Odd Schedule Quirk Has Florida Panthers Playing Ducks. Again

The Florida Panthers are used to having quirks in their schedule and tonight brings us to the first of the season.

To compensate for the three-week Olympic break in February, the remaining NHL schedule was compacted so as not to extend the season beyond the projected mid-late June completion.

How else would you explain why Florida plays Anaheim,  a non-conference team, in two out of three games?

Other quirks include 15 games in January, including a stretch of nine of ten on the road.

In early April, the Panthers play on consecutive nights in Pittsburgh.

With the team in Anaheim tonight, the come-from-behind shootout loss from last Tuesday is still fresh, the errors correctable.

While it is commendable that the team overcame a two-goal third period deficit to force overtime and salvage a point, there were lapses that led to the deficit.

Special teams did not have a memorable game going 0-for-4 on the power play including relinquishing a shorthanded goal. The other Anaheim goal came during a two-man advantage.

Brad Marchand, who missed the last Anaheim game, will be in the lineup tonight.

Anaheim was missing Radko Gudas, Mikael Granlund, Ryan Strome, and Chris Kreider in the Sunrise game. Of the three, only Kreider is back in the lineup.

Old pal Gudas is day-to-day and might be back.

Anaheim had a nice performance from 19-year-old Beckett Sennecke, who scored his first NHL goal 4:11 into his career.

His four goals puts him one behind rookie leader Matthew Schaefer of the Islanders.

New York Rangers retreads Kreider and Jacob Trouba are having excellent starts to the season. Kreider, despite missing four games, has six goals in his seven games played. Trouba is among the league leaders with a plus-9.

The Joel Quenneville-led Ducks are in a comeback year with a 7-3-1 record.

They are in first place in the Pacific Division and are no longer a team to be taken lightly.

The Ducks are on a three-game win streak. Their last game was a decisive 4-1 defeat of the Metropolitan Division leading New Jersey Devils.

Lukas Dostal has emerged as a top No. 1 goalie after succeeding John Gibson who is now in Detroit.

Dostal, on a hot streak, was named No. 1 star by the NHL  last week after going 3-0-0 with a .938 save percentage and 1.63 goals-against average.

Anaheim is currently fourth in the NHL in offense averaging 3.64 goals per game.

The Ducks have the same scheduling issues as Florida.

After playing the Panthers, they hit the road again to face Dallas and Vegas.

“We’re going to have our hands full with what we’ve got coming up this week,’’ Quenneville said. “We’ve got four top teams in a row (Florida, Dallas, Vegas, Winnipeg). That will be the great test. One at a time.”

Paul Maurice said there are advantages to playing games against the same opponent close together, in this case one week and one game apart.

Maurice, of course, forgot that the Panthers and Ducks have done this dance before.

Last season, the Panthers beat the Ducks 3-0 on Jan. 18 — then won 5-2 in Anaheim three days later.

“You can’t play home and home with a west coast team. This is as close to it as you can,’’ Maurice said before the west coast flight on Monday.

“I’d prefer that. It’s better for both coaches and the staff because you’re still working on your game and you get to work in themes. You can focus because you know the other opponent and it’s fresh in their minds. We believe we’ve got something growing in some areas that we’re trying to get better at. We liked our zone time last game. It was the biggest of the year.”

After Anaheim, Florida travels to Los Angeles, San Jose and Las Vegas with a day in between games.

When it’s over they play eleven of the next twelve at home.

ON DECK: GAME No. 13

FLORIDA PANTHERS at ANAHEIM DUCKS 

• When: Tuesday, 10 p.m.
• Where: Honda Center, Anaheim
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/FTM)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN
• Radio: WQAM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• This Season (Ducks Lead 1-0) — At Anaheim: Tuesday. At Florida: Anaheim 3, Panthers 2 SO (Oct. 28)
• Last Season: Panthers won 2-0
  
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 23-16-2, 3 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Thursday at Los Angeles Kings, 10 (ESPN+)