Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for March 20 Game vs. Columbus Blue Jackets
The Florida Panthers will be in for another tough test when they head to Columbus.
For the third-straight game, the Panthers will be playing against a team deep in the race for an Eastern Conference wild card spot — and the first two were not so pretty.
In both games against the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Islanders, Florida was thoroughly outplayed in the first period before finishing the game flat and losing in regulation.
Even with Columbus heading into Thursday night’s game on a four-game losing streak, the Panthers are going to need to be on their game. Especially with Dmitry Kulikov’s name being added to the growing list of injuries they are dealing with down the stretch.
“Everybody’s fighting for their lives right now,” coach Paul Maurice said after Sunday’s loss on Long Island. “It’s a grinder right now, so we need to make sure we’re being confident in what we’re doing. We played some pretty strong periods in the past week, we’ve just had some results we don’t care for.”
In the past two games, Florida has been outshot 18-6 and has been outscored 2-0.
Against a hungry team like Columbus, they are going to need a stronger start.
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Panthers tonight.
Tonight’s game will start at 7:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted on Scripps Sports and Panthers Plus. Out-of-market viewers in the United States can stream the game on ESPN+.
For more information on how to catch Panthers games this season, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Presented by William Raveis Real Estate
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich — Sam Bennett — Carter Verhaeghe
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer — Nico Sturm — Jonah Gadjovich
Gustav Forsling — Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola — Uvis Balinskis
Tobias Bjornfot — Nate Schmidt
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Tomas Nosek
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
Injured: Matthew Tkachuk (LTIR), Brad Marchand (upper-body injury), Dmitry Kulikov (upper-body injury)
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS PROJECTED LINEUP
Kent Johnson — Adam Fantilli — Kirill Marchenko
Dmitri Voronkov — Boone Jenner — Yegor Chinakov
Zach Aston-Reese — Justin Danforth — Mathieu Olivier
James van Riemsdyk — Sean Kuraly — Luke Kunin
Zach Werenski — Dante Fabbro
Denton Mateychuk — Ivan Provorov
Jack Johnson — Damon Severson
Elvis Merzlinkins
Daniil Tarasov
(Lines via ColumbusBlueJackets.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.