Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Dec. 23 Game vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
The Florida Panthers look to head into the holiday break with their fifth consecutive victory.
The only thing between the Florida Panthers and the holiday break is a second-consecutive game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
After winning the first 2024-25 rendition of the Battle of Florida on the West coast of the state, the Panthers look to take their fifth-straight victory at home into the three-game holiday break.
And with it, they would hold onto the top seed in the Atlantic Division as well.
Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to get the start on Monday night in Sunrise after Spencer Knight stopped 27 of 29 shots on Sunday. Jonas Johansson may get the start for Tampa Bay, but Andrei Vasilevskiy cannot be ruled out of starting on back-to-back nights.
After starting Sunday’s game with the lines they had been running while Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett were dealing with illnesses, the Panthers reverted back to a familiar look that they were running all year in the third period.
The Panthers played a solid defensive game in the third period — save for a rush goal against from Brayden Point — and could roll those same lines again on Monday night.
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to start in net for the Florida Panthers.
Other lineup changes may be announced during Paul Maurice’s scheduled media availability at 5:30 p.m. EST. Story will be updated here at pucksandpalms.com when that information is out.
Today’s game will air at 7:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted on Scripps Sports. It is available for streaming on Panthers+ for those in Florida’s broadcast territory.
For more information on how to catch Panthers games this season, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe— Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Mackie Samoskevich
A.J. Greer — Tomas Nosek — Rasmus Asplund
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis
Sergei Bobrovsky
Spencer Knight
Scratched: Adam Boqvist
Injured: Jesper Boqvist (DTD), Jonah Gadjovich
*The Panthers did not hold a morning skate in Tampa Bay. Line-up changes may be announced at coach Paul Maurice’s media availability at 2:30 p.m. This story will be updated at approx. 2:45 p.m. if changes are made.
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING PROJECTED LINEUP
Jake Guentzel — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel — Anthony Cirelli — Conor Geekie
Gage Concalves — Nick Paul — Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons — Luke Glendening — Michael Eyssimont
Victor Hedman — Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg — Nick Perbix
Jonas Johansson
Andrei Vasilevskiy
(Lines via DailyFaceoff.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.