The Florida Panthers have lost three of their past four games, but will look to break out of their slump when they visit the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

For the Panthers, it’s the second stop on a four-game West Coast swing.

“It feels like we’ve been playing a lot of games on the road lately,” Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said.

Meanwhile, the Sharks have been trending in the right direction after starting the season on a five-game losing streak. Since then, San Jose is 3-3-1.

However, the Sharks have taken a pair of one-goal losses, falling 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning and 6-5 in a shootout versus the Anaheim Ducks.

Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson, a two-time Norris Trophy winner, scored his first career hat trick against Anaheim on Tuesday.

“It’s nice to score five goals,” Karlsson said of his team’s offensive performance. “But at the same time we let in five as well.”

Karlsson leads the Sharks in goals (nine) and points (15). He also leads all NHL defensemen in both categories.

In addition, he is the first Sharks defenseman in franchise history to record a hat trick.

“I think everyone is seeing what a world-class player he is,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “He’s only 32 years old. He’s got a lot of great hockey ahead of him and he’s certainly playing like a Norris Trophy winner now.”

There’s a good chance the Panthers could face former Florida goalie James Reimer on Thursday.

Reimer has started seven of San Jose’s 12 games, posting a 2-5-0 record, a .914 save percentage and a 2.77 goals-against average.

Backup goalie Kaapo Kahkonen took the loss in the 6-5 shootout with Anaheim. He is 1-3-1 with a .878 save percentage and a 3.62 GAA.

No matter the goalie, Quinn needs the win to reach 100 victories in the NHL. He got 96 of those wins during his three seasons coaching the New York Rangers.

The Panthers, in their first season under coach Paul Maurice, are hoping for an encore to the 2021-2022 regular season, where they had the best record in the NHL.

New acquisition Matthew Tkachuk has lived up to the hype, leading the team in points (13) and assists (eight).

Defensemen Brandon Montour (eight points) and Gustav Forsling (six points) are also trending toward career years. Their efforts are much-needed due to the groin injury that will sideline Aaron Ekblad for roughly one month. In addition, MacKenzie Weegar was traded away in the Tkachuk deal, leaving Florida thin on defense.

Offensively, Colin White has been a pleasant surprise with three goals and five assists. But it’s been a slow start for Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett, who each have just one goal. Barkov and Bennett scored career highs in goals last season, netting 39 and 28, respectively.

Panthers starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who had a 2.67 GAA and led the league with 39 wins last season, is also off to a sluggish start. He is 2-3-1 with a 3.06 GAA.

Backup goalie Spencer Knight is 3-1-0 with a 2.53 GAA.

–Field Level Media

Alex Tuch scored the go-ahead goal midway into the third period and Victor Olofsson tallied twice to help the host Buffalo Sabres rally to a 6-3 victory over the reeling Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday.

Buffalo’s Tage Thompson scored his sixth goal in his last three games and rookie JJ Peterka and captain Kyle Okposo also tallied. Eric Comrie turned aside 18 shots to propel the Sabres to their third straight win and sixth in their last eight games.

Pittsburgh’s Jason Zucker scored a goal in the first period, Josh Archibald had his second in as many games and Jake Guentzel added a power-play tally in the third. Casey DeSmith made 27 saves for the Penguins, who have dropped six in a row overall (0-5-1) and are 1-5-1 on the road this season.

Guentzel scored his team co-leading fifth goal of the season following a nifty feed from defenseman Kris Letang to give Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead just eight seconds into the third period.

Thompson answered just over three minutes later before Buffalo forged a 3-3 tie at 6:29 of the third period. Rookie defenseman Owen Power faked a shot before sliding a slick feed to Olofsson for an easy conversion from the right circle.

Thompson entered the offensive zone on a 2-on-1 rush before sending a centering feed that Tuch deflected home to give the Sabres a 4-3 lead at 10:34 of the second period.

Okposo and Olofsson sealed the win by scoring into the empty net in the waning moments of the third period.

Evgeni Malkin administered an open-ice hit on Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin in his own end before setting up the first goal of the game.

Malkin stole the puck and skated into the zone on a 2-on-1 rush before sending a cross-slot feed to the left-handed Zucker, who one-timed a blast inside the right post at 6:28 of the first period.

