Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Dec. 18 Game at Minnesota Wild
Aleksander Barkov is a game-time decision for the Panthers against the Wild. Sam Bennett will miss the game with an illness.
The Florida Panthers could potentially be down their two top centers due to an illness going around their room against the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night.
Sam Bennett is confirmed to be missing the game. He logged 22:12 of time-on-ice and notched an assist while dealing with the ailment on Monday in a 6-5 win in Edmonton, but he is too sick to go.
"He was significantly under the weather in the Edmonton game, but knew Barkov couldn’t play and gutted it out for us,” coach Paul Maurice told reporters on Wednesday. “The cost of that is that he doesn’t play tonight. We've got to get him rested."
Aleksander Barkov, who missed the previous two games with that same illness, is a game-time decision for the Panthers.
“He got through the morning skate and felt pretty good,” Maurice said of Barkov. “We’ll get some more food in him and then make that decision.”
In the event Barkov cannot play, the Panthers will have to play shorthanded due to salary cap constraints. And that would mean Anton Lundell and Jesper Boqvist would have to shoulder heavy minutes at center for the time being.
This Wild team is not one the Panthers would want to play shorthanded.
Minnesota sits in second place in the Central Division and has been dominant — including a 5-1 win over Florida in October — in part because of the Hart Trophy-caliber play of Kirill Karpizov.
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in goal for the Panthers against the Wild tonight.
Today’s game will air at 9:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted nationally on TNT. It will be available for streaming on HBO Max.
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 (GTD) — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues — Jesper Boqvist — Mackie Samoskevich
A.J. Greer — Tomas Nosek — Jonah Gadjovich
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis
Spencer Knight
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Adam Boqvist, Sam Bennett
MINNESOTA WILD PROJECTED LINEUP
Kirill Kaprizov — Marco Rossi — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Ryan Hartman — Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno — Frederick Gaudreau — Ben Jones
Brendan Gaunce — Marat Khusnutdinov — Devin Shore
Jonas Borodin — Brock Faber
Declan Chisholm — Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill — Zach Bogosian
Marc-Andre Fleury
Jesper Wallstedt
(Lines via DailyFaceoff.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.