Struggling Panthers open challenging homestand against Colorado

The Florida Panthers will look to get off the schneid when they host the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night in Sunrise.

Florida is fresh off consecutive losses in Winnipeg and Chicago earlier this week, and overall they’ve lost four of their past five.

It’s the worst stretch seen by the Panthers since last March, when they went 3-7-2 in the weeks just before the playoffs began.

Back then, Paul Maurice’s bunch quickly cleaned things up and went 5-0-1 over their final six games to clinch the Atlantic Division and ride into the postseason with some momentum.

Now it’s up to Maurice and the Cats to figure out how to turn things around again, and preferably before the losses pile up any more.

Speaking of highs and lows, it’s been that kind of a season for Florida’s Saturday night opponent as well.

Colorado started the season with four losses right out of the gate, followed immediately by five straight wins, and then three losses in a row after that.

In the eight games since that roller coaster of emotions, the Avs have smoothed things out, going 6-2-0, with the only losses coming to Washington and at Winnipeg.

They’re led by the amazing trio of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar.

MacKinnon enters play Saturday tied for the league lead in points with 34, and his superstar teammates aren’t far behind, with Makar and Rantanen each holding 28 points.

Florida’s Sam Reinhart has racked up 30 points so far this season, and his 15 goals are tied for the league lead entering play Saturday.

Reinhart is also riding a 12-game point streak in which he’s logged 10 goals and 18 points.

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s battle with the Avs:

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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