Ryan Poehling skated into the offensive zone on a 2-on-1 rush before feeding Archibald on the doorstep to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead at 5:50 of the second period.

Peterka wired a shot through traffic to halve the deficit with 1:09 remaining of the second period.

–Field Level Media

John Tavares had three goals and an assist, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the visiting Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 on Wednesday night.

It was the 11th career hat trick for the Maple Leafs captain.

Auston Matthews and Zach Aston-Reese also scored for the Maple Leafs, who had lost four in a row. Mitchell Marner and Morgan Rielly each added two assists.

Ilya Samsonov stopped 23 shots for Toronto.

Joel Farabee and Owen Tippett scored for the Flyers, who have lost three straight. Travis Konecny added two assists. Felix Sandstrom made 39 saves for Philadelphia.

After the Flyers killed off two penalties, they took the lead on Farabee’s third goal this season at 13:09 of the first period. His laser shot from the left circle went in off the post. Konecny and Travis Sanheim earned assists.

The Maple Leafs took the lead with two goals 1:53 apart during the first period.

Matthews tied the game with his fourth goal of the season on a power play at 16:40 of the first. He knocked in his own rebound after Tavares’ precise backhand pass from behind the goal. Marner also had an assist. Nicolas Deslauriers was serving a tripping penalty.

Tavares completed an industrious shift with a goal on a shot from above the right circle and off the crossbar. William Nylander and Rielly picked up assists.

The Maple Leafs survived four consecutive penalties in the second period.

After two periods, Toronto had a 30-15 advantage in shots on goal.

Aston-Reese gave Toronto a two-goal lead with his first goal of the season at 2:49 of the third. Denis Malgin and David Kampf earned assists.

Tippett scored on a power play at 7:01 of the third with a wrist shot. Konecny and Scott Laughton got assists. Tavares was off for holding.

Tavares scored after working his way from the right boards to the front of the goal at 12:42 of the third. Marner and Victor Mete assisted.

Tavares scored his seventh goal of the season on a power play at 15:23 of the third to cap the scoring. Zack MacEwen was off for hooking.

–Field Level Media

After their first victory on their new home ice, the Arizona Coyotes will look to continue the momentum when they take on the Dallas Stars on Thursday in Tempe, Ariz.

The Coyotes were 0-1-1 in their first two games at Mullett Arena but broke through Tuesday with a 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers. Though Arizona trailed late into the second period and was outshot by a 42-21 margin, the Coyotes scored three unanswered goals for their third win of the season.

Karel Vejmelka stopped 41 of 42 shots to keep the Coyotes in the game and will likely be back in net against Dallas. Vejmelka has a 3.84 goals-against average over six games, but also hasn’t received much help from his defense — the goalie is seeing an average of 38.7 shots per game.

While Vejmelka held the Panthers at bay, the Coyotes’ red-hot power play led to the comeback. After the Coyotes came up empty on their first two chances with the extra attacker, Lawson Crouse and Nick Ritchie scored power-play goals to put Arizona ahead.

“Power play is a matter of execution,” Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny said. “The pass has to be on the tape. The pass has to be quick. We need to be crisp. We went into the third and we zipped the puck and scored a big goal.”

Arizona’s 32.4 percent power-play percentage (11-for-34) is among the best in the NHL, marking a surprising turnaround from last season. The Coyotes scored a league-worst 28 power-play goals during the 2021-22 campaign, converting on just 13.9 percent of their power plays, which ranked 30th of the 32 teams.

The Coyotes’ power play will be tested against a strong Dallas penalty-kill unit, though the Stars would prefer to avoid regularly displaying this skill. Dallas has been short-handed 45 times for 72:40 of ice time, both totals among the highest of any team in the league.

The Stars’ own power-play success fueled their 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday. After going scoreless in 13 power-play chances in their previous four games, the Stars were 3-for-4 with the man advantage against the Kings, with Roope Hintz, Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski all collecting goals.

Though the Stars are only 2-3-0 in their last five games, Tuesday’s win put them back into first place in the Central Division.

It isn’t surprising that Dallas had some struggles during the absence of defenseman Miro Heiskanen, who missed three games with a lower-body injury before recording two assists in his return Tuesday.

