Panthers at Rangers
The Florida Panthers' season-high winning streak is over, but Mike Hoffman's torrid stretch continues. The 28-year-old left wing looks to register a point in a 15th straight game when the Panthers visit the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Hoffman notched an assist in Thursday's 7-3 loss at Columbus, which ended Florida's string of consecutive victories at five, to eclipse the franchise-record 13-game point streak set in 1999-2000 by Pavel Bure. Acquired from San Jose in June, Hoffman has collected seven goals and nine assists during his run after being kept off the scoresheet in his first two contests with the Panthers. The Rangers had their seven-game point streak (6-0-1) halted with Thursday's 7-5 road setback against the crosstown-rival Islanders. Chris Kreider celebrated his 400th career game by scoring a pair of goals to raise his team-leading total to 10 -- six fewer than he recorded in 58 contests last season.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NHL Network, FS Florida, MSG (New York)
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (7-6-3): While Hoffman's point streak lives on, Evgenii Dadonov had his 12-game run come to an end on Thursday. The 29-year-old Russian, who leads the team with 17 points, registered seven goals and as many assists during his hot stretch. Defenseman Keith Yandle tops the club with 12 assists and is seven away from 400 for his career.
ABOUT THE RANGERS (9-8-2): New York could have its newest forward in the lineup, as it acquired Ryan Strome from Edmonton on Friday for Ryan Spooner. The 25-year-old Strome, who was drafted fifth overall by the Islanders in 2011 and netted a career-high 17 tallies with the club in 2014-15, recorded one goal and one assist in 18 games with the Oilers this season after registering 13 and 21 over 82 contests last campaign. Henrik Lundqvist has appeared in 820 NHL contests, tying him with Sean Burke for 13th place on the all-time list for goaltenders.
OVERTIME
1. Panthers D Aaron Ekblad has tallied in back-to-back contests after enduring a season-opening 14-game drought.
2. New York has scored two goals in one minute or less four times over its last six games.
3. Florida has recorded at least one power-play goal in each of its last seven contests.