Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Eastern Conference Final, Game 3 vs. Carolina Hurricanes
Jesper Boqvist will draw into the Florida lineup, with Sam Reinhart day-to-day with a lower-body injury, as the Panthers look to take a 3-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference final.
The Florida Panthers will look to take a 3-0 series lead on home ice without Sam Reinhart in the lineup.
The 2024-25 Selke Trophy nominee will be sidelined for Saturday night’s Eastern Conference final Game 3 against the Carolina Hurricanes with a lower-body injury. He sustained the injury after he was swept off his feet by Sebastian Aho late in the second period of Game 2.
”It’s a player that touches all parts of your game,” coach Paul Maurice said. “He is a critical part of our power play, [Aleksander] Barkov And Reinhart are elite at penalty killing and then he draws the heavy fire and pulls the best set of D out of the other team. So, it’s a significant player out of our lineup for sure.”
Jesper Boqvist will draw into the lineup on the top line next to Aleksander Barkov and Evan Rodrigues.
With or without Reinhart in the lineup, the Panthers are prepared for the Hurricanes to put up a fight as the series shifts to Sunrise.
Florida embarrassed Carolina in their own building in Thursday’s Game 2 — beating the Canes 5-0 and stifling them so hard defensively that their fans were aggressively yelling ‘shoot the puck’ — to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
The Panthers know how that position feels all too well. They were down 2-0 against Toronto — and on the verge of falling behind 3-0 when they trailed early in Game 3 — before a comeback effort and an overtime victory changed the complexion of their second-round series against Toronto just before this one.
This game is pretty much do or die for Carolina to keep themselves off the verge of elimination.
“We know they are going to be desperate,” Sam Bennett said. “This is a big game where you gotta leave it all on the line. We know what that position feels like and we are definitely prepared for them to put up a fight.”
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 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.
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 palmbeachpost.com/sports
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Presented by William Raveis Real Estate
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov — Jesper Boqvist
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 — Dmitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Jaycob Megna, Mackie Samoskevich, Nico Sturm, Uvis Balinskis
Injured: Sam Reinhart (day-to-day, lower-body)
CAROLINA HURRICANES PROJECTED LINEUP
Andrei Svechnikov — Sebastian Aho — Seth Jarvis
Taylor Hall — Jack Roslovic — Logan Stankoven
Jordan Martinook — Jordan Staal — William Carrier
Eric Robinson — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Jackson Blake
Jaccob Slavin — Brent Burns
Dmitry Orlov — Sean Walker
Shayne Gostisbehere — Scott Morrow
Pyotr Kochetkov
Frederik Andersen
Injured: Jesper Fast (IR), Mark Jankowski (DTD), Jalen Chatfield (DTD)
Hurricanes Lines Courtesy of DailyFaceOff.com
*Opposing team lines subject to change.