Golden Knights at Panthers
The Florida Panthers look to begin a run that puts them back in the playoff chase when they host former coach Gerard Gallant and his surprising Vegas Golden Knights on Friday. The Panthers have gone 1-3-1 to start the month, including a 4-2 loss to Calgary last Friday before enjoying their bye week, and are 13 points out of third place in the Atlantic Division.
“We’ve got to realize that we’re in the thick of things,” Florida defenseman Keith Yandle told reporters. “With the back end of our schedule here now, we’ve got to play a lot of meaningful hockey and we’ve got to play well.” The Panthers dropped a 5-2 decision on Dec. 17 in their first-ever meeting with Vegas, which avoided matching its longest losing streak of the season (three games) with an impressive 4-1 victory at NHL-best Tampa Bay on Thursday. The expansion Golden Knights are 10-5-2 against the Eastern Conference after William Karlsson notched his team-leading 24th goal in their second win over the Lightning. Gallant led Florida to the Atlantic Division title in 2015-16 during his second season with the team before being fired after it got off to an 11-10-1 start last campaign.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, Sportsnet 360, TVA, AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain (Vegas), FS Florida
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (30-11-3): Jonathan Marchessault, who scored 30 goals with Florida last season, notched an assist on Thursday to push his team-leading total to 42 points - including five in his last five games. Reilly Smith, another former Panther, also has registered five of his 36 points in his last five contests while posting a plus-8 rating in that span and David Perron recorded a goal and an assist Thursday to give him 17 points in as many games and 36 overall. Marc-Andre Fleury was sharp in the victory over Tampa Bay but likely will be rested Friday in favor of Malcolm Subban (11-2-0), who has won seven straight decisions.
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (18-19-6): The top performers all were producing before the break and leading scorer Jonathan Huberdeau is on a major hot streak, recording eight of his 44 points over his last five games and seven goals in the past nine contests. All-Star Aleksander Barkov has collected seven of his 40 points in five games this month while Vincent Trocheck has registered four of his 41 in the last two contests. James Reimer is just 1-3-1 with an .894 save percentage this month but has played admirably (8-6-2, 2.56 goals-against average, .924 save percentage) since No. 1 goaltender Roberto Luongo went down with a lower-body injury.
OVERTIME
1. Florida RW Evgenii Dadonov registered a season-high eight shots and scored a pair of goals against Calgary last Friday.
2. Vegas All-Star LW James Neal scored in Thursday's win and needs one goal to reach 20 for the 10th consecutive season.
3. The Panthers are 2-for-25 on the power play over their last 10 games while the Golden Knights have gone 25-for-26 on the penalty kill in their last 11 contests.