Florida Panthers Captain Aleksander Barkov to Return on Monday in Buffalo
Aleksander Barkov is set to return to the Florida Panthers lineup on Monday against the Buffalo Sabres.
The Florida Panthers will finally have captain Aleksander Barkov back in the lineup on Monday night against the Buffalo Sabres.
Barkov has missed the past eight games with a lower-body injury he sustained on Oct. 10 against the Ottawa Senators.
Florida went 5-2-1 in his absence, dropping just one game in regulation since the Sabres blew the Panthers out, 5-2, in the first game he missed.
Even with their success, the Panthers will certainly be happy to get their two-time Selke Trophy-winning captain back in the lineup.
Adam Boqvist will be scratched to make room for Barkov in the lineup.
Uvis Balinskis will move back from left wing to right defense alongside Nate Schmidt to make up the bottom pair for Florida.
Both Schmidt and Balinskis will man the power play units with Adam Boqvist out of the lineup.
Barkov’s wingers will be Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart, while Jesper Boqvist moves down to play with the red-hot Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in goal for the Panthers in their final game before heading to Finland for a two-game set against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 1 and 2.
And now the Panthers will have Barkov back when they head to his hometown of Tampere.
THE NEWS
Today’s game will air at 7:00 p.m. EST on Scripps Sports and Panthers Plus. It will also be available for streaming on ESPN+ for those outside of the Panthers’ broadcast territory.
It will also be available on WPTV Newschannel 5 (NBC) for those who live in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.
For more information on how to catch this afternoon’s game, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
— Spencer Knight will get the start for the Florida Panthers tonight on Long Island.
PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer — Patrick Giles — Mackie Samoskevich
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis
Sergei Bobrovsky
Spencer Knight
Scratched: Nate Schmidt
Injured: Tomas Nosek (LTIR), Justin Sourdif (SOIR), Jonah Gadjovich (back spasms)
BUFFALO SABRES PROJECTED LINEUP
JJ Peterka — Tage Thompson — Alex Tuch
Nicolas Aube-Kubel — Dylan Cozens — Jack Quinn
Jordan Greenway — Ryan McLeod — Jason Zucker
Beck Malenstyn — Peyton Krebs — Sam Lafferty
Rasmus Dahlin — Henri Jokiharju
Bowen Byram — Owen Power
Mattias Samuelsson — Connor Clifton
Ukko-Pekka Luokkonen
Devin Levi
(Sabres lines via DailyFaceoff.com)