florida Panthers will look to continue their recent winning ways on Saturday night when they welcome the New York Islanders to Sunrise.
While Florida continues striving to be as consistent as possible in its defensive structure, the Islanders have been one of the NHL’s streakiest teams in terms of wins and losses.
New York opened the season with a strong 5-2-2 record before going winless in their next seven.
Now they arrive in South Florida with points in seven of their past eight games (4-1-3) and fresh off an impressive 5-4 overtime win in Carolina.
Florida took two of three from the Islanders last season and have won five of the past six meetings between the two clubs overall.
The Cats enter Saturday’s game with a scorching hot penalty kill. Florida’s has successfully extinguished 26 consecutive opposing power plays over its past six games and held the NHL’s third-best PK during the month of November, operating at a 90.4% success rate.
Overall, the Panthers had a very strong November despite being one of the busiest teams in the league.
Florida played 15 games over the 30 days, yet still skated to a 10-4-1 record, leading the league in wins and points.
A big part of that success was due to the Panthers defense and goaltending. Only two teams posted a lower goals against per game than Florida’s 2.27.
Anthony Stolarz will get the nod in goal on Saturday, his first start on home ice Oct. 24 against San Jose.
Stolarz went 2-1-1 last month, with all four of his starts coming on the road. He still posted a solid .920 save percentage and 2.23 goals against average while stopping 31 of 37 high danger shots.
"The quality of his game has been right on," Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said Saturday morning. "He's earned it. He's the right guy to play tonight, for sure."
Starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky turned in a particularly exceptional body of work in November, leading all tendies with eight wins, and tying for most shutouts (2) while delivering a 2.11 goals against average and .918 save percentage.
Maurice added that Jonah Gadjovich was dealing with a minor upper-body injury and would not play against the Islanders.
He is considered day-to-day, per Maurice.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday night against the Isles:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Nick Cousins
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Stenlund – Steven Lorentz
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmirty Kulikov
LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS - FLORIDA
