Tkachuk Still Out, Panthers look to Bounce Back in Boston
Matthew Tkachuk will be out for about a week with an illness, Panthers coach Paul Maurice told reporters ahead of their Monday afternoon clash with the Boston Bruins.
For the second-straight game, the Florida Panthers will be without both Matthew Tkachuk as they head to Boston to take on the rival Bruins.
Coach Paul Maurice told reporters that Tkachuk will be out for about a week after he missed Saturday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres with an illness. Barkov remains out for 2-3 weeks with a lower-body injury.
In turn, the Panthers will run with the same 11 forwards and seven defensemen they ran with when they got thumped 5-2 in Buffalo on Saturday.
Sergei Bobrovsky will man the crease for this one after Spencer Knight took the loss in his first start since Feb. 18, 2018.
The Panthers will look to avoid falling to 1-3-0 on the season against the same Bruins team they earned their lone win of the season against when they raised their Stanley Cup championship banner on Oct. 8.
And they will have to do so without their two star players.
“We have what we need in this room,” Nate Schmidt said after Saturday night’s game. “It sucks not having two of your best players, but you know what’s already in here. Now, it’s time for everyone to pick up the slack where they can.
“It’s two guys who are irreplaceable, but we have guys who can replicate it in our system and do what we can do. I think collectively is where you pick up what those two guys bring to the table.”
THE NEWS
Today’s game will air at 1 p.m. EST on WPTV News Channel 5 in the Palm Beaches and the Treasure Coast, along with its usual home on Scripps Sports and Panthers Plus.
For more information on how to catch this afternoon’s game, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
LINEUP
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Evan Rodrigues
A.J. Greer — Jesper Boqvist — Mackie Samoskevich
Jonah Gadjovich — Patrick Giles
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis — Adam Boqvist/Nate Schmidt
Spencer Knight
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Matthew Tkachuk (illness)
Injured: Tomas Nosek (LTIR), Justin Sourdif (SOIR), Aleksander Barkov
BRUINS PROJECTED LINEUP
Pavel Zacha — Elias Lindholm — David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand — Charlie Coyle — Morgan Geekie
Trent Frederic — Matthew Poitras — Justin Brazeau
John Beecher — Mark Kastelic — Cole Koepke
Nikita Zadorov — Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm — Brandon Carlo
Mason Lohrei — Andrew Peeke
Joonas Korpisalo
Jeremy Swayman
Scratched: Riley Tufte, Parker Wotherspoon, Max Jones
Injured: Ian Mitchell, Alec Regula
(Bruins lines via Fluto Shinzawa, The Athletic)