The Florida Panthers are finally wrapping up their wild and crazy five-game road trip.
Between the flux in scoring, international travel and fighting off of a locker room bug impacting several players, the Panthers arrive in Minnesota with a chance to head home with a winning record on the roadie.
The Wild are enjoying a strong start to their season, currently holding a 20-7-4 record, good for 44 points and second place of the Central Division, one point back of Winnipeg.
Interestingly, they have been much better on the road than at home. Entering play Wednesday, Minnesota is tied with Washington and New Jersey for most road wins (12) in the NHL.
At home, however, the Wild have won just eight of their 14 games. They’ve got 1-2 on their current five-game homestand and are 2-3-0 over their past five overall.
Star forward Kirill Kaprizov is well on his way to some serious Hart Trophy consideration with the season he’s having.
Currently he’s scored 22 goals and has 47 points, which is three behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead.
Kaprizov has scored two goals in each of his past two games and has racked up nine goals over his last 10 outings overall.
He’s one of only two players in the NHL who have scored more goals than Sam Reinhart, who picked up his 20th of the season on Monday in Edmonton.
In goal, Florida will face veteran Marc-Andre Fleury, who has been thrust into a larger role of late due to starting netminder Filip Gustavsson being out with a lower-body injury.
He’ll likely be matched up against Sergei Bobrovsky for the Panthers.
Bob has won five of his past six starts and will be looking for a bit of redemption after the first time he met Minnesota earlier this season.
In that October matchup, Bobrovsky was pulled after two periods, allowing five goals on just 16 shots. Florida ended up losing 5-1.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Wednesday’s meeting in Minny:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek –Mackie Samoskevich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis – Nate Schmidt
Scratches: Jonah Gadjovich, Adam Boqvist
LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS – FLORIDA
Goaltending remains cause for concern as Panthers push for second Stanley Cup
Three takeaways: Improvements in important areas, love for the fourth line
Wild Stanley Cup Final rematch in Edmonton goes to Panthers 6-5
Panthers ‘hopeful’ Sasha Barkov can play Monday night in Edmonton
Struggling Panthers arrive in Edmonton for Stanley Cup Final rematch
