In their last outing on Thursday, Reinhart and Eric Staal each scored a pair of goals to help lead the Panthers to a 4-1 win over the Sharks. Between the pipes, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 33 of 34 shots to become just the 25th goaltender in NHL history to reach 350 career wins.
Over his last 16 appearances, Bobrovsky has gone 9-5-1 with a .920 save percentage.
"He's not scrambling in the net, he's fighting in the net," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "He's getting across the post and making some huge saves. I thought he had more work tonight than he did against Tampa, and more critical work because the game was tight."
After sitting out last game due to an injury suffered against the Lightning on Monday, Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov's status for tonight's matchup won't be known until Maurice shares lineup information during his pre-game availability with the media around 3:30 p.m. ET.
"If he feels like he can go, he'll go," Maurice said after Friday's practice. "He's not too far off."
Filling in for Barkov in the middle of Florida's top line against the Sharks, Eetu Luostarinen dished out two primary assists and finished with a +3 rating. Skating 17:37 during the win, the 24-year-old forward also notched two takeaways, one block and won 55.6% of his faceoffs.
"He's such a smart player," Reinhart said. "I don't know many guys in this league that are going to fill in for Barky, but his game has really elevated this year. Just his composure out there. Offensively he's making a lot of plays, and defensively he's always kind of had that game."
Sitting third in the Central Division with a record of 27-19-4, the Avalanche has lost each of its last two games, including a 5-0 loss at Tampa Bay on Thursday. In defeat, Colorado was unable to get anything past Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who stopped all 30 shots he faced.
"I liked the start of the game. I thought both teams were playing hard," Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar told reporters after the loss. "I felt like they were more competitive than us in certain areas of the game as the game went on."
Already missing Gabriel Landeskog, who has been sidelined since undergoing knee surgery in October, the Avalanche will also be without reigning Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar against the Panthers after the All-Star defenseman suffered an upper-body injury at Pittsburgh Tuesday.
Mikko Rantanen leads Colorado in scoring with 61 points (34 points, 27 assists), while Nathan MacKinnon is second with 55 points (14 goals, 41 assists). Producing at a point-per-game clip from the blue line, Makar has registered 45 points (13 goals, 32 assists) in 45 games.
In the crease, both Alexander Georgiev and Pavel Francouz have gotten in some work as of late. Georgiev has gone 20-12-3 with a .917 save percentage in 35 appearances, while Francouz, who has started three of the last six games, has posted a 7-7-1 record with a .919 save percentage.
Facing off for the second and final time this season, the Panthers secured a 5-4 win over the Avalanche in their first meeting at Ball Arena back on Jan. 10.
After Colorado came back from a three-goal deficit to suddenly make it 4-4 in the third period, Tkachuk lit the lamp on the power play with just 3:30 left in regulation to lock in the win for Florida.
Overall, the Panthers own a 3-1-0 record in their last four games against the Avalanche.
