Ducks vs. Panthers GAMETHREAD: Finally Home

Game #58

Anaheim Ducks vs. Florida Panthers

Friday, February 17th, 2016 7:00 PM PST

Honda Center

TV: PRIME

Radio: AM 830, AnaheimDucks.com

Your Enemy: Litter Box Cats

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After a grueling two week, six game road trip, the Ducks finally return to Anaheim tonight to face the Florida Panthers in their second and final meeting of the season.

The Ducks fell to the Panthers 2-1 in their last meeting a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. We were younger then. Innocent. Carefree. The hardships of road travel and the generally less-than-stellar play of the Ducks taking a toll on fans livers.

Offense continues to be inconsistent as the team managed to score at a rate of 2.33 goals/game over their six game road stretch. The only reason the number is that high is because of the 4-goal output in Washington and the 5-goal performance in Buffalo.

This will be the first game without Antoine Vermette, who was given a 10-game suspension by the NHL for slashing a referee's leg on Tuesday night. Vermette has appealed and early reports suggest that Commissioner Gary Bettman has reduced his sentence to 5 games. The NHL has yet to confirm.

The Ducks announced today that Shea Theodore would be sent back to San Diego, clearing the way for Sami Vatanen to return to the lineup after missing the last five games due to a knee injury.

John Gibson is, unsurprisingly, expected to get the start tonight after posting a brilliant 37 save shutout against the top team in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Wild, on Tuesday.

Anaheim will be in for a tough game tonight as the Panthers have turned their game up a notch since getting both Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau back from injuries. Florida has one their previous two games scoring a combined 13 (!) goals against their opponents.

Barkov and Huberdeau have combined for 9 points in those two games, and with Czech hockey-cyborg Jaromir Jagr on that line, the Panthers have plenty of firepower ready to be thrown at Gibson (yo can someone check Jagr's warranty? Pretty sure he's still got like 5 years left on that thing).

Stat Pack

Projected Lines

Anaheim:

Kase-Getzlaf-Silfverberg

Cogliano-Kesler-Shaw

Ritchie-Rakell-Perry

Cramarossa-Thompson-Boll

Fowler-Vatanen

Lindholm-Manson

Bieksa-Montour

Gibson

Bernier

Florida:

Huberdeau-Barkov-Jagr

Jokinen-Trocheck-Smith

McKegg-Bjugstad-Marchessault

Thornton-MacKenzie-Sceviour

Yandle-Demers

Pysyk-Ekblad

Matheson-Petrovic

Luongo

Reimer