The Florida Panthers return to home ice tonight for only the second time this season, and they’ll get a Vancouver Canucks team that has been worn down on the road and hasn’t found a way to stop the slide.
Florida, now 3-2-2, comes in off its most complete night of the young season: a 7-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday that ended a two-game skid. Akira Schmid picked up his first win with the club, Brady Tkachuk broke through with a natural hat trick and added an assist, and Matthew Tkachuk piled up five assists to tie a franchise record.
Seth Jones also matched a franchise mark for a defenseman with four helpers, while Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart each scored twice. The Panthers’ power play was sharp, too, going four-for-six in the rout.
Vancouver, meanwhile, is 2-6-0 and heading into the fifth stop of a six-game eastern trip that has already produced four regulation losses and stretched its losing streak to five. The Canucks had a brief push on Tuesday when Max Sasson and Brock Boeser scored in the second period to erase a 2-0 deficit against the New York Islanders and make it 2-2, but they couldn’t answer Kyle Palmieri’s goal 5:38 into the third.
Leevi Meriläinen stopped 35 shots in that game and is expected to get the nod over Kevin Lankinen, who has struggled. Elias Pettersson leads Vancouver with nine points in eight games.
Elsewhere around the league tonight: Buffalo visits Toronto, the New York Islanders are in Ottawa, Seattle travels to Tampa Bay, and Philadelphia heads to Detroit.
In Other News...
Tkachuk Brothers Are Giving Panthers Fans A Dangerous New Reason To Dream
Brady Tkachuk has long been the kind of player the Panthers would love to build around, but watching him skate alongside Matthew in Florida has added a new layer to the conversation. The brothers have shown obvious chemistry as linemates, and Bradys latest outburst, a four-hat-trick type of night in his career, only sharpened the sense that this pairing can tilt the ice in ways few teams can match. For Panthers fans, it is the sort of star-driven wrinkle that feels even more tantalizing when layered onto a roster that already knows what it takes to win.
Paul Maurice has taken notice of what Brady has brought so far, and the fit is easy to appreciate from Floridas side. Brady arrived with the rsum of a former Ottawa captain and, before this move, was viewed as someone who preferred a U.S. destination, which only makes the Panthers landing spot feel more intriguing in hindsight. With a two-time Stanley Cup champion team now getting a closer look at the Tkachuk connection, the bigger question is how far this brother act can keep carrying the intrigue. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Power Play Surge Faces A Bigger Test Against Vancouver
Floridas power play got a noticeable lift in the wake of its recent matchups with Columbus and Buffalo, a welcome development for a club that knows how much special teams can swing a night. After looking flat in that area, the Panthers suddenly created real momentum on the man advantage, giving their offense a little more breathing room as the schedule turns to a Vancouver team that has been trying to find traction of its own.
The Canucks arrive with roster issues and a rough stretch hanging over them, which adds a different kind of test for Florida than the one it faced in the last two games. Vancouvers recent slide, along with the uncertainty around its lineup and goaltending situation, means the Panthers may not get the same kind of clean, predictable looks they just had, and that makes this next power-play checkup a little more revealing than the last. [Read more 🡒]