Coming off a win in Nashville, the Panthers are looking for their fifth win in a row tonight in Columbus. It’s a scheduled loss — the tired team is generally expected to lose, especially when they travel to get to the game — but under Gallant, Florida boasts a 5-5-3 record in the second half of back to backs, so anything can happen.
The Numbers
[table id=TS02G26 /] [table id=IS02G26 /] [table id=GM02G26 /]* – Stats are courtesy of War-on-Ice.com, Puckalytics.com and Hockey-Reference.com
Projected Lineups
[table id=PRPF02G25 /] [table id=PRPD02G26 /] [table id=PRPG02G08 /] [table id=PROF02G26 /] [table id=PROD02G26 /] [table id=PROG02G26 /]The Rundown
The struggling Columbus Blue Jackets are in a bizarre four-way tie for last in the league with Carolina, Edmonton, and Calgary — clearly everyone wants Auston Matthews (and noted Floridian Jakob Chychrun isn’t a bad consolation prize). This “should” be an easier matchup than Nashville, but really the only difference between Florida and Columbus this season by the numbers has been luck and the outstanding goaltending of both Luongo and Montoya compared to a league average performance by Bobrovsky.
The Panthers have been winning, but they haven’t been winning prettily. They are getting outshot significantly and that spells disaster. Luckily, they have a crucial piece of the puzzle coming back tonight: Dmitry Kulikov. While Kulikov’s numbers are a bit down this season, the difference between Florida’s performance with him and without him has been notable. While they haven’t given up many goals in the games he’s missed, they have been soundly outplayed. Ekblad and Campbell excepted, only Petrovic, who’s played most of his minutes with Kulikov, is anything like breaking even possession-wise. He will be a nice boost to the Panthers blue line, wherever he slots in. (We don’t know this yet, so I absolutely made up the pairings in our projected lineup, but they’re pretty good, right?)
Closing Thoughts
If John Tortorella loves me, and sadly, he probably does not, the Trocheck line will get matched up with the Dubinsky line. The only thing I love more than getting to watch Trocheck play with Brandon Saad is getting to watch them play against each other. The Pittsburgh natives played together for two years with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit and, fun fact, in their age 19 seasons, both wore the C for the Spirit and ended the year with 1.73 points per game.
Saader you my boy
— VT3 (@trocheck_89) June 13, 2013
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Not tonight, kid. Not tonight.
On a more serious note, the Sunshine Skate is fundraising for RAINN all season long. I’m adding $5 to my assorted pledges for a win tonight to get the team back to a true .500 winning percentage and that coveted fifth straight win.
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