Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for March 30 Game vs. Montreal Canadiens
The Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens begin their home-and-home set in the thick of a playoff race.
The Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens enter their Sunday-Tuesday home-and-home set in equally important spots.
Florida (44-25-3, 91 points) currently sits one point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for the top seed in the Atlantic Division with a game in hand. The Tampa Bay Lightning sit in third, tied with the Panthers in points with an extra game played.
Montreal (33-30-9, 75 points) is two points behind the New York Rangers for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.,
“They need this one tonight. They’re right on that edge,” coach Paul Maurice said. “And then we get the Rangers as well, we got Ottawa, we got Detroit. So, all of them are going to be hyper focused. They’ll have the advantage of an easy source of energy. They’ll be jacked for these games, and you’re not going to have to worry about whether it’s there or not.
“They’re going to do the right, hard things. They’re not gonna throw a puck rinkwide through five sticks and be causal about their backcheck. If it doesn’t go, they’re going to play thegame the right way, which is a great training ground for us. We still have work to do. [91 points] doesn’t get you in, but we feel confident with where our game’s at that we’re prepping for the playoffs.”
The five-team Eastern Conference wild card field has records under .500 in its last 10 games — the Canadiens boast a 3-4-3 record in that span — but it does not change the fact that they are fighting for their playoff lives.
Florida has already struggled in games against that field lately — dropping games to Montreal and the New York Islanders in the past two weeks — and they will have to deal with it a few more times.
On top of back-to-back meetings with the Canadiens, the Panthers also face the Detroit Red Wings twice, the Rangers once and the top wild card spot-holding Ottawa Senators once in their final 10 games.
They also face their Atlantic Division title race contenders a combined three times.
Needless to say, the Panthers have been getting a taste of playoff-style hockey.
“I felt like it’s been like that for a while,” coach Paul Maurice said. “We hit a lot of teams that have been fighting for their playoff lives. It brings an intensity to the game that you don’t get. They’re not easier to play, but they’re better to play for sure. Because if you catch a team who’s got skill that’s clearly out of it, those games are easier to play, but they don’t really look like anything you’re going to see two weeks later.”
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Panthers tonight.
Tonight’s game will start at 1:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted on Scripps Sports and Panthers Plus. Out-of-market viewers in the United States can watch the game on NHL Network.
For more information on how to catch Panthers games this season, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Presented by William Raveis Real Estate
Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich — Sam Bennett — Brad Marchand
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer — Nico Sturm — Evan Rodrigues
Gustav Forsling — Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola — Nate Schmidt
Tobias Bjornfot — Uvis Balinskis
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
Injured: Matthew Tkachuk (LTIR), Dmitry Kulikov (upper-body injury)
MONTREAL CANADIENS PROJECTED LINEUP
Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Emil Heineman — Alex Newhook — Patrik Laine
Josh Anderson — Christian Dvorak — Brendan Gallagher
Arber Xhekaj — Jake Evans — Joel Armia
Mike Matheson — Alexandre Carrier
Kaiden Guhle — Lane Huston
Jayden Struble — David Savard
Samuel Montembeault
Jakub Dobes
(Lines via DailyFaceOff.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.