Florida Panthers Welcome Jeff Rimer, Blue Jackets to Sunrise

Jeff Rimer, the original television voice of the Florida Panthers, will call his final game in Sunrise tonight when the Columbus Blue Jackets visit tonight.

Rimer, who was celebrated at a Columbus game two weeks ago, is retiring at the end of the season.

It was thought Columbus’ previous visit would be Rimer’s final time in the Sunrise booth, but ESPN dropped plans to stream the game — giving it back to Bally Sports Florida and Ohio.

Rimer has been covering the NHL for parts of 47 years.

He joined the Panthers for their inaugural season in 1993 and stayed with the Panthers until leaving during the 2004 lockout to join former Panthers’ coach Doug MacLean in Columbus.

He has been the lead play-by-play voice for the Blue Jackets — not to mention star of local commercials and radio talk shows — since.

Rimer and color analyst Jody Shelley will call their final game together Tuesday at home against the Hurricanes.

The Panthers are expected to salute Rimer during tonight’s game.

— The starting goalies for tonight’s game: Former Columbus netminder Sergei Bobrovsky goes against the current one, Jet Greaves.

— Florida will make some changes to its fourth line tonight, bringing Kyle Okposo and Steven Lorentz back in for Ryan Lomberg and Jonah Gadjovich.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson also returns with Josh Mahura getting the night off.

ON DECK

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (West Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); WCZR 101.7-FM (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL/Panthers App
• Local Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-400); Puck line (-2.5, +110); Over/Under 6.5 (+105/-125)
• Last Season: Florida won 2-1
• This Season (Florida leads 2-0) — At Florida: Panthers 5, Jackets 4 OT (Nov.6); Thursday. At Columbus: Panthers 5, Blue Jackets 2 (Dec. 10)
• All-time Regular Season Series: Columbus leads 26-19-4
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. Buffalo, 5 p.m. (SUN)

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (48-24-6) LINES

10 Vladimir Tarasenko // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

21 Nick Cousins // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen //15 Anton Lundell // 17 Evan Rodrigues

8 Kyle Okposo // 82 Kevin Stenlund // 18 Steven Lorentz

91 Oliver Ekman-Larsson // 42 Gus Forsling 

77 Niko Mikkola // 62 Brandon Montour 

26 Uvis Balinskis // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

41 Anthony Stolarz

Scratched: Ryan Lomberg, Jonah Gadjovich, Josh Mahura, Toby Bjornfot

Injured: Carter Verhaeghe (upper body), Aaron Ekblad (lower body)

PROJECTED COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS (26-41-12) LINES

13 Johnny Gaudreau // 10 Dmitri Voronkov // 17 Justin Danforth

42 Alexandre Texier // 4 Cole Sillinger // 86 Kirill Marchenko

82 Mikael Pyyhtia // 7 Sean Kuraly // 24 Mathieu Olivier

67 James Malatesta // 16 Brendan Gaunce // 64 Trey Fix-Wolansky

8 Zach Werenski // 78 Damon Severson

9 Ivan Provorov // 44 Erik Gudbranson

77 Nick Blankenburg // 55 David Jiricek

73 Jet Greaves

32 Malcolm Subban

Scratched: None

Injured: Carson Meyer (upper body), Alex Nylander (lower body), Adam Fantilli (calf laceration), (lower body), Yegor Chinakhov (upper body), Adam Boqvist (upper body), Elvis Merzlikins (lower body), Jake Bean (broken hand), Daniil Tarasov (upper body), Boone Jenner (personal)

Columbus Blue Jackets Lines Courtesy Jeff Svobota @JacketsInsider