Florida's win in Pittsburgh on Wednesday was its ninth straight on the road

A challenging week of road games continues for the Florida Panthers on Thursday in western New York.

That's where they'll meet the Buffalo Sabres for the first of three meetings this season.

Buffalo has been a very up-and-down team this season, with a younger, talented roster searching for an identity.

The Sabres are fresh off an exhilarating 7-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.

They enter Thursday's matchup with Florida holding a 23-25-4 record, good for seventh place in the Atlantic Division and 10 points back of Detroit for the final Wild Card spot.

In Buffalo's 23 wins this season, they are averaging 4.47 goals.

In their 29 losses, the Sabres have scored only 1.79 goals. They have not won a game in which they have scored less than three goals.

The Panthers, meanwhile, have been rolling lately.

Florida has won five straight games overall coming into Thursday's matchup with the Sabres, but that's not all.

Paul Maurice's Panthers have become one of the NHL's premiere road teams. They currently lead the NHL with 18 wins away from home, and are currently riding a franchise record nine-game road winning streak.

Florida is expected to start Anthony Stolarz in goal after Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves during Wednesday's 5-2 win over Pittsburgh.

Stolarz has played well for the Panthers when called upon, boasting a tidy 2.11 goals against average and .917 save percentage to go with his 8-5-2 record.

He's also won each of his past three road starts.

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Thursday's rumble in Buffalo:

Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Nick Cousins – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Evan Rodrigues

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=VWA4MfDGbQY[/embed]

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