Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Eastern Conference Final, Game 5 vs. Carolina Hurricanes
Another chance for the Florida Panthers to put the Hurricanes away
In Game 5, the Florida Panthers have another chance to put away the Carolina Hurricanes and make their third straight Stanley Cup Final. They’ll get a boost with Sam Reinhart, Niko Mikkola and A.J Greer all expected to return to the lineup.
“Healthy players play,” Maurice said. “If you can’t be better than the guy that I’m going to put in your spot, you’re not playing.”
Their absences were certainly notable, especially in Game 4. The Panthers missed Mikkola’s ability to activate and create offense from defense as well as his range and physicality. Without A.J Greer, the line with Tomas Nosek and Jonah Gadjovich didn’t have the same pop or chemistry. And without Sam Reinhart, the Panthers power play fired only blanks in Games 3 and 4, going 0-8. Maurice and his team understand what Reinhart brings to the man advantage intimately.
“He brings an elite level of skill,” Maurice said. “It’s just the finishing ability, the slot hole, that changes the way you view our power play when he's not there, in terms of who you've got to cover off.”
The Panthers are only 9-8 in chances to clinch a series under Paul Maurice, and tonight, they’re looking for that 10th win to punch their ticket to the Final again tonight.
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 TruTV 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.
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov —Sam Reinhart
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 — Dimitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Jaycob Megna, Mackie Samoskevich, Jesper Boqvist, Uvis Balinskis
Injured: None
CAROLINA HURRICANES PROJECTED LINEUP
Andrei Svechnikov — Sebastian Aho — Seth Jarvis
Taylor Hall — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Jackson Blake
Jordan Martinook — Jordan Staal — Logan Stankoven
Eric Robinson — Mark Jankowksi — William Carrier
Jaccob Slavin — Brent Burns
Dmitry Orlov — Alexander Nikishin
Shayne Gostisbehere — Scott Morrow
Frederik Andersen
Pyotr Kochetkov
Injured: Jesper Fast (IR), Sean Walker (DTD), Jalen Chatfield (DTD)
Hurricanes Lines Courtesy of DailyFaceOff.com
*Opposing team lines subject to change.