The Florida Panthers, who have the NHL’s best home record at 23-3-0, are set to face the visiting Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
Nashville is 14-9-4 on the road this season.
The Panthers, who also have the most points in the Eastern Conference (75), are led by the highest-scoring offense in the NHL, with 208 total goals or 4.16 per game.
Part of Florida’s recipe for success is its depth, including its third line of Mason Marchment, Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell. The Panthers are so deep at forward that Frank Vatrano — who has averaged 19.3 goals over the past three seasons — was a healthy scratch in Sunday’s 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Owen Tippett, Florida’s first-round pick in 2017, was a healthy scratch on Tuesday.
But Florida’s scoring depth also includes its defensemen. Three of Florida’s five goals on Sunday came from defensemen Aaron Ekblad, Brandon Montour and MacKenzie Weegar.
“I think our D-men are super underrated,” Weegar said.
Ekblad, in fact, ranks among the NHL’s top three defensemen in goals with 13. Weegar produced a career-high 36 points last season, and he has 30 in this campaign. Two more Panthers defensemen — Gustav Forsling (22 points) and Montour (20) — are also key parts of the offense.
The Nashville game will be Florida’s first at home since a 5-4 overtime win over the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 29. The Panthers are starting a five-game homestand.
“We’ve been great at home all year,” Weegar said. “Our confidence is as big as it has ever been.
“We’re an elite team. I don’t think there are too many teams that can stick with us for a full 60 minutes.”
Nashville, which has yet to face Florida this season, will enter Tuesday on a four-game losing streak, which ties a season high.
In Nashville’s most recent game on Friday, the Predators lost on the road to the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-3.
Roman Josi had three assists for the Predators, but Nashville coach John Hynes said “there are areas we need to address” going forward.
“When you don’t have speed and you don’t have support and you don’t have numbers on the puck, (it hurts),” Hynes said.
Josi is certainly doing his part, dishing out eight assists during an active five-game point streak. The star defenseman leads the Predators this season in assists (38) and points (51). He also leads Nashville in power-play assists (15).
Filip Forsberg leads Nashville with 25 goals, and Matt Duchene tops the Predators with 10 power-play goals. Duchene has had a bounce-back season with 44 points in 46 games. He had just 13 points in 34 games last season.
Juuse Saros is Nashville’s top goalie. He is 24-15-3 with a 2.49 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage. His backup is David Rittich, who is 3-2-1 with a 3.05 GAA and an .882 save percentage.
Saros, who is just 5-foot-11, ranks first in the NHL in minutes played and total saves. Saros is also sixth in save percentage.
Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is tied for first in wins (26-4-3, 2.51 GAA, .919 SP) with the Carolina Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen and the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Offensively, Panthers winger Jonathan Huberdeau leads the NHL in assists (53). He also enters this week tied for second in the league in points (70).
Center Aleksander Barkov, despite missing 13 games, leads Florida with 23 goals.
–Field Level Media
