Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for April 10 Game vs. Detroit Red Wings
Carter Verhaeghe will get the day off against the Red Wings, while Mackie Samoskevich gets a shot with Line 1.
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers will continue to tow the line between staying in the race for home ice in the first round of the playoffs and keeping players healthy as they take on the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.
Florida currently sits three points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second seed in the Atlantic Division after the Bolts lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime on Wednesday. Toronto is now six points ahead of the Panthers for first place in the division.
With four games remaining on its schedule Florida is doing what it can to ice a competitive roster while staying as healthy as possible.
Carter Verhaeghe is the latest player to get what coach Paul Maurice is calling a “maintenance day” after he snapped a 13-game goal drought with an empty-net goal in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“He will be available to us for Buffalo [on Saturday] if everything stays course,” Maurice said.
Rookie forward Mackie Samoskevich will step up to the top line to play with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart in the meantime. The 21-year-old has 14 goals and 30 points in 69 games this season.
“It’s super exciting,” Samoskevich said. “They’re both tremendous players and I’m looking forward to building chemistry with them. I’m sure it’ll be easy with how smart they are and how they think the game.”
The Panthers are looking to keep trending in the right direction after snapping a five-game losing streak on Tuesday night — although they were not too worried about how they were playing during it.
Florida’s defensive numbers and scoring chance numbers were near the top of the league during that stretch, and their style of play finally resulted in a win once more of its big guns returned to the lineup.
The Panthers will need to keep that up against a Red Wings team that is playing for its season right now. Detroit currently sits six points back of the Montreal Canadiens for the final spot in the East with four games to go, so one slip-up effectively ends their season.
“I think that’s our gameplan every game we go,” Niko Mikkola said. “It’s been pretty good so far. We had a little bit of a tough run, but the gap is there and the defensive side is pretty much there, so I think we’re on the right track right now.”
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Panthers tonight.
Aaron Ekblad was cleared to return to team activities by the NHL/NHLPA on Thursday morning.
He skated with the team for its morning skate and will be able to participate in all team activities, aside from playing, until his suspension ends following Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs.
Nico Sturm will make his return from the lineup from an injury he sustained last week in Montreal. Jesper Boqvist also draws back into the lineup while Jesse Puljujarvi comes out.
Tonight’s game will start at 7:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted on Panthers Plus. It can also be streamed on the Panthers Plus app for local viewers or on ESPN+ for out-of-market viewers.
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
Mackie Samoskevich — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
Jesper Boqvist — Nico Sturm — Evan Rodrigues
A.J. Greer — Tomas Nosek — Jonah Gadjovich
Niko Mikkola — Seth Jones
Gustav Forsling — Nate Schmidt
Jaycob Megna — Uvis Balinskis
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Jesse Puljujarvi, Rasmus Asplund, Matt Kiersted, Carter Verhaeghe
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
Injured: Matthew Tkachuk (LTIR), Dmitry Kulikov (upper-body injury), Sam Bennett (upper-body injury)
DETROIT RED WINGS PROJECTED LINEUP
Alex DeBrincat — Dylan Larkin — Patrick Kane
Elmer Soderblom — Marco Kasper — Lucas Raymond
Jonatan Berggren — J.T. Compher — Vladimir Tarasenko
Michael Rasmussen — Tyler Motte — Craig Smith
Ben Chiarot — Mortiz Seider
Simon Edvinsson — Jeff Petry
Albert Johansson — Justin Holl
Cam Talbot
Alex Lyon
(Lines via DailyFaceOff.com)
*Opposing team lines subject to change.