Yahoo Sports Ducks in town as Panthers aim to end homestand on high note
A team that will be forever linked to the Florida Panthers is in town this weekend.
Florida will welcome the Anaheim Ducks to Sunrise on Saturday night in a matchup of expansion brothers.
All the way back in 1993, the Panthers and Ducks entered the NHL together as two brand new teams in non-traditional hockey markets.
It took 30 years, but now both franchises boast a Stanley Cup banner in their respective rafters: Anaheim won their Cup in 2007, Florida won last season.
The Ducks arrive in South Florida this weekend trying to break out of a funk and make some headway in their push for a playoff spot.
Entering play Saturday, Anaheim is seven points behind Calgary for the second Wild Card spot.
Sunrise is the final stop on a six-game, 10-day road trip for the Ducks, one they’ve skated to a 1-3-1 mark so far.
As for the Panthers, they’ve been searching for some consistency over the past several weeks, going an underwhelming 4-5-1 in the 10 games they’ve played since returning from the NHL’s annual holiday break.
Interestingly, while Florida is just 1-2-1 over their past four outings, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice said Friday that he's been quite pleased with a lot of what he's seen over that span.
"I’ve loved three of our last four games," Maurice said. "We’re as strong and closer to the identity I believe that we’re going to have to play to be successful this year."
Unfortunately for the Cats, they’ll be without top pairing defenseman Aaron Ekblad for a fifth consecutive game.
Ekblad has been skating with injured forward Jonah Gadjovich but has yet to participate in a full practice with the team.
Maurice said that Ekblad would travel with the team when they head out for a four-game road trip on Sunday, and that it was likely he would return at some point while the team is out west.
“For now, we’re shooting for the road trip,” Maurice said. “I think we’re pretty confident he’ll be able to play on the road trip.”
Saturday's game is the first of two meetings between the Cats and Ducks this season.
The rematch will come all the way on...Tuesday, when Florida begins their four-game western swing on the pond in Anaheim.
Here are Florida’s projected lines and pairings ahead of Saturday’s date with the Ducks:
Matthew Tkachuk – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luostarinen – Sam Bennett – Mackie Samoskevich
Carter Verhaeghe – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
Evan Rodrigues – Tomas Nosek – A.J. Greer
Gus Forsling – Dmitry Kulikov
Niko Mikkola – Nate Schmidt
Tony Bjornfot – Uvis Balinskis
Scratches: Aaron Ekblad, Jonah Gadjovich, Adam Boqvist
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