Panthers road trip continues in San Jose against sinking Sharks

For the second time this week, the Florida Panthers are in California preparing to kick off a back-to-back set.

The Cats have traveled north and will face the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday night.

It will be the second and final meeting between Florida and San Jose this season after the two battled down in Sunrise back in early December.

That game, a 3-1 Panthers victory, was the last one that goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood played for the Sharks. He was traded to Colorado two days later.

San Jose held a 10-15-5 record when they traded Blackwood, and that's after starting the season 0-7-2.

In the 21 games the Sharks have played since, they have won only four (4-16-1).

A bright spot for San Jose this season has been the outstanding play of rookie Macklin Celebrini.

The first overall selection at last summer’s NHL Entry Draft is looking every bit the part of a No. 1 pick.

Celebrini has racked up an impressive 15 goals and 35 points in the first 39 games he’s played in the NHL, and he’s riding a two-game goal streak entering Saturday’s date with the Panthers.

Florida arrives in San Jose hopeful that top pairing defenseman Aaron Ekblad will make his return to the lineup.

It’s been over two weeks since Ekblad last suited up, missing each of Florida’s past seven games with an upper-body injury.

The good news for the Cats is that Ekblad was a full participant in Friday’s practice at SAP Center.

Whether that leads to him suiting up against the Sharks remains to be seen.

“We’ll see how he feels tomorrow,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “There’s a chance he plays tomorrow.”

After getting in a good skate on Friday, it would seem barring any setbacks, the all-situations blueliner is ready to make his return.

While the Panthers have maintained without him, it will certainly be a boost to their back line when Ekblad is back out there.

“He touches all three phases of our game, and really important minutes in all of those,” said Maurice. “We’ve missed him.”

Before joining his teammates for Friday’s full practice, Ekblad had been skating on his own for over a week, doing what he could to keep his legs fresh.

That will help him hit the ground running whenever he does crack the lineup.

“He skates hard, and he preps hard,” said Maurice. “The heart and lungs and all that stuff, we’re not worried about that at all.”

Here are the Panthers projected lines and for Saturday's swim with the Sharks:

Matthew Tkachuk – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Eetu Luostarinen – Sam Bennett – Mackie Samoskevich

Carter Verhaeghe – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist

A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Evan Rodrigues

Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov

Tony Bjornfot – Nate Schmidt

Scratches: Uvis Balinskis, Jonah Gadjovich, Adam Boqvist

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