Due to trying (somewhat successfully) to shoehorn a morning ball hockey game into yesterday’s deluge, I had to speed through my recap. On top of that, Sunday’s are usually light for commentary, so, with today being an off-day, I wanted to delve a little deeper into the Florida Panthers dismantling of the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena.
After blowing away the Bolts by a 9-2 count on Saturday, and matching the Los Angeles Kings season-long run, the Panthers are now just one win away from the equaling the NHL record (12) for consecutive road wins, which is shared by the 2005-06 Detroit Red Wings and 2014-15 Minnesota Wild. They’ll get a chance to tie the record on Thursday night in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Florida became the first team in the league to hit 20 road wins and boasts a 20-7-2 record away from Amerant Bank Arena. That’s a .724 points percentage. Wow!
The club set a new franchise record for most goals in a road game. Pretty cool that they were able to do this in Tampa, where the Lightning were riding an eight-game winning streak on home ice.
In addition to winning for the 11th straight time on the road, the Panthers extended their overall winning streak to five, and they have won nine of their last ten games, gaining eight points on the Boston Bruins, who they now lead by one point in the standings, over that span.
Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe each scored twice and the trio combined for 11 points, with Tkachuk and Bennett assisting on two goals apiece. Tkachuk’s second goal was his 20th of the season, while Verhaeghe’s second marker was his 30th.
Speaking of Tkachuk, after racking up 24 points in January, he has amassed 13 more in six February games and is on a five-game point streak. After a slow start to the season offensively, Tkachuk’s torrid 2024 (15G/22A in 19 games) has him just two points behind Sam Reinhart for team scoring lead.
Brandon Montour scored a goal and added two assists to finish with a season-high three points. It was Montour’s first multipoint game since December 23, when he had a goal and a helper against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Sergei Bobrovksy made 28 saves and won his sixth-straight start to up his record to 27-10-2 on the season. He has not given more than two goals during the streak. Bobrovsky’s 27 wins are the third most in the NHL behind Thatcher Demko (30) and Alexander Georgiev (28). He is an astounding 13-1-1 in his last 15 decisions.
Wanted to give props to a couple of guys who might be running hot under the radar. Anton Lundell has matched a season-high with a three-game point steak. He has produced three goals and two assists over that span. Gustav Forsling is also on three-game point streak, and has put up six points (1G/5A) in six February games.
Some miscellanous stuff: The Panthers went 3-for-4 on the power play; 13 of the 18 skaters contributed at least a point; Ryan Lomberg was credited with a game-high nine hits; and Verhaeghe finished with a game-high six shots on goal.