SUNRISE, Fla. – The Florida Panthers certainly aren’t hitting the panic button after following up their season-long, nine-game winning streak with three straight losses, two of which ended in overtime.
“The games we’ve lost have all been close games,” defenseman Dmitry Kulikov said after Thursday’s practice at Amerant Bank Arena. “We felt we could’ve won those games and we lost in overtime. We’d like to grab those extra points, but we’ll be fine.”
The standings back up that statement.
Owning a 9-1-2 record over their last 12 games, the Panthers currently sit just three points behind the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference. They also have a seven-point cushion between themselves and the Detroit Red Wings, who occupy third place in the division.
“We’re in good shape,” forward Eetu Luostarinen said. “The last three games have been one-goal games. We just need to play hard in the third period and not let anything slip away.”
With back-to-back overtime losses on home ice to the Anaheim Ducks and Red Wings, the Panthers will look to get back in the win column on Friday when the Minnesota Wild (18-20-5) come to town.
This will be the second and final game between the two teams this season.
In the season opener, the Cats suffered a 2-0 to the Wild on Oct. 12 in Minnesota.
REINHART’S STILL SCORING
Sam Reinhart is scoring at a rate that has not been seen in South Florida.
“It’s great to play with him,” said Luostarinen. “He sees the ice well and obviously he can score, too.”
Looking at the numbers, Reinhart’s goal against Detroit on Wednesday was a big one for many reasons.
The goal marked Reinhart’s 500th career point in the NHL (231 goals, 269 assists), tied his single-season career high (33) from 2021-22, and extended his goal streak to eight games, which moved him past Hall of Famer Pavel Bure (7 GP in 2000-01) for longest goal streak in franchise history.
“I think any time you’re in the conversation with Pavel Bure, that’s pretty cool,” Reinhart said.
With Reinhart’s goal against the Red Wings coming while the Panthers were on the penalty kill, he was also credited with a goal on special teams for the eighth straight game. Extending his own NHL record in the process, no player in history has ever scored a special-teams goal in more than six straight games.
“It’s been so impressive to see,” head coach Paul Maurice said of the red-hot run. “From a coach’s point of view, you like the guy that does everything right as hard as he can and never cheats the game.”
With shorthanded goals in two consecutive games, Reinhart also joined Radek Dvorak (Oct. 12 & 16, 2009) as the only two Panthers to net shorthanded goals in consecutive games in Panthers history.
Just over halfway through the season, Reinhart currently sits 10th in the NHL in points (56) and second in goals (33), trailing Toronto Maple Leafs sniper Auston Matthews for the league lead in goals by just one.
BARKOV DAY-TO-DAY
After missing Wednesday’s game against Detroit, captain Aleksander Barkov remains day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
“He skated this morning and will skate again tomorrow if he feels good,” Maurice said.
As of this morning, Barkov hasn’t been ruled out to take the ice against the Wild on Friday.
An integral piece for the Panthers, Barkov has registered 46 points (33 goals, 23 assists) in 40 games this season while also playing all-world defense that has him in the conversation for another Selke Trophy.
Maurice is expected to provide another update on Barkov following tomorrow’s morning skate.
GADJOVICH GETTING BETTER
Jonah Gadjovich missed this afternoon’s practice due to an illness.
Maurice said the hard-nosed forward has dealing with the bug for a while, but is making progress.
In 16 games this season, Gadjovich has posted two points and racked up 45 penalty minutes.
Like Barkov, an update on Gadjovich is expected to come tomorrow.
COUSINS SKATING
While both Barkov and Gadjovich were absent, a familiar face returned to the ice this afternoon.
In concussion protocol since being boarded by Arizona Coyotes forward Jason Zucker on Jan. 2, Nick Cousins joined the Panthers at practice for the first time since the incident in a yellow no-contact jersey.
Despite this big step forward, his return is not expected to be imminent.
“He’ll slowly start amping that up and eventually he will have to pass his tests, then we have to get him back in contact, so he is still a way aways,” said Maurice.
In 37 games this season, Cousins has tallied two goals and three assists while bringing an edge to the bottom-six.
