Florida Panthers: Breaking Down the Full 2019-20 Schedule

Today, the full schedule for the Florida Panthers’ 2019-20 campaign was released, revealing all 82 games for the 26th season of Panthers hockey.

The Florida Panthers, similar to the start of the 2017-18 season, will open with a “home and home” set against the Presidents’ Trophy winners, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The season begins in Tampa on Thursday, October 3rd. Joel Quenneville’s home coaching debut will come that following Saturday, October 5th.

Florida will play 14 of their 41 home games on Saturdays, with the team’s Twitter page releasing a video with all of the Saturday games earlier today. Reports say that these games will be big for the fans to come to.

The team also has five Sunday home games, three of which will start at a Matinee time of 5:00 compared to the usual 7:00 (11/24 vs Buffalo, 12/8 vs San Jose, and 3/1 Calgary at 4:00 rather than 5:00).

“$5 Beer Thursdays” will also return this season. The Panthers will host 12 Thursday home games this season, with the first coming on November 14th against the Winnipeg Jets.

The Panthers will have 10 back-to-back days with games this season, with most coming on long home stands (12/28 vs Detroit, 12/29 vs Montreal) or long road trips (2/19 at Anaheim, 2/20 at Los Angeles). Three of these back-to-backs, however, involve travel from home to away or vice versa.

The opening month of the season has the Panthers playing at BB&T Center just four times. The Cats have two extended road trips in October, visiting Buffalo, the Isles, and New Jersey from the 10th through the 14th.

Their Western Canadian road trip comes later that month, facing the Flames, Oilers, and Canucks from the 24th through the 28th, with one final road game in Colorado to end the month.

The Cats will be home for the Holidays this season, with just three road games during the month of December. This includes the Panthers’ longest homestand of the season, where the Panthers will play nine straight home games.

This homestand starts on Saturday, November 30th against the Nashville Predators and ends on Friday, December 20th against the Dallas Stars.

The Cats will then play a quick two road games in Carolina and Tampa Bay, and return home for two more games before the new year against Detroit and Montreal.

Whereas Florida spends the most consecutive time at home in December, they spend their longest stay away from Florida in January.

After a four-game home stretch from January 7th against Arizona to the 16th against Los Angeles, the Panthers don’t play their next home game until February 6th against former head coach Gerard Gallant and the Vegas Golden Knights.

This three-week stint away from South Florida includes the Panthers “bye week,” so the Panthers will return to Sunrise, but not to play any games.

The six-game road trip is split in half between months (Jan and Feb), with Detroit, Minnesota, and a Chicago return for Joel Quenneville taking place in January.

The February half sees the Panthers take on Montreal, Toronto, and Columbus. There are two back-to-backs during this trip, Minnesota and Chicago in January, and Toronto and Columbus in February.

February also holds the Panthers’ second West Coast road trip. The Cats face the California trio of San Jose, Anaheim, and Los Angeles, followed by a trip to the desert to take on Vegas and Arizona to close out the road trip.

The California trip has fared nicely for Florida in the last three seasons, with the Cats taking 7 wins across their last 9 games in the Golden State.