Colby Guy
When the Florida Panthers called Spencer Knight up from the minor leagues for their west coast road trip, they knew he was going to get to play in a couple of games.
The rookie goalie ended up carrying the entire four-game load.
Knight started the first game of the trip in Los Angeles, as scheduled, but Sergei Bobrovsky was not only struck in the face by a puck while sitting on the bench but he apparently got sick as well.
The Panthers went back to Knight, again and again.
Playing four games in six nights can be rough on a goaltender’s body, but Knight did not let that get to him.
“He’s 20, so he can take it,” Jonathan Huberdeau said with a grin.
One thing this road trip showed was, Florida appears to have a pretty strong 1-2 punch in net with 20 games left in the regular season. Then the fun starts.
Knight played well in place of Bobrovsky on a trip in which he played twice as much as was expected.
On Friday night, a day after taking the loss in Vegas, Knight got his first NHL shutout in a 3-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
“You just go out there and play, which is nice because I like to play hockey,” Knight said.
Overall, Knight went 2-1-1 with a .929/1.96.
“He played well the whole road trip and it’s good for him,’’ Huberdeau said. “He went down to AHL for a little bit and played a lot of games and I think it’s good for his confidence. Then he came up here and played well for us.”
Knight spent a month in the AHL while Bobrovsky was in a groove, going 7-2 with two shutouts while giving up two or fewer goals in six of his nine starts.
He got called up on Saturday and ran with the opportunity.
“I think this has been really big for him, he handled himself like we knew he would,’’ coach Andrew Brunette said. “I think going down and playing all of those games [with the Charlotte Checkers] helped him prepare for this.
“Sometimes, when you get this opportunity it goes different ways, but he grabbed it and took it. There are not too many people surprised that he was able to handle it.”
Knight allowed no more than three goals in three of his four starts during the road trip.
The exception was during Florida’s 5-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday where he made 29 saves on 33 shots.
“It was a tough night,” Brunette said. “He faced a lot of shots and he kept us in the game for as long as he possibly could.”
With Bobrovsky still dealing with his illness, Knight started again the following night in Anaheim and he got his shutout with 17 saves.
“We’re really proud of him after back-to-back games,” Brunette said.
“Tonight, I thought he was solid when he had to be. We played hockey the way it needed to be played and there were a lot of positive and a big positive for Knight to get that shutout.”
Knight hit the career milestone with a nice tribute to his hockey community back home in Connecticut.
The Darien native debuted a mask featuring Teddy Balkind, a 16-year-old youth hockey player who died after taking a skate to the neck.
Teddy’s story affected a lot of people — and the Panthers still have the sticks they left outside the IceDen in Coral Springs in his memory.
“I think it means a lot, not only to me but the people in my community,” Knight said.
“It’s not just the shutout, the shutout doesn’t really mean anything. But every time I get on the ice, I get a chance to represent our people.
“I didn’t know Teddy, but I knew people who did and some of his teammates and it means a lot to them.”