Over the past week, the Florida Panthers embarked on a four-game road trip to get the 2024-2025 season in full swing. On their first trip out of Florida this season, they finished 2-2, and it started last Thursday with a 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. On Saturday, another loss followed, this one to the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2.
But the Panthers gained some momentum Monday with a 4-3 matinee win against the Boston Bruins, and closed out the trip with an additional 4-3 win in Columbus over the Blue Jackets Tuesday night.
A closer look at some of Florida’s top storylines as the Panthers return to home ice Thursday night in Sunrise:
SAM REINHART’S STRONG START
Panthers center Sam Reinhart is riding an impressive run with four goals and four assists in the first five games of the regular season. With stars Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk both forced to sit out with injuries, Reinhart stepped up and made some big moves leading to the most recent couple of victories for the Panthers.
After scoring twice against Boston on Monday, a win that gave Florida a 2-0 mark against the Bruins already, Reinhart said that “these two early on are obviously big games, and I thought we did a really good job and stuck with it right toward the end even when they were pushing.”
In a press conference following Tuesday’s win over the Blue Jackets, coach Paul Maurice referred to it, simply, as the “Sam Reinhart effect.” The 28-year-old Vancouver native was selected by the Buffalo Sabres as the No. 2 pick in the 2014 NHL draft, and was traded to the Panthers in 2021.
He’s been proving himself a noteworthy member of the team ever since. Reinhart scored the game-winning goal in Game 7 to bring the Stanley Cup home at the end of last season and signed an eight-year, $69 million contract this past July, so we’ll get to watch him even further capitalize on his talent in the near future.
SPENCER KNIGHT BACK IN A PANTHERS UNIFORM
On the road trip, Spencer Knight, Florida’s 23-year-old goaltender, made his return to the ice. and played in an NHL game for the first time since February 2023. He started for Florida against both Ottawa and Columbus.
Knight reached out to the NHL’s Player Assistance program for help with issues he was having regarding obsessive compulsive disorder, which resulted in the break from playing.
This spring, he played a bit for the Checkers, Florida’s minor-league team in Charlotte, North Carolina, and experienced his true love for the game again. Upon finishing his time with the Checkers, Knight said “that’s one thing I didn’t take for granted this year, being able to be on the ice and play. It was fun. It was great. … For me, it’s all learning.”
He worked closely with both the Panthers and Checkers organizations to get back to being mentally ready to return and perform.
“I’m just kind of on my own path. It’s obviously nice to see,” Knight continued. “I hope I can serve as an inspiration a little bit, but I’m probably not going to be the last person that has to go through something hard.”
Knight has been eagerly awaiting his time to get back on the ice in the Panthers uniform, and needless to say the public is excited to see him play again on home ice soon. Maurice spoke in a press conference last week about his exceptional preseason, and after Knight’s win against Columbus, he said “Spencer was great. For our end, that was the difference in the game.”
CAPTAIN ALEKSANDER BARKOV INJURED IN OTTAWA
In the first game of the Panthers’ road trip, the loss in Ottawa, Barkov crashed feet-first into the end boards. He has since been diagnosed with a lower-body injury and did not play in the following three games. When asked about having to play without one of their key players, forward Evan Rodrigues said that it’s “next man up. … Obviously, we never want to lose anybody, but we’ll have that next-man-up mentality and everyone will have to step up their game.”
Maurice said they are expecting Barkov to be out for two to three weeks, and hopefully return for their games against the Dallas Stars in Finland, Barkov’s home country. Maurice added that his captain “is a strong healer. We’re optimistic, I think very optimistic, that he’ll play in Finland.”
Barkov has just one assist in two games, but the Panthers are definitely looking forward to his return, given he’s the franchise leader in goals, points, assists, and game-winning goals.
PANTHERS ATOP THE ATLANTIC DIVISION STANDINGS
While the Panthers did have fans a little nervous at the start of the road trip, they grabbed ahold of some momentum again in the last two, and maintained their first-place ranking in the Atlantic Division.
The Panthers currently have six points, two more than the rival Tampa Bay Lightning. And they’ll look to add to that lead on Thursday night at Amerant Bank Arena, when they take on the Vancouver Canucks.
