Four thoughts as Florida Panthers split four-game West Coast trip. And a look at what’s next
Call it a mixed bag for the Florida Panthers on their West Coast trip.
The Panthers went 2-2-0 in their four games out west, beating the Anaheim Ducks 5-2 on Tuesday, falling to the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Wednesday, winning against the San Jose Sharks 7-2 on Saturday and losing to the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 on Sunday.
“I’m glad it’s over,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of the road trip. “We go .500, and we’re not going to brag about that.”
Florida is 29-19-3 on the season and remains in second place in the Atlantic Division, one point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for the division lead, with 31 games left in the season.
Here are four takeaways from the four-game trip.
▪ Strong goaltending: While Florida only picked up points in half of its games last week, its goaltending tandem of Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight kept them in all four games.
The duo combined for a .915 save percentage, stopping 97 of 106 shots they faced.
Bobrovsky stopped 49 of 53 shots he faced in wins over Anaheim and San Jose for a .925 save percentage over the two games. This comes after giving up four goals in three consecutive games — all losses — in his previous three outings before this trip.
All four goals Bobrovsky gave up came in the first period of the two games. He finished the Anaheim game by stopping 18 consecutive shots and turned aside the final 17 shots on goal against San Jose. Bobrovsky is now 20-11-2 on the season, making him one of six goaltenders with 20 wins on the season.
Knight, meanwhile, had a .906 save percentage (48 saves on 53 shots against) in losses to the Kings and Golden Knights — the two tougher teams on the trip and both on the second half of back-to-backs — while getting just one goal from his offense in each game. The 23-year-old stopped 26 of 28 shots against the Kings but gave up two goals in the third period in the loss. Against Vegas on Sunday, Knight went 22 for 25 and gave up one goal in each period before the Golden Knights sealed the game with an empty-netter.
▪ Goal scoring depth on display: The Panthers received goals from 11 players and had 16 skaters overall produce at least one point over the four-game trip.
Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues and Sam Bennett all had multiple goals, while Matthew Tkachuk (one goal, three assists), Aleksander Barkov (three assists), Anton Lundell (one goal, two assists), A.J. Greer (one goal, two assists), Tomas Nosek (three assists), Carter Verhaeghe (one goal, two assists) and Mackie Samoskevich (three assists) all had at least three points.
The only Panthers players who did not have a goal or assist during the trip were defensemen Gustav Forsling, Dmitry Kulikov and Tobias Bjornfot, the latter of whom only played in the first two games of the trip.
▪ Welcome back, Aaron Ekblad: After missing seven consecutive games and a stretch of eight of nine overall with an upper-body injury, Panthers top-pairing defenseman Aaron Ekblad returned to the lineup on Saturday against San Jose. He made an instant impact, scoring the go-ahead goal and tacking on an assist in the win over the Sharks while being on the ice for 18:53. He followed that up by playing a team-high 23:30 in the loss to Vegas.
For the season, Ekblad has three goals and 19 assists in 43 games while leading the Panthers in average ice time (23:25). He runs Florida’s top power-play unit and is a staple on their penalty kill.
▪ Taking care of business in back-to-backs: The Panthers are no strangers to playing back-to-backs. Their four games on this trip were their seventh and eighth sets of games on consecutive nights this season.
And Florida has thrived in those situations, going 11-5-0 overall and 5-3-0 on the second night of back-to-backs.
The Panthers still have six more sets of back-to-backs this regular season.
“Back-to-backs are a challenge for us, and we’re going to deal with it for the rest of the year,” Maurice said. “We want to keep these games tight, and we were able to do that for the most part.”
What’s next
The Panthers have six games left before a two-week break that coincides with the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
Four of those games will be on home ice.
Florida has three games at home this week: Wednesday against the Kings (7 p.m., Scripps), Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks (1 p.m., ESPN) and Sunday against the New York Islanders (6 p.m., Scripps). The Panthers then go on the road to face the Washington Capitals on Feb. 4 and St. Louis Blues on Feb. 6 before capping their pre-break schedule at home Feb. 8 against the Ottawa Senators.
Milestones hit on the road trip
▪ Barkov earned his 750th career point with an assist in the win against Anaheim. With two points on Saturday against San Jose, Barkov now has the fourth-most points in NHL history among Finnish players. He trails only Teemu Selanne (1,457), Jari Kurri (1,398) and Saku Koivu (832).
▪ With three points on the trip (one goal, two assists), Greer is now tied for his career high with 12 points. He also logged a dozen points each of the past two seasons with the Calgary Flames in 2023-24 and Boston Bruins in 2022-23. His five goals are one shy of his career high of six set last season with Calgary.
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