"Playing at home in front of our fans, they always give extra motivation for us," Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. "We like coming here. We love this building. It's going to be the same thing this year, same thing tonight. We're really excited to be on home ice."
After kicking off their season with two straight wins, the Panthers closed out their three-game road trip with a 5-3 loss to the Boston Bruins on Monday at TD Garden. Already having to start the game without Brandon Montour, the Panthers were forced to work with just four defensemen for much of the contest after Aaron Ekblad suffered a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return.
Refusing to pack it in, Colin White scored with less than two minutes left in regulation to make it a 4-3 game. Unfortunately, that rally fell short when the Bruins buried an empty-netter to lock in the 5-3 final soon after. In addition to White, Sam Bennett and Gustav Forsling also touched the twine for the Panthers, while Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 29 of 33 shots between the pipes.
Despite falling to 2-1-0, Barkov felt like the game was a step in the right direction.
"I think we played some good hockey," Barkov said of the road trip. "We're trending toward the right direction all the time. Every game and every practice we're learning more about ourselves, about our team game and about how we need to play. In Boston we obviously lost some big defensemen and had to battle through that, but the guys did a really good job battling until the end. I know that we didn't get the result, but the effort was there. That's really important."
Not expected to miss much more time, coach Paul Maurice said Montour should be a full participant during Florida's next practice. For Ekblad, the news was less encouraging. Placed on LTIR, the star defenseman will be out for at least the next 10 games and 24 days.
That being said, Panthers general manager Bill Zito doesn't view the injury as long term.
"It's not a season-ending thing," Zito said. "We have every reason to believe he'll be back at 100%."
While veteran defensemen like Forsling, Marc Staal and Radko Gudas will have to step up in the absence of Ekblad and Montour against the Flyers, the Panthers also called up Matt Kiersted and Lucas Carlsson from AHL Charlotte to help fill the current void on the back end.
For two players that just missed out on spots out of camp, this should be a great opportunity.
"A real competition," Maurice said when asked about Kiersted and Carlsson. "You've got three guys in the lineup that when the group is healthy would be fighting for one spot. They'll be nervous before the game, which is good. They'll be wired up for the Home Opener, but also there's a real competition in their minds. We expect them to play at a real high level."
On dueling three-game point streaks to start the season, Matthew Tkachuk and White are tied for first on Florida in scoring with four points each. After that duo, Forsling and Eetu Luostarinen have each accumulated three points, while 10 other players have registered at least one point.
Owning a .924 save percentage in two starts, Bobrovsky will get the nod in net tonight.
One of only five remaining unbeaten teams in the NHL, the Flyers improved to 3-0-0 with a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. Trailing 2-0 in the second period, Scott Laughton, James van Riemsdyk and Noah Cates scored to secure the win for Philadelphia.
In their first season under coach John Tortorella, the Flyers have secured come-from-behind wins in three straight games to start a season for the first time since their 1988-89 campaign.
Leading the Flyers with three goals, Travis Konecny is also tied with Tony DeAngelo, Kevin Hayes and van Riemsdyk for first on the team in scoring with four points. In net, Carter Hart has started three straight games out of the gate, posting a 3-0-0 record with a .943 save percentage.
With Hart getting the nod at Tampa Bay, Felix Sandstrom could make his first start of 2022-23 against the Panthers.
"If you work that hard, you have good success," Maurice said when asked about Philadelphia's hot start. "Going back to when Torts was in Tampa and I was in Carolina -- and nobody watched those games -- they were always hard, grinding games by both teams. It was great hockey. I expect that tonight. They should feel confident and feel strong. They've gotten more aggressive in each game as their confidence grows."
