Spencer Knight coming up clutch in big moments — and that’s key for the Panthers
Paul Maurice knows the challenges his Florida Panthers team faces on the second night of back-to-back games. The skaters usually have heavier legs. Scoring is going to be lower. The Panthers will have to grind for 60 minutes.
And more often than not, his goaltender is going to have to come up big to keep the Panthers in the game.
And more often than not this season, Spencer Knight has lived up to the task in those situations.
Knight has been in the net for eight of the Panthers’ nine games this season that have been in the back half of back-to-back affairs. In those eight games, he has posted a sterling .930 save percentage, stopping 212 of 228 shots he has faced and giving up no more than three goals in any of those games, to help the Panthers go 6-2-0 in those contests.
On Sunday, Knight stopped 31 of 34 shots he faced against the New York Islanders as the Panthers rolled to a 6-3 win at Amerant Bank Arena. After giving up three goals on high-danger chances in the second period, Knight stopped the final 14 shots he faced to secure the win.
“You know they were gonna make a push at some point,” Knight said. “They’re really good at getting to the front of the net and they have some defensemen who can shoot the puck well and guys in front who are really good at tipping it and with screens. It was a good challenge. The guys stuck with it. Just got to stay level-headed and keep moving.”
That has been Knight’s approach all season in his return to the NHL. Knight didn’t play for the Panthers at all last season during their run to the Stanley Cup, instead playing in the American Hockey League for the year following his return from the NHL and NHL Players Association’s joint player assistance program, which he entered in February 2023 for what he later revealed to be due to an ongoing case with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Knight has started 19 games for the Panthers as backup to starter Sergei Bobrovsky. He has gone 10-8-1 with a pair of shutouts in those starts while recording a .906 save percentage and 2.49 goals against average.
And that record has come against some big challenges. Of his 19 starts, 10 have come against teams who enter Monday in a playoff spot. Six of those 10 were on the second night of a back-to-back.
“He’s, because of our schedule, going to get into a better rhythm, probably a rhythm he’s never been able to get to before where he’s going to play one or two a week and he’s going to get close to that 30 to 35 game mark very probably by the end,” Maurice said. “This is a good opportunity for him to get on a bit of a roll.”
Knight isn’t too concerned about the game rhythm, though. He knows that he needs to stay ready regardless of when he’s called upon to be in net.
“Honestly,” Knight said, “I think win, loss, good game, bad game, you have to learn how to flip the switch each game because that happens in the playoffs. You’re gonna have bad games. You have to be able to come back the next night or two nights and do it again. I’m just having fun.”
Stringing together wins
After playing .500 hockey for a basically month after returning from the NHL’s Christmas break, the Panthers are finally starting to string some wins together.
The Panthers went 4-5-1 in their first 10 games back from the break, not winning consecutive games at any point in that span.
But since Jan. 18, Florida has gone 6-2, outscoring opponents 31-14 in those eight games. That stretch has helped the Panthers move into first place in the Atlantic Division. At 32-19-3 (67 points), Florida has a three-point cushion on the second-place Toronto Maple Leafs (31-19-2, 64 points) and seven-point lead on the third-place Ottawa Senators (28-20-4, 60 points entering their game on Monday).
“We’ve been playing great as of late,” Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov said. “I feel like our game has been right the past couple of weeks. Sometimes we didn’t get the result we wanted, but we’ve been playing good.”
Now, the Panthers look to keep that success going entering their final week before the NHL’s two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. Florida has three games left before the league hiatus, a two-game trip the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals (34-11-7) on Tuesday (7 p.m., Scripps) and St. Louis Blues (24-25-4) on Thursday (8 p.m., Scripps) before hosting Ottawa on Saturday (7 p.m., Scripps).
This and that
▪ Carter Verhaeghe’s hat trick on Sunday was the first by a Panthers player this season. It came after he had just three total goals over his previous 21 games.
▪ Rookie forward Mackie Samoskevich (illness) missed his second consecutive game Sunday but is with the Panthers on their two-game road trip.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 10:39 AM.
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