Florida opens a five-game road trip on Sunday afternoon in Columbus

It’s always nice when you can head out for a long trip feeling good about how things have been going lately.

That’s the case for the Florida Panthers, who have won back-to-back games and hold a solid 16-8-2 record so far this season.

Now, the reigning Eastern Conference Champions will have a good opportunity to test just how strong of a squad they are when they play the next five games far from the warm sunshine of South Florida.

“It’s always good to get on the plane feeling confident,” Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said Saturday.

The five-game, 11-day trip will take the Panthers through Columbus, Seattle, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary before they return home on Tuesday, Dec. 19.

Finally at full strength and appearing to turn a corner, Florida has been coming together as a cohesive unit, and the extended time away from home could be coming at an opportune time for some team bonding, on and off the ice.

The majority of the Panthers roster took the ice for a quick practice on Saturday afternoon at the Ice Den in Coral Springs.

It was quick because the Cats were scheduled to take off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport around 90 minutes after they took the ice, but they made it work.

Not present for the brief but spirited workout were forwards Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett.

After the skate, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said that both were simply getting a day to rest and would be in the lineup when Florida takes the ice Sunday in Columbus.

One of the major focuses for the Panthers during their time away from home will be keeping players healthy.

“We’ll run short shifts, we’ll run four lines, and then grind our way through,” Maurice said. “We've been pretty good at that this year. We want to really cement the ability to grind hockey games. As we say, we're not selling tickets on the road.”

Maurice did point out that while it’s a trip that Florida will travel quite a few miles, they are fortunate not to be facing any major obstacles.

“Some benefits to this (trip) are we get partway there for an afternoon game, which means we get to go out west at the end of the game, so we like that an awful lot,” Maurice said. “We don't have a back-to-back on that trip, so we'd like that as well.”

Maurice's full comments can be seen in the video at the top of this page. 

Florida opens the trip Sunday afternoon in Columbus. Pucks drops at Nationwide Arena at 1 p.m. 

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