The Florida Panthers and the New York Islanders meet in NHL action from the UBS Arena on Thursday night.
The Florida Panthers will enter the 2022-23 season looking to build off of a fairly successful 2021-22 campaign, ending the year at 58-18-6, winning the Atlantic division and the President’s trophy as well as the NHL’s best record. The Panthers would take care of the Washington Capitals in six games in the first round before being swept by Tampa Bay in the second round. The Panthers picked up a big piece for the future in Matthew Tkachuk, but dealt Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to Calgary in return. It won’t be easy replacing 115 points from Huberdeau, but Aleksander Barkov returns after logging 88 points with 39 goals last season. Sam Reinhart also had 82 points with 33 goals and Anthony Duclair added 31 goals as well. Sergei Bobrovsky posted a stellar 39-7-3 record last year with a 2.67 GAA and a .913 save percentage while Spencer Knight will likely be a capable backup after going 19-9-3 with a 2.79 GAA and a .908 save percentage last season.
The New York Islanders will try to bounce back after a disappointing 2021-22 season, finishing the year at 37-35-10, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2017-18 after back-to-back conference final appearances. The good news for New York is that the bulk of the Islanders’ core is in tact, with Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal sharing the team lead with 59 points last year, with Nelson logging a team-high 37 goals while Barzal had 44 assists. Noah Dobson also added 51 points with 38 assists last season. Ilya Sorokin is expected to be the #1 goaltender for the Islanders this season, posting a 26-18-8 mark with a 2.40 GAA and a .925 save percentage last season.
Florida is 44-19 in their last 63 games overall and 17-8 in their last 25 road games while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. New York is 1-4 in their last 5 home games and 2-6 in their last 8 games overall while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 Thursday games.
I get the reasoning for backing either side here, but I’m backing the Panthers in this one. The Islanders are a perennial playoff team, but they weren’t good last year and while injuries did play a part in those struggles, there were still enough pieces to compete and they couldn’t cut it and the goaltending can only do so much. Florida has some new pieces to integrate, but they’re the better team by a fair margin here and won all three meetings with the Isles last season. Give me Florida here.