The Florida Panthers visit in the Pacific Northwest continues on Thursday night in beautiful British Columbia.
Fresh off Tuesday’s 2-1 shootout win in Seattle, the Panthers have moved north of the border for a matchup with the Vancouver Canucks.
Florida has been playing some strong hockey of late.
They are currently riding a seven-game point streak in which the Cats have picked up six wins and 13 of a possible 14 points.
The run has pushed Florida back into top spot in the Atlantic Division, two points ahead of Toronto and five points clear of Boston.
Now the Panthers will face a Canucks squad that feels like their season may be turning for the better.
Entering play Thursday, Vancouver holds the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
They are riding a 5-2-2 stretch but have dropped two of the three games on their current homestand.
One big reason for optimism is the return of All-Star goaltender Thatcher Demko, who made his first start of the season on Tuesday against St. Louis.
Demko will now join a tandem with Kevin Lankinen, though it’s a little unclear which one will act as the starter.
That’s because Lankinen has been playing lights out in Demko’s absence, holding a 13-4-3 record to go with a 2.65 goals against average and .908 save percentage. Though the statistics aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire, it’s hard to argue with 13 wins and points in 16 of 20.
Whichever tendy gets the nod for the ‘Nucks, Florida will be hoping they’re not in the same zone that Joey Daccord was in on Tuesday in Seattle.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and for Thursday’s battle in British Columbia:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Mackie Samoskevich
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Jesper Boqvist
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis – Nate Schmidt
Scratches: Jonah Gadjovich, Adam Boqvist
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