Florida is playing its best hockey of the season, but can they keep it up on the road?
Can you hear that?
It’s the sound of opportunity knocking.
The Florida Panthers are playing their best hockey of the season right now, riding a 6-1-1 stretch into a winnable back-to-back road trip that will take them through Detroit and Philadelphia.
Yes, calling the trip winnable is a fair assessment.
Fully understanding that emerging victorious on the road in the NHL is not an easy task, just as coming up with strong, 60-minute efforts on consecutive nights always provides a significant challenge, Florida should be disappointed if they can’t come up with maximum points on this roadie.
Detroit is in a tailspin right now and the Flyers are in the midst of a 3-10-3 run, and top to bottom, neither team has anywhere close to the depth and experience that Florida can boast.
When the Red Wings reeled off wins in nine of 12 games back in January and February, they looked like a team that could become be a formidable opponent in the Wild Card race.
Since then, Detroit has sputtered to a 2-8-1 record and fallen out of the playoff race, (currently sitting nine points back of Pittsburgh for the final postseason party ticket.
(Video source: Florida Panthers)
Entering Monday’s games, the competition for the two Eastern Conference Wild Card spots was shaping up as a three team battle.
The Islanders won Saturday in San Jose and while they have played two more games than Florida and Pittsburgh, New York has a two-point edge on the Pens for the first Wild Card spot.
The Panthers sit one point back of the sputtering Penguins, who have lost three straight games by the combined score of 16-6.
Washington and Buffalo both lost Sunday and sit four and five points behind Florida, respectively. The Caps have also played two more games than Florida.
Barring sudden and significant turnarounds by either of those squads, it’s coming down to the Cats, the Isles and the Pens.
Monday night Pittsburgh hosts Ottawa, a team that has lost five straight and six of seven. In those six losses, the Senators gave up five goals in all of them.
The Islanders are off until Tuesday when they welcome Toronto to UBS Arena.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Eetu Luostarinen: “Only big games left. I think we’re doing a good job lately, so we just have to keep doing that.”
Eetu on getting back on the road: “It’s been a while. It’s nice. We had a little team dinner last night. It was fun.”
Paul Maurice: “The last time we played in here, and when you watch their last two or three games, it's going to be really, really fast at the start. They got a team that can skate and move the puck, and they were very good in their first period against Colorado, so we have to be prepared to match that. We like the way we're playing right now. We're playing fast and I think we’re playing really smart hockey, but hard hockey and fast hockey, so we just have to keep that going.”