Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Feb. 1 Game vs. Chicago Blackhawks
The Florida Panthers look to remain atop Atlantic Division with win over Chicago Blackhawks.
The Florida Panthers will seek their fourth win in their past five games against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Florida is 4-1-0 dating back to Aaron Ekblad’s return to the lineup on Jan. 25, out-scoring its opponents 11-6 and its penalty kill operating at a perfect 5-for-5 in that span.
But the Panthers have a unique challenge coming to town on Saturday afternoon.
The Blackhawks have had Florida’s number ever since drafting Connor Bedard first overall in the 2023 NHL Draft — even if they have not been particularly good since then — winning two of three meetings with Bedard scoring three goals in three career meetings with the Panthers.
Chicago, which currently sits at 16-30-5 and is 1-3-0 since trading Taylor Hall in the massive trade that sent Mikko Rantanen to Carolina, has always seemingly found a way to catch Florida off guard.
The Blackhawks have since flipped Frank Nazar (who they drafted in Round 1 of the 2022 draft) to that top line and he answered the bell with a four-game point streak that was snapped on Jan. 28 in Tampa Bay.
Chicago is a team with young talent, albeit raw talent that could use a bit more seasoning, but the Panthers need to be ready for it nonetheless.
“There is a group of those teams, and it’s just where they are in their development curve, that they’ve drafted very high and that skill is already there and it’s ready,” coach Paul Maurice said. “Inconsistent is the normal path, but that means sometimes they are really, really good. And if you give them room to play, that skill is real and it’s already there.”
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Florida Panthers.
Mackie Samoskevich will miss Saturday night’s game with an illness. Jonah Gadjovich will draw back in, returning from injury.
Today’s game will air at 1:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted on ABC. It will also be available for streaming on ESPN+.
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
Evan Rodrigues — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
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
Claimed off Waivers (NYI): Adam Boqvist
Sick: Mackie Samoskevich
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS PROJECTED LINEUP
Frank Nazar — Connor Bedard — Tyler Bertuzzi
Teuvo Teravainen — Jason Dickinson — Ilya Mikheyev
Landon Slaggert — Lukas Reichel — Nick Foligno
Colton Dach — Ryan Donato — Philipp Kurashev
Alec Martinez — Seth Jones
Alex Vlasic — Louis Crevier
Nolan Allan — T.J. Brodie
Arvid Soderblom
Petr Mrazek
(Lines via DailyFaceoff.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.