Panthers look to continue road success, open trip against stingy Penguins

It’s been a few weeks, but the Florida Panthers are finally taking their entertaining hockey show back on the road again!

Why is that exciting?

It’s been a little while, so it’s understandable if this slipped the minds of one or two of you.

This season, the Panthers have been one of the best road teams in the league.

Despite not playing a game away from South Florida since late January, Florida is still tied for most road victories with 17.

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The Panthers are also currently riding a franchise record eight-game road winning streak.

These are exciting times away from Sunrise!

In order for the Cats to keep their run going, they’ll have to take care of business in short order.

Florida will play three road games in the night four nights, starting Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

The Panthers enter play Wednesday leading the NHL in goals against per game (2.23), penalty kill success rate (87.8%) and shots on goal per game (33.6).

On the individual level, Sam Reinhart has scored a power play goal in seven consecutive road games while Sasha Barkov is second in the NHL with 25 road assists, and then there’s goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who has the second-most road wins in the league with 11.

Bobrovsky is also one win shy of matching the Panthers record of seven consecutive road victories. Bob currently shares that record (he won seven straight road games in 2021-22) with former Panthers tendie Mark Fitzpatrick, who originally set the record all the way back in the 1995-96 season.

The Panthers will be facing a Penguins squad desperate to climb back into the playoff race.

Pittsburgh enters play Wednesday seven points behind Detroit for the final Wild Card spot.

Despite dropping a pair of road games this week, the Penguins have points in each of their past five games on home ice (3-0-2). That includes a shootout loss to the Panthers back on Jan. 26.

For those who may not remember, it was a game that was full of extracurricular activities following a hit on Sasha Barkov by Kris Letang.

Overall, Pittsburgh has been much better about not giving up goals lately. Over their past five games, the Penguins have allowed just nine total goals. The problem is that they’ve only scored 11 goals during those same five games.

Here are the Cats projected lines and pairings for Wednesday’s battle in Pensburgh:

Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Nick Cousins – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Evan Rodrigues

Jonah Gadjovich – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg

Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov

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