"I think, more than anything, we almost adopted a road-style at home," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said of his team's success at home last season. "We weren't overly fancy. We didn't get caught up in trying to be pretty. We tried to get pucks behind people, work off of forechecks and play that north-south game that I talk about all the time. The team that we're playing tonight is a lot of the same…. It's going to be a good matchup. It's going to be a tough game. It's good to have one of those for your home opener."
While many other teams around the league have already played in anywhere from three or four games at this point, Florida has been watching from the sidelines since opening the season with a 2-1 shootout loss in Tampa on Saturday. In that matchup, the Panthers fired off a game-high 43 shots on goal, but were simply unable to solve Vezina Trophy finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Still, if they play like that again, Florida's players are confident they'll be able to top Columbus.
"We spent a lot of time in their zone," said Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov. "Our goalies were great, but of course their goalie was really good, too. We scored only one goal, but we had good energy and a good start. We just need to bring that same energy in this game."
Although the Panthers left Tampa with a point in the standings, they also lost starting goaltender Roberto Luongo, who will be out of action for the next two-to-four weeks after suffering a Grade 1 sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee midway through the second period.
In Luongo's absence, backup goaltender James Reimer will take his place between the pipes against the Jackets and, presumably, for the majority of games for the next month or so as well. No stranger to the starting role, Reimer went 22-14-6 with a .913 save percentage in 2017-18.
"He's rose to the occasion many times in this situation," Boughner said of Reimer, who started 17 of 18 games last season after Luongo went down with a groin injury. "It's nothing different."
The Blue Jackets (2-1-0) are also dealing with some early-season injuries, as forward Brandon Dubinsky and defenseman Seth Jones are both expected to be sidelined for multiple weeks. In their first game without both stars, however, they rallied to defeated Colorado, 5-2, on Tuesday.
Against the Avalanche, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves to pick up the victory, but will head to the bench against the Panthers in favor of backup Joonas Korpisalo, who stopped 18 of 20 shots to help lead the Jackets to a shootout victory in their season opener on Oct. 4.
John Tortorella, who is entering his fourth season behind the bench in Columbus, told reporters after Thursday's morning skate at BB&T Center that he hasn't watched too much film on Florida this season, but knows what to expect after last year's neck-and-neck battle for a playoff spot.
"I think Bobby [Boughner] has done a terrific job here, and his staff, with how they played down that stretch," Tortorella said. "We were with them. We'd win a game and say, 'We've got enough room now.' But they just kept coming and coming. I think they got a lot of confidence out of that run. Although it wasn't successful, I think it built some confidence with some really good players here. We know it's a good team, but we're going to concentrate on ourselves and our game."
With that race still fresh in their minds, the Panthers certainly know how crucial every point is.
"We sense that every single point is important," Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. "We were stressing that in the Tampa Bay game the other day. I think that lesson's been learned. We're ready to take advantage of every point that's available for us."
