WINNIPEG \u2013 The Florida Panthers will close out their road trip and kick off a home-and-home series when they face-off against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Sitting at 6-4-2, the Panthers snapped out of a two-game skid with a 3-2 win in Chicago on Sunday thanks to a late go-ahead goal from Lars Eller with just 2:23 remaining in regulation.<\/p>\n
Preparing for their 13th game this season, this will already be Florida\u2019s 10th on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a quarter of our road schedule done and it’s not the end of October, so that’s good,\u201d Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. \u201cThere’s got to be a payoff there somewhere. Feels like we’ve been after it for a while. I don’t want to say survival mode, but that’s not far off with (Aleksander) Barkov out. That that’s a big piece on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
After winning three of their first four games to start this season, the Jets have struggled to keep pace and enter tonight\u2019s matchup looking to snap out of a five-game losing streak.<\/p>\n
Owning a 4-4-3 record, each loss during their streak has been by just one goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s an important game,\u201d Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. \u201cThere’s no doubt about it. Obviously, to get back to .500 on the trip would be huge. A fast start is really important. Teams that score the first goal in this league are obviously a little bit more successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information on tonight\u2019s game, continue below.<\/p>\n
EYE ON THE CATS<\/p>\n
VIEW TO KILL: After 7-for-7 performance against the Blackhawks on Sunday, the Panthers are now sitting at 25-for-26 on the penalty kill since Oct. 13. In that span, Seth Jones and Anton Lundell are tied for first on the team with 21:38 of shorthanded ice time. Overall, the Panthers enter tonight\u2019s matchup ranking seventh in the NHL on the penalty kill at 84.9%.<\/p>\n
TKA-POINTS: Matthew Tkachuk is always a safe bet to crack the scoresheet. In 12 games this season, the star winger has been held without a point just twice. An elite playmaker, he currently leads the Panthers in both assists (12) and points (16). Doing a lot of that damage with the extra attacker, he sits third in the NHL with nine points (1G, 8A) on the power play.<\/p>\n
LIFE ON THE ROAD: The Panthers will play their 10th road game of the season tonight, which will place them in a tie with the Minnesota Wild for most in the NHL. This marks the first time in franchise history the Panthers have played 10 road games through their first 13 games of a season. Brady Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart are tied for first on the Panthers in goals on the road with four, while Matthew Tkachuk ranks first in points with 11 (3G, 8A).<\/p>\n
FIVE KEY STATS<\/p>\n
The Panthers rank fifth in fewest shots allowed per game in the NHL with 24.1.
\nSeth Jones is tied for fourth among NHL defensemen with 11 assists.
\nMatthew Tkachuk has 25 points (10G, 25A) in 29 career games vs. Winnipeg.
\nFlorida leads 158-92 in 5-on-5 shot attempts when Brady Tkachuk is deployed.
\nGarnet Hathaway has recorded a team-high 53 hits.<\/p>\n
THEY SAID IT<\/p>\n
\u201cHim and Mark Scheifele\u00a0are always dynamic players. They find each other all over the ice, and they’re looking for each other specifically all over the ice. It’s important that we home in on them, for sure.\u201d \u2013 Aaron Ekblad on defending against Kyle Connor<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we work on is when we get down, and Lord knows we like to start games like that, do not change your game. And then we\u2019ve had some success being consistent with our game and finding a way back in.\u201d \u2013 Paul Maurice on the ability to come back in games<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know what the key is. Our defensive play is always a dictator to how we play offensively. We\u2019ve got to start the game on the right note, you know, playing hard defensively and generate our offense from that.\u201d \u2013 Dmitry Kulikov on the key to tonight\u2019s game<\/p>\n
OPPOSITION OUTLOOK<\/p>\n
– The Jets traded three-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck last week to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for forwards Dawson Mercer and Nick Bjugstad, goaltender Nico Daws, the rights to unsigned 2026 first-round pick Alexander Command, a second-round draft pick and a seventh-round draft pick. With Hellebuyck gone, the Jets are currently carrying three goaltenders on their roster in Stuart Skinner, Clay Stevenson and Daws.<\/p>\n
– Dawson Mercer will celebrate his 25th birthday by taking the ice at Canada Life Centre for the first time as a member of the Jets tonight. In 10 games with the Devils this season prior to being traded, he\u2019d dished out four assists. If he manages to light the lamp against the Panthers, he\u2019ll become the 26th player in Winnipeg\u2019s history to score a birthday goal.<\/p>\n
– Kyle Connor leads the Jets in goals (9) and points (12). Of his goals, four have come on the power play, which ranks tied for third in the NHL. In his career against Florida, the speedy winger is better than a point-per-game player, registering 16 points (8G, 8A) in 15 games.<\/p>\n
– The Jets are currently without their No. 1 defenseman as Josh Morrissey has been out with an upper-body injury since Oct. 7. Finishing in the top 10 in voting for the Norris Trophy in three of the past five seasons, he logged 55 points (14G, 41A) in 77 games in 2025-26.<\/p>\n
PROJECTED LINEUP<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
Brady Tkachuk \u2013 Sam Bennett \u2013 Matthew Tkachuk<\/p>\n
Carter Verhaeghe \u2013 Sam Reinhart \u2013 Sandis Vilmanis<\/p>\n
Eetu Luostarinen \u2013 Anton Lundell \u2013 Lars Eller<\/p>\n
Boko Imama \u2013 Cole Schwindt \u2013 Garnet Hathaway<\/p>\n
Defensemen<\/p>\n
Gustav Forsling \u2013 Aaron Ekblad<\/p>\n
Niko Mikkola \u2013 Seth Jones<\/p>\n
Dmitry Kulikov \u2013 Radko Gudas<\/p>\n
Goaltenders<\/p>\n
Akira Schmid<\/p>\n
Cooper Black<\/p>\n
TEAM STATS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2013 The Florida Panthers will close out their road trip and kick off a home-and-home series when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-943076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}