"We have the chance to make history," said Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau, who leads the team in scoring with 20 points. "We're going to work hard and be ready from the get-go."
In first place in the Atlantic Division with an impressive record of 14-3-3, the Panthers saw their overall winning streak snapped at four games with a 4-3 loss at Washington less than 24 hours ago on Friday. Against the Capitals, Huberdeau, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe each lit the lamp, while Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight combined to make 25 saves in net.
Leading 1-0 following a late goal from Huberdeau to close out the first period, the Panthers went on to surrender three goals within the first four minutes of the second period -- including a pair from Alex Ovechkin, who would go on to finish with a hat trick -- to suddenly fall into a 3-1 hole.
"Those momentum shifts we talked about on the road here seem to be a recurring problem," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said. "We kind of had another change that wasn't great. Some little things come back to bite you, and you can't always come back every night."
In addition to going 0-for-3 on the power play, Florida also surrendered a shorthanded goal.
"I think our execution is the problem right now," Huberdeau said when asked about the power play. "We know what to do on the power play. We've all played there. It's just not clicking right now. Too many turnovers. They have too many chances on the PK. We're just a little sloppy."
Not lacking weapons on offense, the Panthers currently rank second in the league in scoring with an average of 3.80 goals per game. While Huberdeau's 20 points pace the team, three other players -- Anthony Duclair, Aleksander Barkov and Aaron Ekblad -- have recorded 17.
Also catching fire, Verhaeghe has scored four goals over his last five games.
Looking ahead to tonight's matchup against the Kraken, Duclair's status is currently up in the air after he was scratched from Friday's game for precautionary reasons due to a lower-body injury. Also dealing with a lower-body injury, Barkov remains out of the lineup and is still week-to-week.
Between the pipes, Knight will likely get the start for the Panthers after Bobrovsky played the majority of the game against the Capitals. Setting a franchise rookie record with 45 saves in a 4-1 win over the Devils in his last start, Knight is 5-2-1 with a .903 save percentage this season.
Struggling a bit out of the gate in their inaugural season, the Kraken have lost seven of their last nine games to fall to 6-13-1, including being shut out by a score of 3-0 at Tampa Bay on Friday. While they own a 5-6-0 record at home, they've had a really hard time on the road, going 1-7-1.
Against the Lightning, Seattle fired off just 17 shots on goal.
"We were a half step behind tonight," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "We didn't create enough pressure in the offensive zone. We needed to be better at winning pucks in both zones."
Jaden Schwartz leads Seattle in scoring with 16 points (four goals, 12 assists), while Jordan Eberle ranks second with 14 points, including a team-high nine goals. Second on the team in goals with eight, former Panther Jared McCann has scored five times in his last eight games.
With Philipp Grubauer getting the start at Tampa Bay, it's possible that Chris Driedger will get the nod against the Panthers. Spending two seasons with Florida before being claimed by the Kraken in the Expansion Draft, Driedger owns a 0-2-0 record behind a .791 save percentage.
Another familiar face in this matchup, Alex Wennberg, who has tallied 11 points this season, skated in 56 games with the Panthers in 2020-21, recording 29 points (17 goals, 12 assists).
Going for an historic win tonight, the Cats have outscored opponents 50-23 at home thus far.
