The skid is over. Both of them, actually.
The Florida Panthers, who play host to the New York Islanders on Sunday, are coming off a wild 7-6 overtime win over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
That win ended Florida’s five-game home losing streak. The Panthers had also lost four straight games overall.
In beating Columbus, the Panthers rallied from several deficits — 1-0, 4-1 and 6-4 — and never led until the game’s final seconds.
“We needed a comeback game — we haven’t had one in a while,” said Panthers forward Sam Bennett, who scored the game-winning goal with 3.2 seconds left in overtime. “We showed our resiliency and our toughness.”
Bennett centers a line that includes Carter Verhaeghe and Brad Marchand. Since Verhaeghe’s wife had their first child just a few days ago, the Panthers winger has scored three goals in two games.
For the season, Marchand has a team-high 31 points in 26 games. Verhaeghe has 20 points and Bennett has 17.
On the other end of the ice, the Panthers are led by goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who is 11-8-1 with a 2.98 goals-against average. However, there’s a chance — with games on consecutive days — that the Panthers will start backup Daniil Tarasov (2-4-1, 2.67 GAA).
Tarasov has yet to play this month as Bobrovsky has started three in a row, going 1-1-1 in that span.
The Islanders, meanwhile, have won three straight games, including a 2-0 victory at Tampa Bay on Saturday night.
New York is led by goalie Ilya Sorokin, who is 10-8-2 with a 2.47 GAA, three shutouts in 20 games, including the blanking of the Lightning. Last season, Sorokin had four shutouts in 61 games.
“What I love is that (Sorokin) makes it look pretty easy,” said Islanders coach Patrick Roy, one of the greatest goalies in NHL history. “I know when I played, if everything looked easy, I knew I was going to have a big game.”
If the Islanders decide to rest Sorokin due to the back-to-back games, they would start David Rittich (6-2-1, 2.61 GAA). This is Rittich’s 10th NHL season, and the Islanders haven’t missed much when starting him.
Like Tarasov, though, Rittich has yet to play this month.
As for their defensemen, the Islanders have an interesting group. There’s Alexander Romanov, who signed an eight-year, $50 million extension in July. There’s Scott Mayfield, who signed a seven-year, $24.5 million extension in July 2023. There’s Adam Boqvist, whom the Islanders signed after the Panthers released him in January.
And there’s Tony DeAngelo, who posted impressive numbers earlier in his career but has trended downward the past two-plus years.
However, New York’s best blueliner is rookie Matthew Schaefer, who turned 18 in September. Schaefer, the first pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, has not disappointed as he has eight goals and 12 assists in 29 games. He’s an elite two-way defenseman and highly mature for his age.
New York’s top forwards are Bo Horvat, who leads the team in goals (17) and points (29), and Mathew Barzal, who is healthy after playing just 30 games last season and has 21 points in 28 games. In 2023-24, Barzal had 80 points in 80 games.
Other Islanders forwards to watch are captain Anders Lee, who had 29 goals last season and six this year; and former Panther Anthony Duclair, who has terrific speed but has slumped in recent years.
–Field Level Media
