Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Round 1, Game 3 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
Aleksander Barkov will be a game-time decision for the Florida Panthers against the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 3 of their first-round series.
SUNRISE, Fla. — Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov could potentially play in Game 3 against the Tampa Bay Lightning after a scare on Thursday night.
Barkov left Game 2 after taking a hard hit away from the puck from Lightning forward Brandon Hagel. He missed the final 10 minutes of the game and Hagel was issued a one-game suspension for the hit.
“He’s gotta take warm-ups,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “He feels good. He has to get through it and push his heart rate up and see how he’s doing, but we think he’s good.”
While Barkov’s status, while optimistic, has yet to be determined, the Panthers will be getting back star defenseman Aaron Ekblad from a 20-game suspension. His arrival bolsters a Florida defense that has already held the NHL’s top scoring offense in the regular season to just two goals in the first two games of the series.
“It’s huge for us,” Evan Rodrigues said. “He is an elite defenseman and he is definitely going to be a welcome addition for us. It’ll just add even more to our depth.”
The Panthers are not expected to make any line-up changes outside of the arrival of Ekblad and Barkov’s potential absence. And they do have plenty of options available to ice a competitive lineup if their captain is unable to go.
Both Rodrigues and Jesper Boqvist have played Top-9 minutes as a center and could fill in on the third line with Anton Lundell likely taking his spot on the top line. A.J. Greer, Tomas Nosek or Jonah Gadjovich would then slot in on the fourth line and give it a more physical presence.
“There is a balance between two ideas,” Maurice said. “One is that this is an absolute sprint, right? You got to put your best lineup in. You can’t give an inch, you can’t look down the road. At the same time, I’ve got guys that have played well in the last month, you’d like them to get involved in games too. But this is a full-on sprint, so we’ll put our healthiest and best line-up in every night.”
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Panthers tonight.
Florida will be running with the same lineup as their Game 1 victory over Tampa Bay.
Tonight’s game will start at 1:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted locally on Scripps Sports and the Panthers Plus app. It will be broadcasted nationally on TBS.
For more information on how to catch Panthers games this season, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Matt Licthenstadter will be recording subscriber-exclusive podcast episodes following the conclusion of each playoff game. For Colby’s postgame stories right after the buzzer, check out the palmbeachpost.com/sports
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Presented by William Raveis Real Estate
Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
Jesper Boqvist — Nico Sturm — Evan Rodrigues
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt — Dmitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Jaycob Megna, A.J. Greer, Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich, Uvis Balsinkis, Jesse Puljujarvi
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING PROJECTED LINEUP
Jake Guentzel — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Conor Geekie — Anthony Cirelli — Gage Goncalves
Yanni Gourde — Nick Paul — Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons — Luke Glendenning — Cam Atkinson
Victor Hedman — J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Nick Perbix — Emil Lilleberg
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
(Lines are projected and subject to change)
Suspended: Brandon Hagel
Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand
*Opposing team lines subject to change.