CBS4's Steve Goldstein Catches Up With Panthers, Makes Bold Predictions

SUNRISE (CBSMiami) - After a two week break, the Panthers get back on the ice this week.

They start with road games against two of the NHL's best teams, Carolina and Minnesota. The long break was due to the league not sending players to the Olympics as planned. The Panthers' roster benefitted from this as they head into the stretch run as healthy as a team can be.

National Spotlight
Wednesday night in Carolina, TNT will broadcast the game to a national television audience. The Panthers deserve the coverage and it was smart by the NHL to add the first place, high scoring Cats to the TNT schedule after they weren't on it before the season.

2nd Half (sort of) Predictions
With 47 games played the Panthers have 35 to go. Not quite the halfway mark but close enough for some predictions for the rest of the season.

At 23-3 at home, the Panthers will continue their blistering play in Sunrise. We go with a 12-3 record the rest of the way making it an amazing 35-6 season on home ice.

Sergei Bobrovsky sets the franchise goaltending record for wins in a season. He's already at 23 wins and should play at least 20 more games. With just 13 more victories, Bobrovsky would pass the team record of 35, reached twice by Roberto Luongo.

Jonathan Huberdeau breaks his buddy Aleksander Barkov's single season record for points. Barkov posted 96 in 2018-19. Huberdeau has 64 points already and an average of about a point per game would set the record. The way he has performed so far, he may get the record with plenty of games to spare.

The franchise record for points by a Panthers team is 103 set in the 2015-16 season. At 69 points in 47 games, the prediction is they blow by 103 on their way to a 111 point campaign. A .500 road record combined with the continued home dominance would set the all time mark easily. The best offensive team in franchise history won't take its foot off the gas.