PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pens forward Bryan Rust and head coach Mike Sullivan are of the same mindset on at least one thing-they have to bring their A-game hosting Florida Tuesday night.
The Panthers lead the Atlantic with 38 wins and 81 points. They lead the NHL in scoring including 24-five goal games and coming off a 6-1 thrashing of Buffalo with their back-up goalie.
"They are very good offensively, very good and very fast and extremely deep," Rust said. "We have to play hard and structurally sound in order to disrupt their strengths. We have to stick to our game and play it that way for the whole 60 minutes. If we get off our game for a little bit, they are a team that can hit you real quick."
If you look at the stats, forward Jonathan Huberdeau jumps out with his 77 points, but Sullivan says there is more to their game.
"They are a very good team," Sullivan said. "They are one of the more dynamic, explosive offenses in the league and they have a lot of balance. It's not only in their forwards, it's with their defensemen as well. Their defense corps is second in the league in goals scored."
Defensemen Aaron Ekblad (14g-35a), MacKenzie Weegar (6g-29a), Gustav Forsling (2g-21a) and Brandon Montour (6g-18a) lead the offense from the Panthers defense. Ekblad is also a plus 37 in plus/minus and Weegar is plus 32.
This isn't a team hurting for forwards either. Aleksander Barkov had a second consecutive three-point night on Monday and has 26 goals in 43 games. Sam Bennett and Anthony Duclair are each over 20 goals and Sam Reinhart (53 pts), Carter Verhaeghe (42 pts), Anton Lundell (38 pts), Mason Marchment (34pts in 31 games) and former Penguin Patric Hornqvist (22 pts) all can contribute offensively.
Florida also likely to start old Pens foe Sergei Bobrovsky (28-6-3, 2.54 GAA, .917 save percentage this season) and 14-15 in his career against Pittsburgh.
"I think our challenge is like when we play other top teams in the league, we have to dictate terms," Sullivan said. "We have to try to get to our game. We have to get them expending energy defending us."
"It's another opportunity to show where we are at and what we are made of," Rust said. "It's an exciting time for us.'
Optional morning
Another step for injured defenseman Mike Matheson who has missed four games due to an upper-body injury. He participated in an option morning skate on Tuesday. It was all non-contact work.
Evgeni Malkin, Teddy Blueger, Marcus Pettersson, Mark Friedman, Chad Ruhwedel, Brian Boyle, PO Joseph and Kasper Bjorkqvist also took part. Casey DeSmith was the lone goalie.
Tristan Jarry will start in net Tuesday at 7p with Blueger a game-time decision.
