I decided to combine my recap of last night with tonight’s preview.

RECAP

Florida Panthers 6    Washington Capitals  5   (Shootout)

My 3 Stars: 1- Vincent Trocheck (1 G, 2 A)  2- Jonathan Huberdeau (1 G, 2 A, GWSOG), 3- Lars Eller (3 A)

Good Performance but didn’t make the stars: Alex Petrovic

Well that was a thriller. The Panthers had their second straight 6-5 shootout game, this time coming in on top. After a 6-5 loss in the shootout to the Flyers which saw the Panthers come back from a 3 goal deficit, this game felt like the opposite and same. The Panthers were the ones who gave up a 3 goal lead and they were the ones who came out on top. Vincent Trocheck, Jonathan Huberdeau and Colton Sceviour exploded for production and this line will likely continue. However it is worth noting where will Mike Hoffman end up? Hoffman is too talented for the fourth line but I like our 3rd line and I’m not so sure about moving Bjugstad off the top line. Mark Pysyk left the game with an upper body injury. Both starting goalies were pulled.

PREVIEW

Detroit: The Red Wings come into this game with an abysmal record of 0-5-2. The Wings are led by Dylan Larkin. Jonathan Ericsson will make his season debut after an injury. The Wings have not had a point in 4 consecutive games. This team is in a rebuild as you can see by their lines:

Gustav Nyquist- Dylan Larkin- Darren Helm
Tyler Bertuzzi- Frans Nielsen- Andreas Athanasiou
Justin Abdelkader- Luke Glendening- Michael Rasmussen
Anthony Mantha- Christoffer Ehn- Thomas Vanek
Jonathan Ericsson- Trevor Daley
Joe Hicketts- Dennis Cholowski
Nick Jensen- Niklas Kronwall
Jimmy Howard
Jonathan Bernier
Injuries: Svechnikov (Out for the season), DeKeyser, Green

Stat Leaders: Goals- Dylan Larkin (3) Assists- Gustav Nyquist (5) Points- Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, Gustav Nyquist (5)

Florida: The Panthers have points in two consecutive games including their first victory last night in Washington. Michael Matheson returns from a 2 game suspension for unsportsmanslike conduct against Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson. Matheson will likely slide in on the Panthers second pair with Alex Petrovic after an injury knocked Mark Pysyk out of last night’s contest. This is the Panthers only game at home for the next 18 days as they will begin a New York City metropolitan area road trip before going overseas to battle the Jets in Finland. The Panthers have not gotten a point at home in two games this season after a franchise record setting 27-11-3 record in front of their home fans last year.

Evengii Dadonov- Aleksander Barkov- Nick Bjugstad
Jonathan Huberdeau- Vincent Trocheck- Colton Sceviour
Frank Vatrano- Jared McCann- Denis Malgin
Mike Hoffman- Juho Lammikko- Troy Brouwer
Keith Yandle- Aaron Ekblad
Michael Matheson- Alex Petrovic
Bogdan Kiselevich- Mackenzie Weegar
Michael Hutchinson
James Reimer
Injuries: Mark Pysyk (Upper Body), Derek Mackenzie (Upper Body),
Roberto Luongo (MCL Sprain), Jamie McGinn (Back), Michael Haley
(Undisclosed)
Scratched: Maxim Mamin

Stat Leaders: Goals- Evengii Dadonov (3) Assists- Vincent Trocheck & Keith Yandle (5) Points- Vincent Trocheck (7)

Main Matchup: Gustav Nyquist vs Evengii Dadonov

Keys to the Game

Do not collapse in the second period.

Keep up the special teams streak.

Line v Line Matchup

Line 1: Florida
Line 2: Florida
Line 3: Florida
Line 4: Even
D1: Florida
D2: Florida
D3: Even
Starting Goalie: Detroit
Backup: Even

Hot Seat Battle

After slow starts, Bob Boughner and Jeff Blashill are seemingly on the hot seat. Boughner needs the Panthers to bounce back to save his job and Blashill needs his first win of the season.

Goalies

Jimmy Howard (DET)- Howard is 0-3-2 with an .893 Save Percentage and a 3.57 GAA this season. He is 5-2-3 in 11 games against the Panthers with a .923 save percentage and a 2.31 GAA.

Michael Hutchinson (FLA)- Hutchinson is 1-0-1 with an .838 save percentage and a 3.73 GAA this season. He is 1-1-0 with an .891 save percentage and a 3.39 GAA in 2 games against Detroit.

Backup Goalies

Jonathan Bernier (DET)- Bernier is 0-2-0 in 3 games this year with an .833 save percentage and a 5.07 GAA. In 9 games against the Panthers, he is 3-5-0 with a .919 save percentage and a 2.83 GAA.

James Reimer (FLA)- Reimer is 0-2-1 this year in 4 games with an .867 save percentage and a 4.27 GAA. In 11 career games against the Wings, Reimer is 3-4-2 with a .917 save percentage and a 2.57 GAA.

Referees

#6 Francis Charron- In 2017-18, Florida was 1-3 when Charron reffed and in the past three years they have gone 4-10 with him. Last year, Detroit went 2-3 with him and in the past three years, they have gone 7-8 with him.

#3 Chris Schlenker- In 2017-18, Florida was 1-0 with Schlenker and Detroit was 1-1. Schlenker did not ref any games with these teams involved in 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Credits

Credit to Hockey Reference for the Goalie Splits

Credit to Daily Faceoff for the Red Wings lines

Credit to Scouting the Refs for the information on the referees