Florida has won five straight games and have points in 11 of their past 13

The month of November has been kind to the Florida Panthers.

Entering Thursday’s matchup with the Kings in Los Angeles, the Panthers have won each of their past six games.

After dropping the first two games on their 2023-24 schedule, Florida has enjoyed a 10-2-1 run that has moved them into second place in the Atlantic Division.

Similarly to Florida, the Kings have also gotten their season off to a strong start.

Los Angeles enters Thursday’s game with an 8-3-3 record, but expect them to come out hungry after picking up just one point during the first two games of their current four-game homestand.

The Kings will also be looking to continue their recent success against Florida after sweeping last season’s two-game set.

Carter Verhaeghe will be one to keep an eye on against LA. He led the Panthers with 4 points, including 3 goals, against the Kings last year.

After getting the night off on Tuesday in San Jose, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is the expected patrol the crease for Florida.

Bob has won five straight and is 6-0-1 over his past seven outings for the Panthers and is tied for the NHL lead with eight victories on the season.

Depending how things go on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena, there is a chance Bobrovsky starts again when Florida completes the roadie on Friday in Anaheim.

The Panthers are also on the cusp of welcoming back a pair of elite defensemen back into the active roster.

Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad have yet to play this season after each underwent shoulder surgery back in June.

Both players have been participating in regular practices with the team for several weeks, and Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said last week that the team had entered a “10-day window” where the two blueliners would likely get the green light to make their season debuts.

When asked for an update on Ekblad and Montour prior to the Sharks game, Maurice reiterated that the road trip was possible for them to play, but he continued to drive home that both would be approached with the appropriate level of caution.

“There's a chance they play on this trip, but it'll be scheduled,” Maurice said. “These are four-to-six month injuries. We set five months as the guideline that we would look at. They're very strong, lord knows they've done enough laps, they're skated enough, so we're just going to stick with what the original idea of when a guy would be ready. If it happens, we'll probably be looking at Anaheim.”

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Friday’s game in Los Angeles:

Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Nick Cousins

Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Stenlund – Steven Lorentz

Gus Forsling- Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov

Josh Mahura – Uvis Balinskis 

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