The Florida Panthers Had a Historic Week

It was quite a week for the Florida Panthers as two big franchise marks were hit — and a prominent player played in a milestone game.

The Panthers went 4-0 last week, getting wins in Nashville, Pittsburgh and on Long Island — while beating up on the Arizona Coyotes at home.

The win in Pittsburgh was Florida’s seventh consecutive road victory, setting the franchise record.

The Panthers extended their own record with their win Saturday night against the Islanders.

In that game, Sam Reinhart continued his tremendous season by scoring his 20th power play goal. That gave him the Florida record, one which had been shared for decades by Scott Mellanby and Pavel Bure.

Reinhart now has 33 games left to put some serious distance between himself and those two Florida legends.

On Wednesday, coach Paul Maurice moved into second place all-time in coached games.

More on that this week.

The Panthers are now on their All-Star break with their next game not until Feb. 6 against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

They could not be feeling better about things as they get the next week off.

Here is a look back at what was a very exciting week for the Panthers.

SUNDAY

Reinhart has been on a serious heater these days, his 13-game scoring streak tied for second all-time in franchise history.

But it has been his scoring on the power play which has been simply incredible as he has 12 with the man-advantage since Dec. 23.

But he could not have done it without the help of Matthew Tkachuk as he has assisted on nine of those 12 goals. We spoke to Tkachuk about what is making this tick.

— The Panthers brought up Mackie Samoskevich when Will Lockwood was hit with a three-game suspension for running into Minnesota goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

The 21-year-old rookie played in all four games this past week, but was sent back to Charlotte at least for the time being.

SATURDAY

The Panthers closed out a big week with a 3-2 overtime victory over the New York Islanders, extending their franchise-record road winning streak to eight games.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson got the game-winner in overtime after the Islanders tied it late.

— Do not forget to visit the FHN YouTube Channel where we have oodles of video from practices as well as before and after the games.

A free subscription to the channel lets you know when new stuff comes up.

FRIDAY

The Panthers got into a shootout — literally — with the Penguins as Florida had a 2-1 lead late before Pittsburgh forced overtime.

Florida got the win with a pair of goals in the shootout. Sergei Bobrovsky, who is headed to the All-Star festivities with Reinhart, came up big.

— The Panthers spent much of the night on the penalty kill as they took offense to Kris Letang hitting captain Sasha Barkov along the boards and away from the play. Pens coach Mike Sullivan thought the Panthers took offense a little too easily.

— Reinhart and Sam Bennett got off to a slow start this season, but the ‘Bash Brothers’ are back in a big way.

— Lockwood had his suspension end Saturday night, but he was still in the concussion protocol which meant he would not have been able to play anyway.

THURSDAY

Did you know NHL players abide by a code when it comes to fighting?

Now you do.

WEDNESDAY

The Panthers and Coyotes had some bad blood brewing from their last meeting earlier in the month.

Before Wednesday’s game, the two teams had a meeting of the minds during warmups — and dropped the gloves right off the initial faceoff.

Seven seconds into the game, and four players were in the penalty box. The friskiness continued throughout.

— Aside from the fights and whatnot, the Panthers jumped all over the Coyotes with a 3-0 first-period lead and rolled to a 6-2 win.

— Barkov made his way back into the lineup after missing three games with a lower-body injury.

TUESDAY

One of the challenges the Panthers faced this past week was in their opponents as all of them are trying to fight their way into the playoffs.

Just like the Panthers did last year.

— Speaking of the Coyotes, notice any familiar faces? Sure you did.

MONDAY

The Panthers snapped their four-game losing streak as they beat the Predators 4-1 in Nashville on a special dads’ trip.

— Florida was without top defenseman Gus Forsling as he stayed at home — to become a first-time dad himself.

— Andrew Brunette, the former coach of the Panthers, is in his first season behind the Nashville bench and his old players are all rooting for him.

Well, not on Monday they were not.

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ON DECK

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Tuesday, Feb. 6, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: 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, NHL app
• Season Series — At Florida: Feb. 6; March 7. At Philadelphia: March 24.  
• Last season: Philadelphia won 2-1
  
• All-time regular season series: Philadelphia leads 57-37-6, 7 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Feb. 8 vs. Washington, 7 p.m.