Panthers back on home ice, welcome struggling Blue Jackets to Sunrise
Power play goals may be difficult to come by as both Florida and Columbus have been performing well on the penalty kill
The Florida Panthers will be back on home ice Monday night looking to resume to their recent winning ways.
Florida (5-4-1) is fresh off a 1-1-1 road trip and will welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets to Amerant Bank Arena.
Columbus enters the game having lost five of their past six outings (1-3-2), averaging just 1.8 goals per game during that span.
Strangely enough, they have outshot five of their past seven opponents despite the troubles finding the back of the net.
The Blue Jackets (4-5-2) have also lost three straight on the road, where they hold a 1-2-1 record.
One area that Columbus has done quite well of late is on the penalty kill. Over their past eight games, the Blue Jackets have killed 24-of-26 power plays. That 92.3% kill rate leads the NHL during that span.
While the Panthers PK hasn’t been Columbus good, it’s still trending in the same direction. Over the past four games, Florida has killed nine of 10 opponent power plays.
Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to get the start in goal against his former club.
Over his past six appearances, Bobrovsky has gone 4-1-1 with a .926 save percentage and 2.15 goals against average for Florida.
The former Blue Jacket holds a 9-2-1 career record when facing Columbus to go along with a .924 save percentage and 2.49 GAA.
Florida may be coming off a frustrating 5-2 loss in Chicago, but they will certainly be looking to build off the way they finished that particular game.
After falling behind 4-0 early in the middle frame, the Panthers flipped a switch and played some of their best and most dominant hockey, analytically speaking, of the season.
Florida ended up outshooting the Blackhawks 34-10 during the second and third periods.
Here is how the Panthers forward lines and defensive pairings are projected to look Monday night:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Anton Lundell – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Kevin Stenlund – Nick Cousins
Ryan Lomberg – Steven Lorentz – Will Lockwood
Gus Forsling – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Josh Mahura – Uvis Balinskis
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