Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for April 12 Game vs. Buffalo Sabres
Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart get the day off as the Florida Panthers take on the Buffalo Sabres.
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers will be looking to lock up a Top 3 spot in the Atlantic Division with a few key pieces missing from their lineup.
Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart will get the day off as the Panthers take on the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.
Florida will be without two of its biggest stars, on top of a long injury report that already contained Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk among others, against a Buffalo Sabres team that just saw a five-game winning streak come to an end after getting eliminated from the playoffs before they started for a 14th season in a row.
“There’s a lot on the line for our team tonight in some ways in that Buffalo is a very offensive team,” coach Paul Maurice said. “They have more goals than we do.
“They have lots of skill, lots of talent and their risk profile will have changed. There’s no cost to a play that they don’t make, that gets knocked down. So, the reads tonight are going to be very advanced. It’ll be challenging for our guys to pick up the reads. There’s a lot of motion, a lot of interchanging, some very dynamic, very skilled players and we’re going to push some guys into minutes they’re not used to, so there’ll be lots to learn tonight.”
The Panthers are trying to manage the minutes of their star players as they head into the playoffs.
Florida played a back-to-back last weekend and will finish its season with a back-to-back on Monday and Tuesday against the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Maurice is expecting a fuller lineup on Monday, which may include the return of Dmitry Kulikov from an upper-body injury he suffered nearly a month ago. Bennett, who had originally been expected to miss the remainder of the regular season with an upper-body injury, may play against New York as well.
“If we weren’t in the schedule we’ve been playing, I think they would all be in,” he said. “I do think there’s a chance Sam Bennett come back and plays one on the weekend. He’s at a point where he feels great again. But the back-to-back at the start and the back-to-back at the end was a place we wanted to try to manage this out if we could on minutes, and it’s just the guys who played 20-plus minutes a night we’re mindful of.”
Sergei Bobrovsky will also get the night off on Saturday, with Vitek Vanecek getting the nod in net.
Vanecek shut out the Sabres in the first start of his Florida career. He owns an 11-2-1 record with a .921 save percentage and a 2.21 goals-against average in 14 total starts against Buffalo.
THE NEWS
Vitek Vanecek will start in net for the Panthers tonight.
Matthew Tkachuk is expected to begin skating with the main group next week as he prepares to return from a lower-body injury he sustained at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Tonight’s game will start at 6:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted on Panthers Plus. It can also be streamed on the Panthers Plus app for local viewers or 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.
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Presented by William Raveis Real Estate
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
Carter Verhaeghe — Evan Rodrigues — Mackie Samoskevich
Jesper Boqvist — Nico Sturm — Jesse Puljujarvi
A.J. Greer — Rasmus Asplund — Jonah Gadjovich
Gustav Forsling — Uvis Balinskis
Niko Mikkola — Seth Jones
Jaycob Megna — Nate Schmidt
Vitek Vanecek
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Matt Kiersted, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Tomas Nosek
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
Injured: Matthew Tkachuk (LTIR), Dmitry Kulikov (upper-body injury), Sam Bennett (upper-body injury)
BUFFALO SABRES PROJECTED LINEUP
Zach Benson — Jiri Kulich — Tage Thompson
JJ Peterka — Ryan McLeod — Jack Quinn
Jason Zucker — Peyton Krebs — Alex Tuch
Beck Malenstyn — Noah Ostlund — Sam Lafferty
Mattias Samuelsson — Rasmus Dahlin
Owen Power — Jacob Bernard-Docker
Bowen Byram — Connor Clifton
James Reimer
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
(Lines via DailyFaceOff.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.