Four takeaways from the Florida Panthers’ West Coast road trip

By Jordan McPherson
November 11, 2025 9:18 AM

The Florida Panthers are coming back from the West Coast with a split. Florida went 2-2-0 on its four-game road trip, falling 7-3 to the Anaheim Ducks, beating the Los Angeles Kings 5-2, losing to the San Jose Sharks 3-1 and then winning against the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2. The Panthers are 8-7-1 on the season. Here are four takeaways from the trip. Improvement on the road: While the Panthers certainly wanted more than just two wins on this trip, they had a better all-around showing on this trip compared to their first one.

On that initial trip of the season, Florida went 1-4-0 and was outscored 18-8. That trip was salvaged in some aspect by a 4-3 win against the Boston Bruins to end the five-game stretch. The Panthers again got off to a slow start on this trip. They gave up five unanswered goals in the final 25 minutes of the loss Anaheim in a rare poor defensive outing. But they followed it up with three solid games despite only getting points out of two of them. Against the Kings, the Panthers shook off an early 2-1 deficit by scoring the final four goals of the game and holding Los Angeles to just 13 total shots on goal during the final two periods.

In the loss to the Sharks, Florida had a 78-43 edge in shot attempts and 39-23 advantage in shots on goal but could only get one past San Jose goaltender Yaroslav Askarov. And against Vegas, Florida built a 2-0 lead and held off a third-period comeback attempt by the Golden Knights to secure the split. “I think we’ve been good in our last three — really good,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after the Vegas game. “But even if you’ve won some games in the past, you have to fight for your confidence.”

Brad Marchand carrying the team: The 37-year-old forward was stellar for Florida during their run to a second consecutive Stanley Cup last season, with 10 goals and 20 points in the postseason. In his first full season with the Panthers, and in the first season of a six-year deal that runs through his age-43 season, Marchand is proving he still has plenty of gas in the tank. Marchand leads the Panthers in goals scored (11) and points (18). He scored at least one goal in every game on the road trip and is riding a five-game goal streak dating back to Florida’s 4-3 shootout win over the Dallas Stars on Nov. 1. The goal streak is tied for the second longest of Marchand’s career, behind only a stretch of seven consecutive games with a goal from Feb. 2-14, 2016, while with the Boston Bruins. Marchand is also just the ninth player to have a goal streak of at least five games at age 37 or older. The group he joins: Alex Ovechkin, Joe Pavelski, Justin Williams, Daniel Sedin, Brett Hull, Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk and Gordie Howe. Hull’s streak of seven consecutive games with a goal is the record. Marchand now has 998 points in his career, two shy of becoming the 102nd player in NHL history to have 1,000 career points. Beyond Marchand, Sam Reinhart is the only other player who had multiple goals on the road trip, scoring twice in four games. Forward Eetu Luostarinen (one goal, two assists) and defenseman Jeff Petry (three assists) each had three points.

Another long-term injury: Maurice announced during the road trip that forward Jonah Gadjovich is expected to miss three months as he undergoes surgery for an undisclosed upper-body injury. Gadjovich, a mainstay on Florida’s fourth line for the past three seasons, sustained the injury in the Panthers’ home win against Vegas on Oct. 25. This makes Gadjovich the fifth Panthers player sidelined long-term along with captain and top-line center Aleksander Barkov, star winger Matthew Tkachuk, fourth-line center Tomas Nosek and veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov.

Plenty of time on home ice upcoming: The Panthers will be in South Florida for a while. Eleven of Florida’s next 12 games are at Amerant Bank Arena and 19 of their next 25 overall are in South Florida, including the Winter Classic on Jan. 2 at loanDepot park, home of the Miami Marlins. The extended run being mostly at home begins Thursday against the Washington Capitals (7 p.m., Scripps Sports). That kicks off a five-game homestand that includes games against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday (5 p.m., Scripps Sports), Vancouver Canucks on Monday (7 p.m., Scripps Sports), New Jersey Devils on Nov. 20 (7 p.m., Scripps Sports) and Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 22 (7 p.m., Scripps Sports). Florida is 5-1-1 in seven games at home, compared to 3-6-0 on the road.