Blackhawks at Panthers
The Florida Panthers will quickly try to put a night to forget behind them when they host the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday. Florida lost Roberto Luongo to an apparent knee injury during Friday's 4-1 loss at Carolina - its fourth setback in five games - while Mike Hoffman had his franchise-record point streak halted at 17 contests.
The 39-year-old Luongo originally injured his right knee in a season-opening loss at Tampa Bay on Oct. 6 and missed the rest of the month, returning on Nov. 2. The Panthers return to South Florida for an eight-game homestand after finishing a six-game road trip with a 2-4-0 record. “I think that’s going to be a relief for everybody,” Florida coach Bob Boughner told reporters about going home. “It’s been a long month here, long month-and-a-half. We played good at home before we came on the road, so we’re looking at hopefully regaining that momentum.” Chicago started the season 6-6-2 but is 2-8-3 since after Friday's 4-2 loss at Tampa Bay dropped it to 3-7-2 on the road.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBCS Chicago, FS Florida
ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS (8-10-5): Captain Jonathan Toews (20 points this season) extended his point streak to six games (three goals, four assists) with his 11th goal on Friday while winning 16-of-22 faceoffs. Patrick Kane leads the team in goals (12) and points (25) but has been kept off the scoresheet in three of his last four games. Artem Anisimov, who has scored 20 or more goals in each of the last three seasons, registered his third goal of this campaign on Friday.
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (8-9-3): Hoffman totaled all of his team-high 20 points (10 goals) during the streak after being kept off the scoresheet in the first two games of the season. Jonathan Huberdeau (17 points) is stuck on 99 career goals after going the last five games without one. James Reimer (8-3-5, 3.27 goals-against average, .896 save percentage) relieved Luongo on Friday and is expected to get the bulk of the work should the veteran be out for a period of time.
OVERTIME
1. Chicago owns the second-worst power play in the league at 13 percent while Florida's penalty-killing unit is third-worst (74.2).
2. The Panthers had their streak of games with a man-advantage goal end at 10 on Friday but own the league's seventh-ranked power-play unit at 25.3 percent.
3. The Blackhawks won both meetings last season, including 4-1 at Florida one year ago on Sunday behind 37 saves from Crawford and a goal and two assists from Toews.