Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Dec. 14 Game at Calgary Flames
The Florida Panthers will see some familiar faces as they look to get back in the win column against the Calgary Flames.
The Florida Panthers will look to get back in the win column on Saturday night after seeing their seven-game point streak get snapped snapped on Thursday night in Vancouver.
They will be doing so against a Calgary Flames team that sits one point out of a playoff berth and has points in three of five games (2-2-1) to start the month of December.
The resurgence of a Flames team that missed the playoffs last season comes from a familiar face to the Panthers: Jonathan Huberdeau.
After he struggled in his first two seasons in Calgary, he now leads the Flames in goals (11) and points (21). Fellow ex-Panthers teammate (and piece to the trade that brought Matthew Tkachuk to Florida) MacKenzie Weegar leads the team in assists with 12.
Still, the Panthers are not regretting the Tkachuk trade. Not after they won the Cup and Tkachuk surged to a five-goal, 15-game stretch on a six-game point streak that ended on Tuesday night in Seattle.
The Flames have also gotten help from Calder-candidate goaltender Dustin Wolf, who is 8-5-1 with a .909 save percentage and a 2.84 goals-against average in 14 starts this season, and a 10-goal, 19-point start from Nazem Kadri.
Oh, and they also have another old friend of the Panthers — Ryan Lomberg. He will be amped up after receiving his Stanley Cup ring on Friday night.
It’s a game full of familiar faces in new places as the Panthers look to retain their spot atop of the Atlantic Division with a win in Calgary.
THE NEWS
Spencer Knight will start in goal for the Panthers against the Flames tonight. Panthers coach Paul Maurice told reporters in Calgary that he has not yet decided on any other lineup changes.
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Today’s game will air at 10:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted on Scripps Sports and the Panthers Plus app. It will also be available on ESPN+ for out-of-market viewers.
For more information on how to catch Panthers games this season, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Jesper Boqvist — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Evan Rodrigues
A.J. Greer — Tomas Nosek — Mackie Samoskevich
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis
Spencer Knight
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Adam Boqvist, Jonah Gadjovich
CALGARY FLAMES PROJECTED LINEUP
Jonathan Huberdeau — Nazem Kadri — Martin Pospisil
Yegor Sharangovich — Mikael Backlund — Matt Coronato
Blake Coleman — Connor Zary — Jakob Pelletier
Ryan Lomberg — Kevin Rooney — Walker Duehr
Kevin Bahl — Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar — Daniel Miromanov
Jake Bean — Brayden Pachal
Dustin Wolf
Devin Cooley
Injured: Dan Vladar (day-to-day), Andrei Kuzmenko (day-to-day), Anthony Mantha (season), Justin Kirkland (season)
(Lines via DailyFaceoff.com with minor adjustments for injuries)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.