FHN Today: Florida Panthers Get Win, Red-Hot Kraken Up Next

The Florida Panthers were able to finally smile in the postgame room Thursday night after they beat the Vancouver Canucks.

The fun may be short-lived as the focus now turns to a tough Seattle Kraken squad.

A Kraken team, we may mention, the Panthers have never beaten.

Seattle does not look much like an expansion team anymore as the second-year squad has won seven consecutive games after rallying to beat the Washington Capitals in overtime on Thursday night.

The Kraken, one may remember, were the team which surprisingly came into Sunrise last December and put an end to Florida’s 12-game home winning streak to start the 2021-22 season.

Florida then traveled to Seattle and lost 5-3 in January.

This one is not going to be easy.

Seattle has also won 13 of its past 15.

Not too shabby.

FLORIDA HOCKEY NOW

If you closed your eyes for a second Thursday night — and it was late, we get it — you may have missed the Panthers take control of their game against the Canucks.

Florida scored three goals within a span of 59 seconds at the end of the first period before snapping its three-game slide with a 5-1 win.

The Panthers lost Anton Lundell to a lower-body injury with Paul Maurice saying it was not serious. But, with the Panthers still at 20 players, if he cannot go on Saturday the team may be forced to play shorthanded in Seattle.

On the positive side for the Panthers, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Spencer Knight had terrific games in Vancouver as did Gus Forsling.

Lot of strong performances from start to finish for Florida.

— Plenty of video on the FHN YouTube Channel including Roberto Luongo talking to the Vancouver media about being inducted into the Canucks’ Ring of Honor.

We also have Luongo’s pregame ceremony with the Sundin twins embedded into the game story linked above.

As for the Panthers on the ice, postgame video from Maurice, Knight and Ryan Lomberg is up as well. There’s also video from Patric Hornqvist talking before he played in his 900th NHL game.

More on Hornqvist this weekend.

As always, you can check out all of our FHN videos RIGHT HERE or just click on one of the videos below.

NATIONAL HOCKEY NOW

The Pittsburgh Penguins came from behind to beat the Golden Knights on Thursday night with Sidney Crosby saying they had Kris Letang on their collective minds.

— Goalie Cal Peterson and his $5 million cap hit cleared waivers and the Los Angeles Kings have assigned him to their AHL team.

— The Calgary Flames did not carry the momentum over from Thursday’s thrashing of the Panthers as the Montreal Canadiens came to town and pulled out a win.

— Jacob Markstrom is not happy with his play lately. To say the least.

— Believe it or not, but the Philadelphia Flyers think they can still make the playoffs. At least that is what GM Chuck Fletcher says.

PANTHERS ON DECK

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT SEATTLE KRAKEN

• When: Saturday, 10 p.m.
• Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle
• TV: Bally Sports Florida; ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• Last season: Seattle won 2-0
• All-time regular season series: Seattle leads 2-0