The last time the Florida Panthers were in Edmonton, they weren’t feeling particularly good about themselves.
They had just lost Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, squandering a 3-0 lead in the series and preparing to head home for a winner-take-all Game 7 in Sunrise.
Back in June, the Panthers were able to snap back into form and take Game 7 to win their first Stanley Cup.
Now the Cats are back in Edmonton and once again, they arrive trying to bounce back from consecutive losses.
This time, Florida has been shutout in back-to-back games, getting outscored 7-0 between losses in Vancouver and Calgary.
Edmonton, meanwhile, is riding high.
The Oilers have won a season-high five straight and overall have gone an impressive 12-3-1 since early November.
Leading the way offensively this season has been their usual dynamic duo, though Leon Draisaitl currently holds an edge in both goals and points over Connor McDavid.
Draisaitl’s 22 goals are the most in the NHL and his 45 points are tied for third-most with Minnesota Wild star Kirill Kaprizov.
Florida scoring specialist Sam Reinhart hasn’t lit the lamp in four games and remains at 19 goals on the season.
Florida’s consecutive shutouts mark the first time this season that Reinhart has gone more than one game in a row without registering a point.
Looking at the roster, Panthers captain Sasha Barkov missed Florida’s loss in Calgary on Saturday due to an illness and the team is surely hoping that he’s feeling well enough to jump back into the lineup against the high-flying Oilers.
Florida will likely turn back to Sergei Bobrovsky between the pipes after giving backup Spencer Knight a start in Calgary.
Bob had won four straight starts before allowing stopping just 15 of 19 shots during the Panthers’ 4-0 loss in Vancouver on Thursday.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Monday’s matchup in Edmonton:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek –Jonah Gadjovich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis – Nate Schmidt
Scratches: Mackie Samoskevich, Adam Boqvist
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