"It's good for us to get back on the road," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said after Monday's practice at the Panthers IceDen. "A lot of decent things happened at home. We can sit here and talk about how many points we had out of 16; we only got nine.
"It could have been different with some one-goal games and how games ended at the end -- shootouts and overtimes and things like that. We know we have to get on a run at some point here. We've got to start winning some road games."
With at least one power-play goal in 18 of their last 19 games, the Panthers currently own the league's fourth-ranked power play, converting on 27.7 percent of their chances. That unit will face a tough test against the Blues, who enter with the fourth-ranked penalty kill (84.2 percent).
Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov are tied for the team lead with six power play goals apiece, while defenseman Keith Yandle's 19 points with the extra attacker rank first in the league. That said, Boughner believes his team will need to start producing more at 5-on-5 moving forward.
Dating back to the start of their homestand on Nov. 24, the Panthers lead the league with 11 power play goals, but have managed just 17 at even strength, which ranks tied for 19th during that span. And although they've been controlling possession (they boast a 52.01 CF% at 5-on-5), they have scored just 13 goals while surrendering 17 at 5-on-5 over their last eight games.
"We'll figure it out," Boughner said after Saturday's loss. "It's a good group of guys. Again, the only problem I have is that it's the same four or five guys scoring every night. We need some scoring and we need some depth. That's the challenge we have right now at 5-on-5."
The Panthers will be without one of those depth scorers for the entire two-game trip after it was announced that forward Nick Bjugstad would remain back in South Florida to nurse an upper-body injury. Bjugstad, who has four goals and six points this season, is considered day-to-day.
"He's in a situation where we'd rather he just stays back here and get some rehab done on him, get him better," Boughner said. "He might need a practice or two before the Toronto game [on Saturday] … It's more precautionary. He wouldn't be 100 percent if we put him in the lineup."
With Bjugstad sidelined, forward Anthony Greco was recalled from the team's AHL affiliate in Springfield on Saturday morning. This is the first NHL call-up for the 25-year-old, who ranks second on the Thunderbirds this season with 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) in 24 games.
Across the ice, the Blues (10-14-4) have lost eight of their last 11 games, a brutal stretch that culminated with a 6-1 loss to Vancouver on Sunday. Those frustrations boiled over during the team's practice on Monday, when teammates Robert Bortuzzo a Zach Sanford got into a fight.
"That happens, Blues interim coach Craig Berube told reporters of the incident. "Guys are frustrated, and they should be. So sometimes in practice, it boils over and things happen."
With Ryan O'Reilly (29 points) and Vladimir Tarasenko (20 points) as the only two players on St. Louis with at least 20 points, the Blues offense has stagnated, registering just five total goals over the last four games to drop down to 22nd in the league, averaging 2.79 goals-per game.
"Every point counts," Boughner said.
