Panthers face tough challenge with NHL-best New York Rangers in town
Florida and New York each boast one of the league's top penalty killing units
The Florida Panthers have been playing some solid hockey of late, but they’ll be put to the test on Friday night in Sunrise.
For the first time this season, Florida will face the Metropolitan Division-leading New York Rangers.
Both the Panthers and Rangers will be opening a back-to-back set, with Florida hosting Montreal on Saturday while New York will head up to Tampa.
The Rangers are fresh off a 5-1 over Washington on Wednesday and come in having won six of their past eight games overall.
New York has been quite good on the road, holding a 12-4-1 record, which is the second-most wins away from home in the NHL, behind only Colorado’s 14.
As for the Panthers, they’ll be looking to build off a pair of wins that bookended the NHL’s holiday break.
Both Sam Reinhart and Sergei Bobrovsky sat out Thursday’s practice at the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale, but neither player is expected to miss Friday’s game.
Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said following practice that he anticipates running the same lineup against the Rangers that he used Wednesday in Tampa.
Reinhart and Bobrovsky each played crucial roles in the victory – with Reinhart scoring a pair of goals and Bobrovsky standing on his head between the pipes – and will likely be leaned on heavily against the high-powered Rangers.
One thing to keep an eye on will be special teams, as both Florida and New York come in with excellent penalty killing units.
The Rangers boast the fourth-best PK in the league while Florida’s is up eighth.
Recently, the Panthers have allowed just one power play goal since Dec. 8, operating at a 95.5% success rate, and going a perfect 13-for-13 on the PK over their past four outings.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Friday’s matchup with the Rangers:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Nick Cousins
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Stenlund – Will Lockwood
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS - FLORIDA
