Florida Panthers western road trip turns into a standings test

This swing out west is the kind that can make a month feel lighter, or crush you fast. Florida is chasing the pack and every point now looks expensive.

It starts Thursday in Winnipeg, and that building is never a comfortable place to find your legs. The Jets force you to play honest hockey and they punish soft clears.

Special teams could decide it, because Florida's power play has been sitting around 18.8 percent.

The other pressure is scoring depth, because the road does not always give you last change.

Sam Reinhart has carried a huge chunk of the offense with 24 G and 45 P in 45 games.

The biggest «maybe» is whether Brad Marchand can get back in time for this opener. He has been day to day, and Florida has clearly been careful with him.

If he does return Thursday, it's not just a name going back in the lineup, it's a whole identity shift. Marchand has 23 G and 46 P in 41 games.

He also changes the man advantage, because he lives around the net front and the half wall.

Winnipeg will challenge entries, so Florida needs the simple chip, retrieval, then quick strike.

Saturday in Minnesota brings a different problem, less track meet, more clog.

The Wild want you to dump it, then they want you to chase it into traffic for sixty minutes.

Then comes the back to back travel, Saturday night in Minnesota and Sunday in Chicago.

Chicago is where discipline has to show up, even if the tank feels empty. Florida cannot get pulled into after whistle nonsense, they need a boring road win.

That leads straight to the crease conversation, because using both goalies is less a preference and more a necessity.

Bobrovsky has looked like a guy carrying a lot lately, not just minutes, but the weight of every mistake.

When he's on, he's still big, calm, and square, but recently you've seen him fighting the puck instead of owning it.

The first tell is rebound control. Pucks that normally die into his chest are popping into the slot, and that's when a whole defensive shift turns into scramble mode.

Even routine shots feel like they come with a second and third chance attached.

His tracking hasn't been as clean, and when he's a half beat late sealing the post or finding the puck through traffic, he ends up reacting instead of setting.

That's why using two goalies on this trip isn't just «smart management,» it's survival.

Tarasov has quietly given them that steadiness when called upon.

He hasn't tried to do too much, he's just been on angle, swallowing what he can, and kicking rebounds to safer spots.

The bench plays taller when the goalie looks composed, because defenders stop cheating for fear of a bad bounce.

It also changes the team's mindset in a good way.

Instead of treating every game like it must be a Bobrovsky rescue mission, you can spread the load, reset the room, and let Bobrovsky come back sharper rather than forcing him to grind through it.

On a back-to-back with travel, that's the point.

One solid Tarasov start can protect Bobrovsky from a fatigue night, and it can protect the Panthers from the kind of rebound chaos that has bitten them lately.

This is the stretch where you learn what the Panthers really have, not in theory, but on tired legs, against three very different opponents.