Suddenly struggling Panthers face tough test against Connor McDavid, Oilers

Two teams that had Stanley Cup aspirations before the season began will meet on Saturday night in Edmonton.

Things have gone relatively well for the Florida Panthers so far during their 2023-24 campaign, though it’s been a much bumpier ride for the Edmonton Oilers.

Despite missing several key players, Florida has maintained its spot toward the top of the Atlantic Division.

Edmonton, meanwhile, has only recently appeared to get its collective stuff together following a disastrous start to the season that cost the Oilers now-former Head Coach, Jay Woodcroft, his job back in early November.

Things have started to even out for Edmonton, led by Connor McDavid’s 40 points in 25 games. McDavid has only scored 11 goals, though, which good for third on the Oilers behind Zach Hyman’s 17 and Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane, who each have 12.

This will be the second of two meetings this season between the Panthers and Oilers.

Florida got the best of Edmonton back on Nov. 20 in Sunrise, defeating McDavid and the Oilers 5-3.

You could argue Edmonton was a different team back then, dropping as low as seven games below .500 in late November before finally appearing to turn things around.

Prior to the Oilers’ 7-4 loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday, they had won eight straight games and were looking like the team that many had picked to be a contender in the Western Conference.

The Panthers have gone 1-2-0 on their current five-game road trip, dropping back-to-back games in Seattle and Vancouver by the same 4-0 final score.

There has also been an illness impacting several members of the Panthers, to the point where both Anton Lundell and Jonah Gadjovich were held out of Thursday’s game in Vancouver due to each being under the weather.

On Friday the Panthers loaned defenseman Uvis Balinskis to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, bringing Florida’s roster down to 22 players made up of 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders.

That would seemingly bode well for the health of Aaron Ekblad, who sat out the third period on Thursday with a lower-body injury. 

Maurice downplayed the injury after the game, and it doesn't seem likely the Panthers would loan Balinskis to Charlotte if they had a defenseman who was on the mend. 

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s battle with the Oilers:

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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