“I’ve been skating a lot when I was gone, so it wasn’t too bad to jump in and play again,” said Heiskanen, who had 19:15 of ice time.

Scott Wedgewood saved 30 of 32 shots, a solid outing for a goalie who could be the Stars’ top choice between the pipes for at least the next week. Regular starter Jake Oettinger is out of action due to a lower-body injury.

Arizona’s Zack Kassian (lower-body injury) is day-to-day after being a late scratch from Tuesday’s lineup. Conor Timmins (upper-body injury) is also questionable after missing the Coyotes’ last seven games.

The Stars have dominated the all-time series lately. Dating back to the 2015-16 season, Dallas is 13-2-1 in its last 16 meetings against the Coyotes.

–Field Level Media

The Anaheim Ducks and Vancouver Canucks already have plenty in common this season.

Both have already experienced seven-game losing streaks through their first 10 games, but they’ve also shown recent improvement heading into their first meeting of the season on Thursday night in Vancouver.

The Ducks are riding a two-game winning streak for the first time this season, having defeated the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in overtime on Sunday, and the San Jose Sharks 6-5 in a shootout on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game road trip.

“When you can bend and not break, and when you can learn to channel your emotions in the right direction, I think it’s a great learning experience,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said of the narrow wins.

Vancouver experienced its first two-game winning streak last week, posting victories against the Seattle Kraken and Pittsburgh Penguins before having another setback and falling to the New Jersey Devils 5-2 on Tuesday.

“We come off practice and we seem to accomplish what we want to accomplish all the time,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We work our (expletive) off in practice, it’s just, sometimes, it’s not correlating into the game and that’s the thing I don’t really understand.”

Boudreau pointed to one area in particular that needs improvement.

“We need our veteran guys and our better players to be our better players consistently, every day,” Boudreau said. “Not just one good game here and one good game there.”

Bo Horvat has been doing his part lately, scoring two goals in each of the past two games for Vancouver.

“Obviously, the puck’s going in right now,” Horvat said. “I’d rather be getting wins than scoring goals right now. I’d rather have none and be, obviously, 9-0, but it’s not the way it’s going right now.”

Horvat has also been one of the league’s better players in the faceoff circle, owning a 58.2 percent success rate.

That hasn’t translated into success for the Canucks, who are 22nd in the NHL in faceoff win percentage at 48.5, while the Ducks are one spot ahead at 48.9.

“If Bo’s not winning them, we don’t have a lot of guys winning faceoffs,” Boudreau said.

The Ducks have been receiving solid play from some of their youngest players.

Troy Terry has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) through 10 games, and Trevor Zegras has scored six goals, but veteran Adam Henrique didn’t notch his first goal of the season until Tuesday night, when he scored twice in the win in San Jose.

Henrique had 19 goals in 58 games last season, and has scored at least 20 in two of his other four seasons in Anaheim.

“It certainly gets the monkey off his back,” Eakins said. “When he got that first one, the bench was loud. It wasn’t like just an ordinary goal, and then for him to grab another one, even better.”

Several other Anaheim players are still looking for their first tallies, however.

Isac Lundestrom, who scored 16 goals for the Ducks last season, has yet to hit the back of the net. Neither has Mason McTavish, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft who scored in his first NHL game last season.

–Field Level Media

Winning streaks of at least five games have become commonplace for the Edmonton Oilers.

The New Jersey Devils? Not so much.

Two of the hottest teams in the NHL are slated to meet for the first time this season Thursday night, when the Oilers host the Devils.

Both teams were off Wednesday after extending winning streaks with resounding victories Tuesday night. The host Oilers won their fifth straight by beating the Nashville Predators, 7-4, while the Devils began a three-game road trip through Western Canada by defeating the Vancouver Canucks 5-2.

The five-game winning streak marks the seventh time since the start of the 2019-20 season the Oilers have earned at least five straight wins. Edmonton has one six-game winning streak in that span, which it recorded from March 28 through April 7, 2022.

