Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Round 1, Game 1 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
The Florida Panthers begin their quest for their second-straight Stanley Cup against their cross-state rival after a week-long break.
TAMPA — The wait is over.
A week after the Florida Panthers wrapped up their regular season in Tampa, they will take on their cross-state rival Lightning in Game 1 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Panthers got a chance to lick their wounds after suffering a 5-1 loss to the Lightning with a shell of its roster. They rested players near the end of the season following a long stretch of injuries and an even longer rap sheet of games played after two Cup Final appearances and they return a week later with a nearly full roster.
“I don’t remember that last one for the most part,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We were at the end of it. We were bleary eyed from the end of that one and I think both teams were very much happy to get it over with and move on. So, we’re at it again. It feels far more like last year. This time, you’re coming in, the weather’s great, the flight was a half hour, you barely had time to get to eat. It’s back the way it should be.”
Both Tampa and Florida benefited from the extra time off.
While Tampa Bay trade deadline pickup Oliver Bjorkstrand was ruled out for the series, Luke Glendenning was able to heal up and return for Game 1 of the series.
The Panthers had a slew of players sustain minor injuries near the end of the season who healed up, but the extra break bought them enough time to nurse Matthew Tkachuk back to nearly-full health from a lower-body injury he sustained in February.
Tkachuk is officially a game-time decision for Game 1.
“The biggest thing you want is your team healthy and the longer this thing plays out, the healthier your team gets,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said.
“Both teams are on a pretty much even playing field. We had the one extra game where we had to go to New York, but there’s enough of a time off where it’s probably insignificant. Now, had that start been on Saturday, it would have played in, but it’s Tuesday now, so no excuses. As soon as the puck drops, neither team will remember that there’s been this break.”
With as clean of a bill of health as they can get, these two teams are ready to renew their rivalry in the playoffs for the fourth time in the past five years.
The Panthers are looking to even up the rivalry at two playoff series wins apiece while the Lightning are looking for revenge after Florida knocked it out of the first round en route to a Stanley Cup.
This series is the last of the eight first-round playoff series to get started — with Winnipeg-St. Louis and Dallas Colorado having already played two games in their respective series — and both teams cannot wait for the puck to drop and for the rivalry to be renewed.
“Watching the last couple nights, it kind of gets you a little antsy to start playing a little bit,” Carter Verhaeghe said.
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Panthers tonight.
Tonight’s game will start at 8:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted locally on Scripps Sports and the Panthers Plus app. It will be broadcasted nationally on ESPN.
For more information on how to catch Panthers games this season, 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 the palmbeachpost.com/sports
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Presented by William Raveis Real Estate
Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
Jesper Boqvist — Nico Sturm — Evan Rodrigues
Gustav Forsling — Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Jaycob Megna, A.J. Greer, Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
Injured: Matthew Tkachuk (LTIR)
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING PROJECTED LINEUP
Yanni Gourde — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel — Anthony Cirelli — Jake Guentzel
Conor Geekie — Nick Paul — Gage Goncalves
Zemgus Girgensons — Luke Glendenning — Darren Raddysh
Victor Hedman — J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Nick Perbix — Emil Lilleberg
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
(Lines via DailyFaceOff.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.