FORT LAUDERDALE –After a four-game road trip, the Florida Panthers are finally back in town and will take on the Vancouver Canucks at Amerant Bank on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Florida has gotten off to a solid start despite some adversity early in the season and is 3-2-0 overall.

“We continue to work on maintaining that identity in our game that all of our defensive play leads to our offense,” Sam Reinhart said after the team’s morning skate. “That’s what frustrates opponents and that’s what we have to do tonight.”

After coming up short in the first two stops of their road trip, the Panthers managed to turn things around in the end and – despite missing key pieces Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness) – came out strong with back-to-back wins Episodes in Boston and Columbus rounded out the game.

On Monday, Reinhart and Anton Lundell each scored two goals in a 4-3 win over the Bruins.

On Tuesday – in a very emotional game against the Blue Jackets – Spencer Knight made 35 stops between the posts, including a game-winning save in the closing seconds of another 4-3 win.

For the second game in a row, Reinhart secured the highest team score with three points.

Without Barkov and Tkachuk, the line of Reinhart, Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen is huge.

“We played together a little bit at the moment,” said Luostarinen, who also scored the goal against the Blue Jackets. “I think we’ll just find each other out there and both can make plays. They’re smart players, so it’s pretty easy to play with them.”

In the last two games, the team has combined for 10 points (seven goals, three assists), 11 shots on goal and a plus/minus rating of +14.

Each of the strikers also lit the lamp in this phase, including three goals each from Reinhart and Lundell.

Reinhart continues to have a hot stick, tied for second in the league with four goals and leading the NHL with two shorthanded goals.

“Any scorer will tell you when they see it go into the net, it makes it a lot easier to keep going,” said Reinhart, who scored a career-best 57 goals last season.

Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net tonight.

For his career, Bobrovsky posted a .909 save percentage and 2.83 goals-against average against the Canucks.

After back-to-back overtime losses to the Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers, Vancouver fell 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday to open its four-game road trip.

Brock Boeser and Conor Garland lead the Canucks with three points each (two goals, one assist). In Vancouver’s first three games, 14 different skaters have scored at least one point.

It is not yet announced that either Arturs Silovs, who has posted an .827 save percentage in two games, or Kevin Lankinen, who has a .935 save percentage in his only start for Vancouver, will start.

YOU SAID IT

“We started this journey a little slow and not to our game. Then I think we just got better over the course of the road trip, and we just battled through in this game too.” – Eetu Luostarinen on the successful completion of the road trip

“It will be nice. It’s good to be out as a group at the start of the season, but it will be nice to come home.” – Dmitry Kulikov on returning home after a road trip

FIVE CAT STATS

– Sam Reinhart is tied for second in the NHL with 8 points.

– Sam Bennett leads the team with 20 shots on goal.

– Anton Lundell is 53.4% ​​in the faceoff circle.

– Jonah Gadjovich scored a team-high 25 goals.

– Niko Mikkola blocked 10 shots.

Planned lineup (subject to change)

Forward

Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Evan Rodrigues

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart

AJ Greer – Jesper Boqvist – Mackie Samoskevich

Jonah Gadjovich – Patrick Giles – Uvis Balinskis

defender

Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov

Nate Schmidt-Adam Boqvist

goalkeeper

Sergei Bobrovsky

Spencer Knight

LAST TRANSACTIONS:

– Oct 11: F. Patrick Giles recalled to Florida

– Oct 9: F MacKenzie Entwistle and G Chris Driedger assigned to Charlotte (AHL) | G Spencer Knight is recalled to Florida

– Oct 8th : Carter Verhaeghe has signed an eight-year contract extension from 2025/26.

HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN

When: Thursday, October 17 at 7 p.m. ET

Where:Amerant Bank Arena – Sunrise, FL

**TV & Streaming**:Panthers+, WSFL-TV, WHDT, WFTX, ESPN+ (sold out)

Radio:560 WQAM (Dade/Broward); 1230 WBZT (Palm Beach); 100.3 WCTH (Florida Keys); 101.7 WCZR (Treasure Coast); Panthers app; SiriusXM App & Streaming 931

Tickets:Click here

Theme evening:Italian festival