Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Stanley Cup Final, Game 4 vs. Edmonton Oilers
Will the Cup be in Rogers Place on Saturday night?
After bullying and beating down the Oilers in Game 3, the Panthers look to take complete control of the Stanley Cup Final in Game 4, but they know to expect the Oilers best punch after what happened on Monday night.
"I think this will be the fastest, most-disciplined game by both teams." Paul Maurice said.
After 140 penalty minutes in Game 3, the fourth most ever in a Stanley Cup Final game, he’s probably right. Though the Panthers have six special teams goals compared to the Oilers three, the Panthers would certainly prefer to play more of this and future games at even strength. But if the Oilers punch, the Panthers are certainly ready to take one if they have to.
“Sometimes you’ve got to take a punch,” Sam Bennett said Wednesday.
“That’s part of their DNA,” Leon Draisaitl said. “That’s what they do. I think there’s spurts in the series when we’ve handled it really well. (Monday) night, the game’s over with 11 minutes left and all hell breaks loose. It’s a UFC fight. I think overall, we can be a little more disciplined and stay away from that.”
Whether the Oilers lost their cool on Monday or not, they know that a repeat of Game 3 is not a formula for success. As for the Panthers, don’t expect them to change their formula at all.
“We have to play in between whistles, especially with a team that has such a good power play. We try to frustrate them with how little time they have with the puck. So if a guy’s coming up the ice, if our D man has a good gap on him, he has to chip in, and then he gets held up — he has nothing to do.” said AJ Greer.
Whatever team can have Game 4 on their terms will almost certainly skate away winners tonight.
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Panthers tonight.
Tonight’s game will start at 8:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted nationally on TNT and TruTV and can be streamed on Max.
Catch the Florida Panthers pre-game show on Scripps Sports with Jessica Blaylock, Ed Jovanovski, Randy Moller and Katie Engleson 30 minutes before puck drop.
For more information on how to find Scripps Sports, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov —Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
A.J Greer — Tomas Nosek — Jonah Gadjovich
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt — Dimitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Jaycob Megna, Mackie Samoskevich, Uvis Balinskis, Jesper Boqvist, Nico Sturm
EDMONTON OILERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — Connor McDavid — Connor Brown
Evander Kane — Leon Draisaitl — Kasperi Kapanen
Jeff Skinner — Adam Henrique — Trent Frederic
Vasily Podkolzin — Mattias Janmark — Corey Perry
Brett Kulak — Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse — Troy Stetcher
Mattias Ekholm — Jake Walman
Stuart Skinner
Calvin Pickard
Scratched: Viktor Arvidsson, John Klingberg
Injured: Zach Hyman (Out, UBI), Alec Regula (IR)
Oilers Lines Courtesy of DailyFaceOff.com
*Opposing team lines subject to change.