The current winning streak has featured a little bit of everything for the Oilers, who have outscored the opposition 25-15 but have overcome deficits in four of the five victories. That includes Wednesday, when the Predators scored 34 seconds after the opening faceoff before Edmonton scored the next five goals over a span of less than 30 minutes.

Evander Kane collected a hat trick for the Oilers, Connor McDavid had two goals and two assists, and Leon Draisaitl finished with a goal and four assists. Draisaitl collected his goal shortly before the midway point of the third to extend Edmonton’s lead to 6-3.

“I thought it was really good offensively,” Draisaitl said. “Sometimes when you go up early in a game like that — by three or four goals — those games can be hard sometimes because you naturally just let off the gas. They are a good team that can score and make plays, but I thought we did a pretty good job.”

The Devils recovered from some jet lag and didn’t let up off the gas much against the Canucks. Nico Hischier and Michael McLeod scored in the first for New Jersey, which was outshot 10-7 in the first 20 minutes but put the game away by scoring twice in a span of 2:12 in the middle of the second.

“I think the sign of a good team is when you can find a different way to win,” Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said. “Our team started off — we were somewhere between Newark (N.J.) and Vancouver, I don’t know where. It might have been Newark, Arkansas.”

The Devils have outscored their opposition 19-5 over the last four games and have received impressively balanced scoring in the last two games, during which 11 players have scored the 12 goals New Jersey’s collected in beating the Canucks and Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Devils haven’t had a winning streak of longer than four games since winning five straight from Dec. 15 through Dec. 27, 2017. Only four of the players who played in the win over the Detroit Red Wings on Dec, 27, 2017 — Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Damon Severson and Miles Wood — were on the ice Tuesday night for New Jersey.

–Field Level Media

The Calgary Flames are dealing with their first rough patch of the young season. Though it’s not nearly as bad as the rut the Nashville Predators find themselves in.

Looking to avoid a third straight defeat, the Flames will try to hand the visiting Predators an eighth loss in their last nine games on Thursday night.

Calgary opened the season with three straight wins, but has dropped three of five since — all amid its current eight-game home stretch. For a second consecutive contest, the Flames failed to hold on to a third-period lead on Tuesday night. This time, they blew a two-goal edge during the final frame en route to their 5-4 loss versus Seattle.

“These types of situations, we don’t want to have that happen later on in the year,” Calgary forward Nazem Kadri said of his team’s recent third-period struggles.

“That’s still no excuse. We’ve got to bear down and get the job done.”

The Flames last dropped three consecutive true home games in regulation during the 2019-20 season.

“It’s kind of the way we’ve been playing all year. Strung some shifts together and kind of make those mistakes and it’s obviously hurting us as a group right now,” said Flames forward Tyler Toffoli, who had a goal and an assist on Tuesday.

“We’re trying to find ourselves as a group right now.”

Perhaps some good news for Calgary is that Nashville has also lost two in a row, and is 1-6-1 since sweeping both games against San Jose in Prague to open this season. The Predators trailed 4-1 after one period on Tuesday night, and fell 7-4 at Edmonton, thus dropping to 0-3-0 on the road in North America on the campaign.

“There were key situations where we’ve got to be able to execute better, or stay out of the penalty box, or whatnot,” Predators coach John Hynes said.

Nashville has allowed 17 goals during its three true road contests this season. Juuse Saros allowed 10 of those goals while facing 57 shots in his two road starts. However, he’s 4-1-0 with a 2.58 goals-against average at Calgary during his career.

With a goal and two assists against the Oilers, Nashville’s Filip Forsberg has recorded seven of his team-leading 10 points in the last four games. He’s posted five goals and three assists during his last seven games versus Calgary.

Kadri scored his fifth goal of the season on Tuesday and leads the team with 10 points. Though Kadri does not have a goal in any of his last five games versus Nashville, all coming with Colorado, he’s recorded seven assists during those contests.

Teammate Jacob Markstrom is 4-1-0 with a 2.60 GAA this season. Backup Dan Vladar stopped 21 of 26 shots Tuesday, and has a 3.81 GAA in three games this season.

Calgary snapped a 0-1-3 rut against the Predators with a 5-4 overtime victory at Nashville on April 26 of last season. The Predators, though, have won two straight, and five of their last six road games against the Flames.

–Field Level Media