Jan 8, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Hockey Club goaltender Karel Vejmelka (70) blocks a shot by Florida Panthers center Carter Verhaeghe (23) during the third period at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images

The Florida Panthers have their work cut out for them over the next week, as they begin a difficult four-game road trip starting tomorrow night in Salt Lake City that features matchups against the top two teams in the league and ends with their cross-state rival.

Wednesday night’s game against the Utah Mammoth is the only one of the four against a team not currently holding down a playoff spot. The struggling Mammoth, who recently lost leading goal-scorer Logan Cooley, are 4-6 in their last ten games and have slipped back to NHL .500. Utah sports a solid 7-4-1 record at Delta Center, but were beaten 4-2 on home ice by the Los Angeles Kings on Monday. Florida defeated Utah 4-1 in Salt Lake City last season.

The Cats will face the league-leading Colorado Avalanche a day later. The Avalanche are simply not the team you want to have to deal with on the second half of a back-to-back. Colorado has only lost twice in regulation this season and is 11-0-2 at Ball Arena. Superstar Nathan MacKinnon leads the NHL in goals (22) and points (49) while Cale Makar is the highest-scoring defenseman in the league with 35 points. Yikes! This game will be broadcats nationally b

After getting Friday off, the Panthers will take on the Dallas Stars, the NHL’s second-best team, on Saturday night at American Airlines Center. Dallas is on a sizzling 8-0-2 run, with their last loss in regulation coming on November 18, against the New York Islanders. The Stars’ attack boasts three players who have already topped the 30-point mark: Mikko Ranatanen (39), Jason Robertson (38) and Wyatt Johnson (34). The Cats will be shooting for the season-series sweep as they beat Dallas 4-3 in a shootout in Sunrise on November.

The trip will conclude on Monday with Florida’s second game of the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa Bay, who took the first meeting between the two teams by a 3-1 count in Sunrise, is currently in second place in the Atlantic Division after a slow start to the season. Nikita Kucherov leads the Bolts in scoring with 34 points and Brandon Hagel is the team’s top goal-scorer with 17.