Panthers begin challenging road trip with Sunday matinee in Columbus
Florida enters having won two straight and with points in five of six
The Florida Panthers kick off an extended road tip on Sunday when they lock horns with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The 1 p.m. showdown is the first of a 5-game expedition that will take the Cats though NHL’s northwestern-most cities.
Florida arrives in Columbus having won two straight games and holding a 4-1-1 record over its past six outings.
Former Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has been stellar between the pipes for the Panthers lately, leading the NHL in wins during the month of November and carrying that strong play into December.
Bob has won now each of his past four starts, holding a .963 save percentage and 1.50 goals against average during that span.
The Blue Jackets will be shorthanded when they host Florida, and for a foreseeable future, after the team announced on Saturday that it had placed center Boone Jenner on Injured Reserve.
Jenner will be out until mid-January after suffering a fractured jaw during Columbus’ 5-2 win over St. Louis on Friday.
The Blue Jackets enter Sunday’s game with a 5-4-1 record over their past ten games, but they are also 4-1-1 in their past six on home ice.
One area Columbus has been performing quite well is on the power play, operating at a 31.3% success rate (5-for-16) over their past seven games.
The Blue Jackets have also done well to get off to strong starts, ranking fifth in the NHL with 31 first period goals and seventh in first period goal differential, which is plus-8.
Something Florida will surely have discussed in pregame meetings is how good Columbus has been at blocking shots.
Entering play Sunday, Columbus leads the league with 538 blocked shots and rank fourth in blocks-per-60 minutes, averaging 18.37.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Sunday’s afternoon matchup in Columbus:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Nick Cousins
Johan Gadjovich – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
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