Florida has won two straight and faces a back-to-back in Pittsburgh and Long Island before the All-Star break
Florida has won two straight and faces a back-to-back in Pittsburgh and Long Island before the All-Star break
Ahead of the NHL All-Star break that begins next week, the Florida Panthers are wrapping up their schedule with a pair of road games on consecutive nights.
First up for the Panthers will be a Friday night matchup with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The season has been a bit of a struggle so far for the Pens, who currently sit seven points out of a playoff spot.
It looked like Pittsburgh was turning a corner around the holidays, when they went on a 7-1-1 run and climbed five games over .500.
Entering Friday’s game, the Pens have lost four of five and are in a similar situation to what the Panthers were dealing with at this time last season.
Speaking of the Panthers, it appears they’ve gotten things back on track, following up a four-game winless streak with back-to-back convincing wins.
Florida is also nearing full strength, with Nick Cousins possibly returning to the lineup either Friday in Pittsburgh or Saturday on Long Island.
It will be interesting to see what Paul Maurice does with his lineup when Cousins is ready, as there are already a couple interesting wrinkles to the forward lines that have developed this week.
Rookie Mackie Samoskevich was recalled from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers and in his second game back with the team, Wednesday against Arizona, he skated on the wing of Panthers captain and top line center Sasha Barkov.
Samoskevich is expected to remain on the Barkov line when things get going in Pittsburgh on Friday, with Maurice saying he liked what he saw from the youngster against the Coyotes.
Barkov’s regular right winger this season has been Sam Reinhart. Oh yeah, remember him?
Reinhart has been skating with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen for the past four games and hasn’t skipped a beat from the ridiculous run he’d already been enjoying.
Over an 11-game points streak, Reinhart has 12 goals and 16 points. During his four games on Lundell’s wing, Reinhart has three goals and two assists.
The heat emanating from Reinhart has apparently sparked a fire under Lundell as well.
After accumulating two goals and 13 points in his first 39 games of the season, Lundell has racked up two goals and three assists his past four outings.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings ahead of Friday’s battle in the ‘Burgh:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Mackie Samoskevich
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Jonah Gadjovich – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud5F1goSF9o[/embed]
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