The Florida Panthers continue their march toward the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Thursday night in Sunrise.
Florida will look to build off Tuesday’s strong 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs when they host the Detroit Red Wings at Amerant Bank Arena.
Expect to see a desperate Red Wings squad as their playoff hopes are on life support.
Entering play Thursday, Detroit is eight points behind Montreal for the final Wild Card spot.
The Red Wings were on a nice little 3-0-1 run when they battled the Canadiens on Tuesday, but Detroit fell short in a game that pretty much ended their playoff hopes.
A win would’ve drawn Detroit to within four points of Montreal, but instead, the gap is nearly insurmountable.
The Canadiens have four games left to play while the Red Wings have five, so mathematically, Detroit is still alive, but it’s quite a longshot.
Florida, meanwhile, remains in third place in the Atlantic Division and now they find themselves with a little cushion in the standings.
The Cats are three points behind Tampa Bay and four points ahead of Ottawa, meaning if the playoffs started now, we’d get a Panthers-Lightning series for the fourth time in five years.
Getting back to Thursday, Florida is expected to continue missing some of their regular players as the team prioritizes getting healthy for the playoffs over trying to improve their positioning in the standings before the postseason arrives.
Injured center Sam Bennett is not expected to play again until the playoffs but defenseman Dmitry Kulikov could crack the lineup as soon as this weekend if all goes well.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Thursday’s dustup with Detroit:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Brad Marchand
Mackie Samoskevich – Evan Rodrigues – Jesse Puljujarvi
A.J. Greer – Nico Sturm – Jesper Boqvist
Gus Forsling – Nate Schmidt
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Jaycob Megna – Uvis Balinskis
Scratches: Sam Bennett, Jonah Gadjovich, Tomas Nosek, Dmitry Kulikov, Rasmus Asplund, Matt Kiersted
LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS – FLORIDA
Three takeaways: New Brad Marchand line looking quite good, big game from Gus Forsling
Jesper Boqvist speaks on being Bill Masterton Trophy nominee from Florida Panthers
Lundell, Forsling help Panthers get back in win column with 3-1 victory over Toronto
Key divisional matchup unfolds in Florida between Panthers, Maple Leafs
‘We’re just healing them’: As Stanley Cup Playoffs near, Panthers could continue holding players out
Read the full article here
