LOS ANGELES – The Florida Panthers will wrap up their first of two back-to-backs on their current road trip when they visit the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday.
Overall, Florida is 5-1-0 on the second half of back-to-backs this season.
“These are the big ones, right? This one and Vegas,” head coach Paul Maurice said of the team’s double dip of back-to-backs this week. “All our back-to-backs this year, this is where we’ve got to be wound up and tight.”
Second in the Atlantic Division at 28-17-3, the Panthers opened their four-game trip to the West Coast by completing a sweep of their home-and-home series with the Anaheim Ducks.
After closing out their homestand with a 3-0 win over the Ducks on Saturday, the Panthers charged into the Honda Center and clawed their way to a 5-2 win on the road in Anaheim on Tuesday.
Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett and Uvis Balinskis all lit the lamp during the win, while Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 28 of 30 shots between the pipes.
“It’s big,” Bennett said of starting the trip with two points. “It’s a couple of tough back-to-backs. To get the first (win), it’s always huge. We can just roll of this momentum now.”
Spreading out the offense, 11 different Panthers recorded at least one point in Anaheim.
Over their two-game sweep of the Ducks, they led 8-2 in goals.
“It’s good because we haven’t been scoring,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “No matter what, players want to score goals. It makes you feel good. Everybody that gets a point tonight gets to leave the rink with a win and a point and they have a smile on their face.”
With no morning skate, lineup information won’t be known until closer to puck drop.
Missing the last six games with an upper-body injury, top-pair defenseman Aaron Ekblad is expected to return to action at some point during the trip, but it’s not known exactly when.
After backing up Bobrovsky in Anaheim, Spencer Knight should start in Los Angeles.
Over his last six appearances, Knight has gone 4-1-0 with a .937 save percentage.
“He’s been awesome,” Verhaeghe said of the young goaltender. “He’s so solid back there.”
Third in the Pacific Division at 25-14-5, the Kings have lost four of their last five games, including a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins in their last tilt on Monday.
During their 1-4-0 stretch, the Kings have scored one or fewer goals in three games.
Teaming up on the top line to do most of the damage for Los Angeles, Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar have each posted a team-high 43 points. Kempe leads the team with 23 goals, while Kopitar, a two-time winner of the Selke Trophy, has dished the most assists with 31.
Third on the team in scoring with 26 points, Alex Laferriere is out with an upper-body injury.
Surrendering the third-fewest goals per game in the NHL (2.48), the Kings have received excellent work between the pipes from Darcy Kuemper. In 23 appearances this season, the 34-year-old veteran has gone 13-4-5 with a .922 save percentage and a pair of shutouts.
Splitting their two-game season series in 2023-24, the Panthers came out on top in their most-recent meeting with the Kings, earning a 3-2 win in overtime back on Jan. 11, 2024.
THEY SAID IT
“He’s been awesome. I really like playing with him. He’s got a lot of jump in his game and a lot of confidence. I think the more we play together, the more we’re going to build that chemistry." – Sam Bennett on playing with Mackie Samoskevich
“We like the way that we made it 4-2, a forecheck that was more like our game. I think we had 10 hits through the first two periods. That’s not really like our game. Then I really liked our neutral-zone defense in the third.” – Paul Maurice on the win in Anaheim
FIVE CATS STATS
- Aleksander Barkov has amassed 18 points (7G, 11A) in 16 career games vs. the Kings.
- Florida’s .646 road points percentage is the fourth best in the NHL.
- Sam Reinhart leads the NHL with five shorthanded goals.
- The Panthers rank sixth in the NHL with an 85.8% net penalty kill.
- Matthew Tkachuk has logged a team-high 18 points on the power play.
PROJECTED LINEUP (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Forwards
Matthew Tkachuk – Aleksander Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luostarinen – Sam Bennett – Mackie Samoskevich
Carter Verhaeghe – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Evan Rodrigues
Defensemen
Gustav Forsling – Dmitry Kulikov
Niko Mikkola – Nate Schmidt
Tobias Bjornfot – Uvis Balinskis
Goaltenders
Spencer Knight
Sergei Bobrovsky
RECENT TRANSACTIONS:
- Jan. 6: D Tobias Bjornfot recalled from Charlotte (AHL)
- Dec. 23: F Rasmus Asplund loaned to Charlotte (AHL)
HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN
When: Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 10 p.m. ET
Where: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
TV & Streaming: TNT, truTV, Max
Radio: 560 WQAM (Dade/Broward); 92.1 WZZR-FM (Palm Beach); 100.3 WCTH (Florida Keys); Panthers App; SiriusXM App & Streaming 931
Cats on Tap: Click Here
