The Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche, who both have Stanley Cup aspirations this season, have been going in different directions entering Saturday’s matchup in Sunrise, Fla.
Florida is 1-4-0 in its past five, while Colorado is 5-1-0 in its past six.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice, however, said he is not particularly concerned over a 3-1 loss at Chicago on Thursday.
“This is bigger,” Maurice said. “This is a five-game block. We played one (game) we liked, and that’s not good enough for us.”
That one game the Panthers liked was a 6-0 home win over NHL-leading Winnipeg last Saturday. But other than that, the Panthers have struggled, and Maurice bemoaned his team’s unforced turnovers on Thursday.
On offense, Maurice said his players were “late on a whole bunch of things out there” that could’ve been goals.
The reigning Stanley Cup champions have stars all over the ice, including forwards Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, defenseman Gustav Forsling and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Reinhart has a 12-game points streak (10 goals, eight assists) and entered Friday tied for the NHL lead in goals with 15.
Barkov, the team captain and one of the NHL’s best defensive forwards, has missed eight games this season. But he is still tied with Reinhart for the team lead in assists with 15.
Tkachuk, who has missed five games, has five goals and eight assists in 15 contests. However, his value goes far beyond the numbers as the heart and soul of the team.
Forsling, an offensive defenseman, has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in 20 games and leads the team in plus/minus at plus-13.
Bobrovsky, who is expected to start on Saturday, is 9-4-1 this season with a 2.98 goals-against average and a .893 save percentage. For his career, he is 12-4-2 with a 2.66 GAA and a .912 save percentage against Colorado.
The Avalanche, meanwhile, are coming off a 2-1 win over host Washington on Thursday.
Colorado coach Jared Bednar said his team’s depth has been showing up during this recent hot streak.
“All four lines are contributing,” he said.
Like the Panthers, the Avalanche have stars up front, on the blue line and between the pipes. Center Nathan MacKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar are considered by many to be among the top five players in the NHL. Winger Mikko Rantanen has turned in two straight 100-point seasons and goalie Alexandar Georgiev is coming off his first All-Star Game in 2024.
MacKinnon, a seven-time All-Star and the reigning league MVP, has averaged 125 1/2 points over the past two seasons. This season, he led the NHL in assists (27) and was tied for first in points (34) entering Friday.
Rantanen, a two-time All-Star, has nine goals over his past eight games. For the season, he leads Colorado with 13 goals and is tied for second with Makar in points (28).
Makar, a three-time All-Star and the Rookie of the Year in 2020, won the Norris Trophy in 2022 as the league’s best defensemen. Entering Friday, he leads all NHL blueliners in points.
Georgiev is 5-5-0 with a 3.31 GAA and a .874 save percentage. He missed two games due to an upper-body injury before returning on Thursday to beat Washington with 28 saves.
For his career against Florida, Georgiev is 2-3-0 with a 3.78 GAA and a .903 save percentage.
–Field Level Media
