Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Feb. 22 Game vs. Seattle Kraken
The Florida Panthers return from the Four Nations Break to a Saturday night clash with the Seattle Kraken.
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers will return to the ice from the two-week 4 Nations break with a Saturday night clash with the Seattle Kraken — but without Matthew Tkachuk.
Tkachuk was ruled out of Saturday’s game earlier in the week with an injury that he sustained during the tournament which kept him out of the latter half of Team USA’s 3-2 overtime loss to Canada in the championship game.
His status moving forward is unknown until he is evaluated by the team on Sunday and Monday upon his return from the tournament.
“That’s tomorrow and Monday,” Maurice said when asked if he knew of the severity of Tkachuk’s injury. “We’ll let it settle down for a few days, get some ice, and then we’ll get it looked at.”
Tkachuk’s Canadian counterparts from the tournament, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart, will both be in the lineup after missing Saturday’s optional morning skate.
In the meantime, Florida will bump up Evan Rodrigues to join rookie Mackie Samoskevich and Sam Bennett on the second line. Jesper Boqvist will slide up from the fourth line to join Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.
Samoskevich will stay on the left side of the second line after developing chemistry in that spot with Bennett and Tkachuk just before the break. Now, he gets a chance to become a bigger focal point of the Top 6 forward group for the time being.
“With Matthew in, it would be just as big of an opportunity, but in terms of us winning hockey games, he will be like all of those forwards — we are going to need some more from everybody,” Maurice said. “We are going to need more from everybody and we are going to need them to be at their best.
“He and Sam Bennett have something going on for sure. We’ll leave him on the left side with the idea that when Matthew comes back, he has a bunch of reps on the left side and he will be real comfortable over there.”
With Jesper Boqvist bringing his 12 goals in 54 games up from the fourth line, the Panthers can still feel confident that they are rolling three quality scoring lines along with the physical, forechecking fourth line of Jonah Gadjovich, Tomas Nosek and A.J. Greer.
“I’m fine with where we’re at up front,” Maurice said.
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Florida Panthers.
Matthew Tkachuk was ruled out of Saturday night’s game against the Kraken with an injury sustained at the 4 Nations Face-Off. His status for future games is unknown until he is evaluated by the team over the weekend.
For more information on how to catch Panthers games this season, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich — Sam Bennett — Evan Rodrigues
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Jesper Boqvist
Jonah Gadjovich — Tomas Nosek — A.J. Greer
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis
Sergei Bobrovsky
Spencer Knight
Injured: Matthew Tkachuk (timeline TBD)
SEATTLE KRAKEN PROJECTED LINEUP
Jaden Schwartz — Matty Beniers — Kaapo Kakko
Eeli Tolvanen — Chandler Stephenson — Oliver Bjorkstrand
Jared McCann — Shane Wright — Andre Burakovsky
Tye Kartye — Mitchell Stephens — Brandon Tanev
Vince Dunn — Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak — Brandon Montour
Ryker Evans — Josh Mahura
Joey Daccord
Ales Stezka
(Lines via DailyFaceoff.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.