Both Florida and Tampa Bay have been playing some very good hockey of late
The Florida Panthers are rolling right now, especially when it comes to playing on the road.
Entering Saturday’s cross-state battle with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida has won four straight games overall and a franchise record ten consecutive road contests.
Fresh off back-to-back wins in Pittsburgh and Buffalo on Wednesday and Thursday, the Cats will look to close out the tough three-games-in-four-nights stretch with a victory over old friend Tampa Bay.
Both teams are riding some pretty impressive runs that have Florida tied with Boston atop the Atlantic Division and Tampa currently holding on to third place, a point ahead of Toronto.
Entering Saturday, the Panthers have won ten straight on the road and four straight overall. They’re 17-3-2 since Dec. 23.
Tampa, meanwhile, has won eight straight at home and three in a row overall. They’re 11-3-0 since Jan. 9.
One thing that the Panthers have going for them is that they’ve already won a game in Tampa Bay this season, a 3-2 affair back on Dec. 27.
It was the first of Florida’s ongoing 10-game run on the road.
Both teams feature elite scoring threats, with Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov having a ridiculous, Hart Trophy-caliber season and Florida’s Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk each spitting fire.
The Cats and Bolts are also both blessed with high-end goaltending. Sergei Bobrovsky is enjoying perhaps his best and most consistent season in a Panthers sweater while Andrei Vasilevskiy is now fully recovered from back surgery and looking more and more like his usual, Vezina-level self.
By all accounts, this should be a fun matchup.
Here are Florida’s projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s rivalry bout with the Bolts:
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
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